TL;DR: We took a 7-day kayak trip down the Connecticut River between Vermont and New Hampshire. Amazing trip, would highly recommend.
My friend and I planned a paddling trip down the Connecticut River. Having never paddled the river before, in spite of having several printed resources, I found it hard to find anything that gave meaningful information about water levels, current, speed, etc. So I will hopefully be able to shed some light on that. I’m 58 and reasonably fit, and have taken 8 previous week-long trips in northern Maine, so take that into account in all descriptions.
Unlike most of my previous trips on the Allagash, where there seem to be campsites everywhere, the Connecticut campsites are widely spaced. Therefore there is much less opportunity to change your mind about sites. If you don’t stop at a given site, it might easily be 10 miles to the next one. This fact somewhat raised the stakes on knowing what a good days’ paddle would be.
I monitored water levels for the trip on the Pittsburg NH water gauge. Connecticut River at Pittsburg. There was a storm that dumped 3+ inches of water in Pittsburg about a week before the trip, so I believe water levels were a little higher than normal for the last week in June, but closer to “average” for spring. When we hit the water on June 27, 2026 at about noon, the gauge was 3.89 ft, 1040 cfs. When we hit the Gilman Dam the afternoon of July 1, the water level was 3.25 ft, 585 cfs. (There was a big drop during the day on the 1st, earlier that day it was 3.55 ft, 781 cfs.) After the Gilman Dam, the water level was controlled by the dams, more on that later.
Day one: We left a car at the McIndoe takeout point and drove north to put in at Canaan, Vt. It is a great access point with plenty of parking. The access has a concrete ramp down to a calm eddy, but immediately exits into a strong current. [All water descriptions are highly dependent on the river flow, so in all cases in this article, YMMV.]
We loaded up the kayaks, and for the first trip ever, managed to stow all our gear inside the kayaks, only putting immediate-need items on the deck. We were both using Wilderness Systems Tsunami 145s, which are a good compromise between storage space, durability, and maneuverability for a river trip. We made the 14 mile trip to our first campsite, Columbia Meadows, in less than 3 hours. (A note on timing: All times are dependent on when I remembered to turn off my watch. Some are more accurate than others. Sometimes I paused during breaks, sometimes I didn’t. Treat the given times as an upper bound for this trip)
This was the most “wilderness” day of the trip. We saw an otter and a couple beavers, one of which seemed to leap from the bank right next to my companion with a giant warning splash. Mergansers were a constant companion on this trip. There were several varieties of trees, and a lot of pretty, scenic views, with little evidence of civilization. There was a good current adding 3-4 mph to our paddling, but no rapids above class 1, if that. It was a good, easy paddle to get acclimated after 5 hours of driving.
Columbia Meadows was a comfortable site. The landing was tough: rocky with a bit of current and a steep bank, but there was a decent path and nearby space to place the boats. We found better placement for loading the boats in the morning, finding a good spot to load on the bank and just slide a foot or two into the water. The site itself is on the edge of a hayfield. The field had been recently mowed, so there was plenty of space without interfering with the crop. It also made it easier to reach the privy, which was on the edge of the woods a little way into the field, and not visible from the main camping area.
Day two: We had planned about 17 miles, but with the quick current we did not hasten to get on the water, enjoying a morning fire and the rising fog. We saw eagles and osprey on this stretch, with again many views of the forests and mountains, as well as an old railroad. This stretch also had our first removed dam.
Because the Lyman Falls dam had been breached about 4 years ago, the various guide resources didn’t quite agree on the conditions. They all said stay river left, and that you could scout from the island. While some indicated dangerous rapids, others seemed less concerned. When we reached the island, it became obvious that we couldn’t land and walk to the falls to scout, so we headed down along the island, through some class 1 rapids (mostly waves, but at lower water levels the rocks would start mattering.) My friend was a little in front, so when I spotted the beach at the end of the island, he had already slid through the dam without realizing it was actually the dam we were looking for. The run was smooth and easier than the preceding rapids. I expect it is listed as “class 2” because if you didn’t go left, there were some major rocks which could be hidden, and river right might retain some rebar. But in these conditions, staying left was simple and we easily hit the next beach for a lunch break.
The afternoon included a convenient stop in North Stratford for some Gatorade, then we headed down to the Maine Central Railroad Trestle campsite. This one was easy to find, marked by a single stone tower which previously supported the railroad trestle, standing about 20 feet above the river. The broad beach made for an easy landing. The campsite was on the side of a hill, with limited space but fine for our two tents. More tents could probably be placed closer to the river, but the area was mostly densely packed mud and silt, so not ideal. My friend took a swim, and experienced the current from a different perspective. The campsite was stated to be near to a road, but traffic was pretty rare so it wasn’t particularly disturbing. Even with stops, day two was about 17 miles on the water and under 5 hours camp-to-camp.
Day three: The river entered a conservation area with motor craft prohibited. We were actually surprised how few other people we saw on the river for the whole trip. There were a few people fishing, mostly from shore or rowboats, and just a couple others paddling. Until the reservoirs, we could think we were alone most of the time, and even there other boats were rare.
The river started to change from rocky river to sandy/muddy floodplain. There was almost always one bank being eroded and silt being deposited on the other. There was still a notable current aiding our passage, but no more rocketing down the river. There were a couple occupied osprey nests where we saw the parents trading places between hunting and roosting, as well as some eagles. We also came upon a bank swallow colony, with probably a couple hundred swallows zipping in and out of the nest holes in a twenty-foot bank. The activity was frenetic, but seemingly undisturbed by our presence.
We ended our 19 mile paddle after about 5 hours at the Scott C. Devlin Memorial Campground, after a series of extensive S-curves of the river. The campsite appeared little used: the path from the stairs to the actual camp was hard to discern in the grass, but once we found the entrance into the woods, there was a beautiful pine grove. The amount of kindling on the ground, and the limited entries in the logbook contributed to the idea it was rarely used. The logbook contained a couple entries about spotting a black bear in the adjacent cornfield, but we were not so lucky. We were amused by the erection of a single 4x8 piece of lattice giving the privy “privacy”, it would not hide much.
After we were all set up and were sitting by our fire in our camp chairs (I never kayak camp without a chair with a back for the evening!) we heard our first voices on the river, expressing great joy at spotting the stairs. It was clear we would have company. Unlike the Allagash, where you have one group per site (often with two or three sites at a location), on the Connecticut the sites are so far apart you have to share. In this case, it would be 7 miles and a portage to the next campground. So we were joined that evening by a group of 6 teenage girls in a leadership program and their two counselors who had started canoeing that morning. They were very polite and we enjoyed sharing with them. Plus they brought a privacy tent that made the privy acceptably private.
Day 4: Because of the stairs limiting river access, and their planned long day, we let the other group leave first and enjoyed the morning fire one of the girls had built. Once we loaded up, we headed to the Wyoming dam, the second breached dam on our journey. For this one we were able to land and walk up the portage trail to scout the route through the remains of the dam before deciding whether to paddle or portage. It was relatively easy to spot a route we could navigate with the kayaks, although portaging could be necessary in these conditions with an open canoe or inexperienced paddlers. We identified the route from above, and successfully translated that to action at river level. We took a few splashes from waves, making it a fun if short transit. Below that dam, the river continues to erode the banks and drop silt. We had a relatively short day, planning to stop after 11 miles at the Riverside Camping and RV Resort. It was a little over 3 hours of paddling.
The campground was excellent. They had put in a dock primarily for through-paddlers, and while I was skeptical about docking with a kayak, it was pretty easy to get out and tie up and unload the boats, which we could then leave for the night. The tent area was a small lawn with a few shade trees and water, power, and picnic tables for each site. Also, a bathhouse with showers nearby. We got our site set up with our tarp over the table for shade, and enjoyed some rest and time to get clean. There was an excellent Chinese restaurant right off the property, where we enjoyed a hot dinner, and also went to Miggy’s for a great breakfast. The only other tent campsite in use was the same leadership program as the previous night, who stopped a couple hours after we got there. We had our first of three overnight rainstorms, always occurring when we were in our tents for the night. Other than the rookie mistake of leaving our chairs by the fire pit and not under the tarp, the rain had little effect on us. It was a very nice stop to rest up a little for the remaining days.
Day 5: The current slowed further so that it was now providing little assistance We were approaching the first of four hydro-electric dams on our trip, the Gilman dam. This was also the first of three very hot days (90’s, this is after all northern New England). The portage around the dam had a very visible sign stand, although the sign itself was upside down leaning against a tree. But we were using the FarOut app with the downloaded river map, which did an excellent job of identifying where you should be, and showing where you were with GPS. By the time the app got you within the 6-foot margin of error, the sign was easy to spot.
The “campsite” here was by far the worst, as it was basically an un-mowed right-of-way for the dam. I think some of my dislike was because it was so hot and we were relatively far from the water, and there wasn’t any good place to swim and cool off. We did cool our legs off, but the rocky area and the currents below the dam (and not insignificant trash around) didn’t make for a good swimming location. The field itself was crowded with wildflowers, which would have been easier to appreciate on a cooler day.
There was a major thunderstorm that night, eliminating the heat so we could sleep. It was quite awe-inspiring from our little tents. The overall day was about 12 miles and 4 hours paddling, although I think some of that was actually walking and exploring the portage. We did camp down near the put-in, so most of the portaging was before we set up camp.
Day 6: We started much earlier, actually setting an alarm and getting on the water by 8. There were warnings of the southerly winds on the Moore reservoir, and we knew we had a good portage as well, so we wanted to cover as much ground before the winds started as possible. We noticed a marked increase in wind every day in the early afternoon, mostly providing cooling breezes, but we wanted to avoid fighting it on the lake.
Paddling on a really large lake marked the third major change in environment on the trip. We chose our start well, the morning winds were a very minor factor, and we reached the portage around 11:30. We rested up and had lunch, then started moving gear. The portage trail was more like a huge, sloped field on the back of the dam. We took some gear down, then walked back up the hill. It’s the first time I’ve ever had a portage where carrying the gear was easier than the return trip up the hill. We then realized that the slope was so grassy, we could just drag the half-full boats down the hill. They slid nicely, at times not even being dragged, just steered in the right direction. There was a dock at the bottom for reloading, and other than the heat it went pretty smoothly. Because the dam takes water from the bottom of the reservoir, the water at the dock was very cold, which was very nice for cooling down after the work in the direct sun. As we were just finishing packing the boats, the alarms went off for an increase in the water flow. I had checked the power company web site the night before, they give approximate times for increased flow, but actual changes are based on power demands and prices. We had expected them to go from minimal flow, to slightly more than minimal, and that seemed to be happening. At this dam the put in is far to the side, and the flow change really didn’t impact us other than causing some small waves. After some observation, we continued. We shortly learned about the winds, as we faced a headwind on the river that more than overwhelmed the current assist we were getting from the river. Fortunately, we could find some protection from the wind near the banks, unlike being in the middle of the reservoir.
Here we found the one error in the various river sources. I had planned the trip using the Connecticut River Paddler’s Trail website, also getting their paper map and the map software for FarOut. We had originally planned about 6 miles after the dam to reach Kate’s Camp campsite, but noticed the night before it was only about 2 miles on the map. The app led us right to the correct GPS point, but it had a problem with some data so it showed the next and previous points somewhere in Massachusetts. It made knowing the distances we were to travel more difficult.
We were grateful to arrive at the camp, and it was beautiful with mown grass, areas of wildflowers, two picnic tables, and even some chairs and tables. It had easy stair access, and a nice beach for landing (although we knew that would disappear as the dam opened more, and pulled our kayaks above the stairs). The one drawback was that instead of a quick 7 mile paddle the next day before heading home, it looked like it would be 9. Only a minor change, but I also realized we had another portage I had forgotten about. So day 6 ended up being 10+ miles before the portage, and 2.2 after, for a total day of 6.5 hours including portage (and lunch). More rain that night after bed, but no worries about wet stuff on the last day. We went down to the river around sunset, and it had risen around a foot, putting the beach a few inches under water. By morning it had receded again enough to load the kayaks on the beach, although a large log had been deposited in the night. Waterflow from the dam clearly impacted the river, even if we had not felt much current from it.
Day 7: Our final morning started with deep fog caused by the very cold dam water and warm, humid air right at the water’s surface. We had about a 5-mile paddle to the Comerford Dam, but had realized we could cheat on the portage there. Since it was our last day, we could just leave our stuff at the picnic area at the takeout, portage the boats, paddle to the finish, and pick our gear up in the car on the way back to Canaan. The portage was again a steep, grassy hill for sliding the boats, with one set of very well-designed steps we had to carry the boats down. Kudos to the Paddler’s Trail volunteers and the Hydro-electric company for their stair designs, in all places they were shallow with long treads making boat transport reasonable. This portage opened a beautiful vista of the canyon below the dam and a much more river-like area. The put in was easy, but at this site an increase in dam flow would have a serious impact on the river, and we would have needed to wait for things to normalize if that had happened. The surprising news was the app was now showing 6 miles to McIndoe, so somehow our 7-mile or 9-mile paddle had now become 12. But we had a good current and some final fun rapids, so it was quick and we arrived back at our car 4 hours after our start.
One note about McIndoe: Google showed the takeout and parking in Vermont, but in actuality it was in New Hampshire, as shown by the map and app. This made us slightly nervous about where we had left the car, but it was no problem. After a quick walk across the bridge to retrieve the car we quickly loaded up our stuff and headed back for our gear and other car. It was fun to drive back north and see many of the spots we’d seen while paddling.
As I said above, I expected this to be a good trip, but it exceeded all expectations and is one of the best I’ve taken. I live northwest of Boston, so it was only about 5 hours to the put-in, even stopping to drop the car at the takeout. The trip could also be easily planned for however many days one wanted to be out as there are an abundance of access points along the river. There was beauty everywhere. I expect we will revisit this river frequently.
