Recently someone asked me if I had ever paddled the Big Black river. It is a major tributary to the St. John, flowing in across the border from Quebec. It joins the St. John just below the appropriately-named Big Black Rapids. I told them not only had I been down it, but it was written up in a Boston Globe travel article in 2005. June 12, 2005, to be exact, and it was the lead story in the travel section, with lots of photos. And, it was so well received that it went on to be published in a book called “The Best Travel Writing 2006.” I went looking around the web to see if the article was still online anywhere and I ended up finding it on a Boston Globe archives page. So if you’re interested in reading about a trip down the Big Black in early May of 2005, here’s the link:
https://archive.boston.com/travel/explorene/maine/articles/2005/06/12/canoeing_big_black_inspires_thoughts_on_the_nature_of_things/

It was a great trip with great people and we had some deep discussions about the nature of things.

If you’re interested in going, here’s a great write-up on the trip from Allagash Guide Service, as well as a link to their home page.