Allagash [Paperback]

Gil Gilpatrick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1995

Allagash - the name itself evokes a sense of awe and adventure that only this wilderness area can convey. In Allagash, Gil Gilpatrick skillfully weaves fact and fiction to whisk you back through time on this legendary waterway. The fact in this exciting book is based on careful research - the fiction is based on facts that are known combined with careful speculation of what could have happened.

In Part One you are guided through the present-day Allagash region by Gilpatrick who has been a Master Maine Guide for over 40 years and has guided more than 100 trips through the Waterway. Significant historic and natural sights are highlighted and these points of interest are punctuated with anecdotes of personal experiences.

In Part Two you will learn about Maine’s colorful lumbering industry going back to the middle of the 1800’s. You will be impressed at what a sophisticated, well engineered operation it was back then. Like the western cowboy, the lumberjack’s life has always seemed rugged and adventurous - it was romanticized. The fact is, the lumberman’s life was filled with hard labor and countless life-and-death situations from sunup to sundown. You will be introduced to lumberjack characters like Mushrat Murphy, and be taken to lumber camps and onto the river to experience the life of the river driver.

Part Three is about the Bear Clan of the Wabnaki. The Native American’s use of the Allagash has been traced back to the end of the last ice-age. The account of their life along the river is literally sprinkled with colorful lore and legend. You will be introduced to the Great Spirit, or Manitou and to Gluscabe, a tribal hero. The beautiful Allagash was not untrodden wilderness. "It was a region that gave life to a people who husbanded its resources for thousands of years."

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gil Gilpatrick has spent his life in outdoor Maine. For 26 years he was an instructor of Outdoor Resources at the Skowhegan Regional Vocational Center. His other major occupation was guiding people on the Allagash. A Master Maine Guide, his years of experience has given him a detailed knowledge of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, knowledge he has been sharing with others for over 30 years. Now retired from teaching and guiding, he is busy with his writing career while continuing to make trips into Maine’s wilderness areas with friends and family. Gil is a member of the Advisory Board for the Licensing of Guides. He has several books to his credit and writes an outdoor column for Maine’s Northwoods Sporting Journal. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 235 pages
• Publisher: Gil Gilpatrick (January 1995)
• ISBN-10: 0965050718
• ISBN-13: 978-0965050715
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,840,727 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gil Gilpatrick has spent his life in outdoor Maine. For 26 years he was an instructor of Outdoor Resources at the Skowhegan Regional Vocational Center. His other major occupation was guiding wilderness canoe trips in northern Maine. Gil considers his life, combining these careers, an ideal blend of his love of the outdoors and that of making hand crafted items. "To see a need, and then set out to fill that need is the most satisfying thing I can think of to do," says the author. But Gil also takes great pleasure in seeing others enjoy the items he has developed and perfected. He has never made any of his gear commercially, rather preferring to make a few for friends and writing about them for others. Gil is a prolific writer and, besides writing free-lance articles when time permits, he is a regular columnist for Maine's Northwoods Sporting Journal, a monthly publication about outdoor Maine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Boom Times in the Allagash, June 10, 2008

By 

Ralph White (New England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Allagash (Paperback)

"Allagash" is the first of two books which Maine Master Guide, Gil Gilpatrick, has self-published about the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. The second, "The Allagash Guide," was published about ten months later. The two books serve two separate, but overlapping purposes. "Allagash" is comprised of three parts. The first part is basically how to make an Allagash canoe trip. It is very similar to "The Allagash Guide," absent the packing lists. The second part is a history of the Allagash, told in alternating fact and fiction, the latter serving to fuel the reader's imagination about what life was like for the men working the lumbering operations in the early 20th century. The third part of the book is a fictional rendition of the life of the Wabnaki Indians, which inhabited the headwater lakes from the time of the retreat of the glaciers, some 10,000 years ago. They left no written history, only archeological evidence of their culture. Gilpatrick weaves his story around this evidence and gives voice to those early Native Americans.

Gilpatrick likely realized that this first book, for all its colorful characters and lifelike historical fiction, left potential Allagash adventurers with critical gaps in planning an Allagash trip. The result was "The Allagash Guide," which provides a comprehensive guide and multiple checklists for planning a trip. "Allagash" provides the background information that will help you understand what you are seeing when you stumble across locomotives in the forest, and the remnants of locks, steamships, and derelict farms. And, since the Allagash is now preserved more or less as it was when the earliest inhabitants lived there, why not make the effort to understand just who those people were?

Gilpatrick's two books are complementary. If you are planning an unguided Allagash trip, "The Allagash Guide" is mandatory reading. If you want a little help understanding what you're seeing when you paddle through, then get "Allagash." Also, "Allagash" is wonderfully illustrated with historic photos of the boom times on the headwater lakes.

For further reading pick up a copy of "The Wilderness from Chamberlain Farm" by Dean Bennett, which provides a rigorous history of the Allagash, as well as of the founding of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. If you still haven't had enough, get Henry Thoreau's "The Maine Woods," which describes his remarkable exploration of the East and West Branches of the Penobscot River and their headwater lakes from a naturalist's perspective.

Thoreau's guides were Penobscot Indians. Gilpatrick's two excellent books will be yours.

5.0 out of 5 stars The BEST Allagash Guide there is!, February 4, 2007

By 

Robert Whitney "Roberto" (Deltona, Florida USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Allagash (Paperback)

In 1981 I made my first trip up the Allagash Wilderness Waterway with a friend from Freeport Maine. He loaned me copies of two books written by Gil Gilpatrick, Allagash and The Canoe Guide's Handbook. Reading these two books were the best thing I did to prepare for this trip. They made this trip so much more interesting, while at the same time answering all my questions.

These are Allagash Bibles. I used them to prepare for my next 5 trips up the Allagash. No one knows this Wilderness Waterway better than Gil Gilpatrick. The next time I do this waterway, I will first read the latest updated version of his insightful guides.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars been there, done that!, January 3, 2007

By 

Thomas R. Nicholas "jarhead" (mt. gretna, pa) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Allagash (Paperback)

having been to the allagash wilderness 6 times to canoe from churchill dam to the end at st. francis, this book is excellent. it gave me info on the area that i previously didnt have, plus reminded me it's time to do the river again. the allagash is unique due to it's remoteness, and of course it's beauty. i sorely miss the clean air, and the wildlife, etc. great book!!!!!!!!!!!!!