Planning a trip to Lobster Lake and the West Branch of the Penobscot River in Maine in August. Seems like a limited amount of first come, first serve campsites. Does anyone know how crowded it gets?
Latter end of August
camps disband. Less crowded then.
That said I have never failed to get a site when I wanted it.
Last trip was last weekend. Two camp groups of about 40 people were encountered. No competition. They have to take two or more cell campsites. One cell sites have a limit of 12 and on Lobster they have to take group sites.
Its a nice leisurely trip except there is now so much water that they had to release Sebomook Dam and the flow is 3000cfs, not the normal 300 cfs. Landings can be tricky. Pray for drought. Had enough rain.
If campsite availability is your concern when you check at Caribou checkpoint they can call the ranger on duty on Lobster.
Thanks for the info!
thank you… looking forward to the trip!
…many acres to play with…
– Last Updated: Jul-20-08 4:07 PM EST –
If you get up in the vicinity early...with DeLorme Atlas in hand...you can find numerous areas in which to camp out...
**EDIT: The "Roll Dam" road is very good(just a few pot holes..none large!)...it's only ~5-7mi from the Roll Dam area, which has quite a few campsites, to the Lobster Lake put in!....so you're never out of spaces.
$.01
September Trip
I’m planning a visit in September. Geocache some (vegatrian, please) beanie weenies for us and we’ll try to go find.
Is the site at the tip of Otter Point the best site out there? If you find better, let us know that, too.
~~Chip
depends on whats above water
– Last Updated: Jul-31-08 9:48 PM EST –
If it ever stops raining the best site will be the one that does not have a submerged picnic table.
I dont have my BPL map infront of me that actually names the campsites but I actually like Little Claw for its nice grass and it stands alone near the foot and the many small rocky islands in the lake. Plus it has hiking on old woods road.
The last I saw Otter Point it was submerged but mind you that was ice out last year. There are too many sites together in that area though the one with the large beach in the cove is very nice.
Water and Ogden
We went in mid-May and water levels were close to normal. My brother went a month later and the levels were a couple of feet higher and Lobster Stream had reversed flow.
They stayed at Ogden Point and didn’t need snorkels.
I will be in the vicinity next week and I will report back.
Last month Lobster stream
didnt reverse though the dam at Sebomook was opened to releive pressure. We flew down the W Branch of the Penobscot.
I am pretty local and this April during melt out was pretty dry and the dreaded flooding was somewhat restricted to the Allagash area further north and east.
However in the last few days we have had torrential rains and Joe Cupo keeps pointing out that the real rains have been further north of Greenville.
But as you state just go…Big Claw isnt a group campsite anymore either. Anyway even if the flow is reversed it wont be a problem for your LL trip as you dont have to go under the bridge.
REPORT
– Last Updated: Aug-10-08 10:32 PM EST –
I promised a report:
Maine is WET, swollen and floodlike.
(72 solid hours of rain plus and I am wet, muddy, and grumpy).
May you have better luck.
trip details…
I’d like to thank you all for your trip suggestions and advice. We had a great trip, the weather was great, which was unusual this summer, so we knew how lucky we were. A few quick thoughts: Lobster Lake was absolutely beautiful and deserted. The sandy beach campsite was fantastic, all it needed was a steel drum band and we could have been in the Carribean…that is, until the mosquitos arrived. THANK GOD we had bugshirts and lots of bug spray or we would have had to spend the whole time there in our tents. If you are going to Lobster Lake, be prepared for mosquitos on an unprecedented scale. We stayed the second night at Big Island (great view upstream from bluff), then visited Chesuncook Village and had homemade rootbeer floats, then braved 3 foot seas on Chesuncook Lake. We had a spray cover for the canoe, and don’t think we would have been safe on the lake without it. All in all, it was a very remote, incredibly scenic trip.
Its just this year
summer finally arrived. Mosquitoes are very happy.
Its finally drying out. September ought to be lovely.
Are you sure you had problems with mosquitoes? LL usually has no seeums that come out of the ground.
The upshot with all the rain and the darkness is that we have an early color change… The maples are turning.
They must think its October.
definately mosquitos
mosquitos by the hundreds, no doubt!
…great timing is what it’s all about…
Good to hear the clouds parted for a while! Indeed the Summer weather has been anything but constant.
I think summer is saying bye bye
– Last Updated: Sep-10-08 8:12 PM EST –
tonight..getting crisp out there.
Wonder what the peak leaf color week will be..its so hard to tell..some started turning a couple of weeks ago.
Last year the color just hung on and on.
Skeeters still strong as of 9/5
Stayed at the sandy beached sites that are closest to Lobster Stream on Sep 4 and 5 and the mosquitoes were very dense. Head net dense. Cover every inch of skin dense. I’m thinking it will take a frost to knock them down, but if it would dry out first, that should do it, too.
Tried out a thermacell, which helped considerably. We could at least take off the head nets and eat when we had that thing working for us.
I think the beach has the worst mosquitoes. Ogden Point and Ogden North were far better (but occupied). Can’t comment on the other sites, but the beach was worse than other spots we stopped to eat, stretch, or hike.
Penobscot Farm had a mosquitoe population I can only describe as hideous, and I have to reclassify the road from Seboomic Rd to the River as only “generally cartable”. There is a large washout and there are several deep mud holes in the last quarter mile, as you descend into skeeter-hell. It’s challenging to swat skeeters while you try to carry your boat and your gear. I noticed 4 skeeters were working on the back of my hand, freed my other hand to swat, but there were five on the back of the other hand. Ach! How on earth can so much buzzing energy be sustained? How many meals can a million mosquitoes each have when they all live on the same acre of land?
~~Chip
Welcome to Maine!
Yup, they still come in to visit me at the computer( I have a small hole in the windowscreen)
Come up in January and I can show you some salt marsh mosquitoes yet.
oh no!!!
too many bugs—looks like you had better stay home next year 
more room for us!!!
But thats mean…there is a way to repel Maine bugs though…
Mix equal parts pine tar and bear grease together. Precondition skin by rolling in mud first. Apply mixture.
If you lived in Maine you would find the ingredients easy to get.