Northern Forest Canoe Trail

The Androscoggin, the Connecticut and the Upper Ammonoosuc are three of the mighty rivers that have fueled the livelihood and shaped the northern region of the Granite State that’s known as New Hampshire’s Grand North.

A generation or two ago, the Androscoggin and the Connecticut were alive with log drives that brought lumber downstream from the woods to the mills.

Today, those rivers flow peacefully and beckon the paddler to slip into the current and, in places, into the past along the Northern Forest Canoe Trail (www.northernforestcanoetrail.org).

The entire trail, opened in 2006, stretches 740 miles along the northern borders of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, from Old Forge, New York to Fort Kent, Maine.

In northern New Hampshire, paddlers and kayakers can enjoy 72 miles of the trail, with stretches for all levels of skills, from flatwater to whitewater, taking in sights that include wildlife, birds and relics of the human history along the river banks.