 What is up guys welcome back to the channel for all of you returning viewers and to all the new viewers Thanks for clicking on that link summer is just about over in Maine. We're heading into fall I am on the Golden Road in northern Maine. I just went through one of my favorite towns in Maine called millinocket and I have a special treat for you in store for this trip I am up here with one of my very best friends in the world Donnie Johnston I've been friends with Donnie for pretty close to 30 years now And he is just about as good a guy as you could ever meet He's one of those type of guys that The second you meet him you've become friends for life He's very calm and cool And just as nice a guy as there is anywhere very quick to laugh super super helpful to everyone around him We had planned this trip last year, but Donnie's mother is 102 or 103 years old lives alone and she started to have some problems last year right around the time We were supposed to go on this trip. So we had to cancel the trip and postpone it to this year He's excited to be here this year. I'm excited to be here this year. So we're going to try to Canoe the west branch of the Penobscot River It is still Open water fishing season in Maine. It's the beginning of bird season in Maine So it's a cast and blast week for us. Donnie said bring a metal detector, too We're going to go looking for some old login camps in this area and see if we can find any cool relics that are buried Long forgotten and see what we could find The north bain woods is one of my absolute favorite places on the entire planet I used to come up here and just stay in the woods For three months at a time sometimes longer and run a trap line Hunt every day except sunday, which is still a law in Maine. The north bain woods means a lot to me I've been coming here for geez over Maybe 20 years. Yeah over 20 years Donnie's been coming here for over 60 years He was introduced to the north bain woods by a fella in town that was older than him And he's just has so many really cool memories and has seen it change quite a bit And it's a really special place for donnie as well. I know every year He really looks forward to coming up for bird season deer season or moose season North bain woods super super special place any time of year I only get to enjoy the fall and the winter due to My business and and my work style if you ask me that's the best time of year to be up here anyway Thanks again for clicking on the video guys and for tuning back in I'm super pumped for this season out on the hardwater and maybe even some other fall videos like this up in the north bain woods Stay tuned. I have no idea what this trip is going to bring. I know we're going to be doing some fishing I know we're going to be doing some hunting and I think we're going to be doing a little metal detecting We're definitely going to be doing some canoeing That's all I could tell you. Thanks for tuning in beautiful serious So is this the river we're we're going to be on? This is the river. This is this is the lower well below rippogenus dam This uh is used a lot for whitewater rafting now Back when I came there was no rafting here Really? Yeah, it hadn't been invented yet We used to fish well we fished from here up Up Al and I fished there for salmon salmon. Yeah, we caught a few on that strip It's pretty I mean real rough rapids up there When I first set foot in this neck of the woods, there wasn't any golden road Really? There was no golden road. Oh, no kidding. When was the golden road built in the 60s? Geez, I came in 57 So what for the first time would they have just just a straight we had to come in through rockwood 20 mile gate and wow by saboon muck And in that way. Wow Oh But I'm sure they were building, you know at that time they must have been Roughing it out and and building parts of it. I'm sure Oh, it was a different world there Yeah, Bobby whipped this up last night. She's amazing every time I came with Al He would always cook fried chicken the night before And we'd have cold fried chicken on the ride up Which was it was really excellent One thing about Al He always wanted to come up here I'd say he was my mentor when it came to northern Maine. Did he introduce you to the north main woods? He sure did That's awesome. Yeah, when I was a sophomore in high school But when I got to be in high school when my cousin started going with his daughter, that's how I really got to know And He really indoctrinated me to the north main woods. I don't think I'd been above Bangor much above Bangor Since that point in time I was thankful for him doing that And I think I have not since 1957. I think I've not missed a year Of not coming up here at least once in the year Well, that's pretty good. That's real good. Yeah. Yeah I'll use your sandwich. All right. Thank you Meatloaf sandwich. That's perfect All right, did she put uh Barbecue sauce on it. So that'll be great. Yeah, she's still behind you Is she still behind you? This thing is going every which way. Oh man Yeah I'd say this road is probably the worst part of this whole trek. Yeah, I hope so. I hope it is I've never seen that empty like that or something That's the water usually. Yeah, holy cow That entire bay is dry It isn't you want it on It's on It is? Yeah Oh one more swing There we go Yeah, right now we're at my son's camp greg's camp On shack pawn We're going to spend the night here And then this afternoon we're going to go look for some relics of old logging camps that were In the uh in the area We got a metal detector and We're going to check things out And then tomorrow we're going to put the canoe in the west branch and head down towards shisankuk village And do some more exploring Look good. Everything look good. Yeah Great want to hit out sure We're right now on what used to be called the cordroy road Which is a bunch of cedar trees laid side by side Through this wet kind of a swampy area And then they would spread a little bit of gravel over the top of it Well every spring when the frost was going out these of course these cedar Sections of trees would push up And it was like a roller coaster right down through here. You could walk faster than you could drive it So now the logs are still underneath this road, but the road is is uh been really covered up by shale And it's held up really well ever since but when I first came up here this Road was not here. They were in the process of of making it But it it was non-existent So we couldn't travel over it like we're doing today All right Donnie made a wonderful supper American chop sweet It's one of our favorite meals Yeah, oh my god How's it looking Donnie? Oh my god, it looks like the best I've ever made. Yep. We've got a big old salad Some bread. You've got a big big salad. Yeah, it didn't fit in my bowl. So I did the opposite Yeah, I did the bowl of chop so we played us out Good morning. We got a cool brisk 39 degrees out here this morning fog has rolled in pretty good on the lake Donnie's in there slaving away cooking a really nice breakfast. I think we got some flapjacks and bacon and hot coffee and Who knows what else he's He's quite the camp cook Today we're looking at getting on the river in the canoe and bringing a load down a gear and setting up the camp for the rest of the week And hopefully getting down river maybe even doing a little bit of fishing today. So I'm pretty excited about that Might be able to see some moose today too if the fog lifts From what I've heard northern Maine's been incredibly dry and they've seen a drought So most of the brooks and streams and rivers are Really dry Chazun Cook Lake looked like it was down about 12 to 15 foot when we came through Donnie looked at the river yesterday And thought that it was at its regular level. So the river looks like it's flowing good So we shouldn't have many problems there. We're hoping we can make it all the way up into Chazun Cook Lake and into Chazun Cook Village and But he said we might have a portage or we might not even be able to make it if it is low So What's going on over here? We're cooking up some pancakes. We've got some bacon all cooked Looks good They're coming good. They look lumpier in all hell. Oh, yeah That's what fills you up nice Isn't that sunrise something This is the kind of stuff you have to put up with when you hope you're in the north main wood Stuff like this It's pretty disgusting when you're trying to sleep in your bunk and the sun is waking you're up What's the plan for today? Clean up at the camp here and then head down to the west branch and put the canoe and load up and try to get down through A caribou lake didn't look very very promising because it sits low water, but We drove by the river yesterday and it looked like it was up pretty good. So hopefully we can make it down through That's the outhouse view Not a bad view Donny Not a bad view I pooped in worse places than that Any toilet that's got a view like that. No Roads are pretty bumpy ain't they? Jeez They're rough Yeah Bird hunters, I guess, huh? Yeah Maybe that first one might have been moose You good boy Hi I'm just along for the ride. Hey, you have a youtube channel? Yeah. Good. Good. Yeah. Have you seen it? Yeah, I have You're an awesome job, man. Oh, thank you. Have Doug Stewart. Nice to meet you. You spent a week on That's all. Yeah, just ice fishing. Yeah. Yeah, this is the only one non ice fishing. Wow in the last two years Yeah, yeah, uh, usually like week 10 day just stay right on the ice Yeah, we're gonna do a little video. We're doing a video. You guys want to be on it? Sure. Awesome. Yeah You're on it. Yeah Yeah, no, I think I I think I follow your channel. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Yeah, real good stuff What channel is it? Uh, Joe Holland fishing. Yeah, I'm Joe. I'm Joe. Joe. Nice to meet you. Good to meet you. John. Nice to meet you It's Donny. Oh, when nice to meet you. Yeah Father, son, I take it. No, no might as well be Yeah, he's one of he's my one of my best friends. Yeah for years. He lives a mile from me in jefferson Yeah Nice, yeah White seems to be the yep That is awesome. Look at those do you tie these most of them not all not all what are these Uh, that's the caribou. That's the caribou special So a good fly is I tie the caribou maribou right there Little smelt imitation. Whoa. That is beautiful. Yeah. All right. Look at these. They got tails on them Yeah, that's something I've been experimenting with I still haven't caught a lot of fish on them. That's like a smelt pattern Eddie Raymond has got pictures of him motoring over that bridge. Yeah When the water was Yeah, the old bridge Right, this is this one they built up But I've seen I've seen the water up to that. Yeah, I've seen I've seen this old parking lot on the water before Yeah, the outhouse he actually floated up to the roof of the outhouse Yeah, it's a great location for an outhouse. It's automatically flushed He flushes every spring once he flushes Yeah, we'll probably see you on the river. Are you just going in for the day? No, we'll stand until uh, Monday On down on big island. Yeah, we're going to we're gonna camp out at rag mouth Oh, you're gonna how you're gonna get in there campsite. I don't know Oh, so you're gonna float and then come out at like graveyard or no, there's there's a campsite called rag mom Yeah, we've seen oh, yeah, we've been there before. Yeah, great. We tried to get there yesterday, but Couldn't get up over Climb climb rips. Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah We were coming from the other direction. Yeah. Yeah, it might be a little dicey getting down there Yeah through the foxhole falls, but as long as you're ready to pull the canoe back up through the falls It'll be all set. Yeah So how are you gonna get back up? He's in the bow. That's why he always bring a young guy with you You know when you bring a young guy, he sits in the bow if he has to get out He's he's the one that gets out. I sit back. I guess I'm roping it You know Yeah, you never want to Yoko yeah That's your quiet moda. Yeah, four strokes. Yeah Sips fuel Over an a gallon all weekend. Wow. Yeah, great Take care. Yeah, you too We're really doing it donnie. We're doing it Maybe we wish we hadn't but we're doing it. That's right. Yeah Yeah, I'll be interested to see what the river looks like It'll be interesting to see if that canoe floats with all our gear and us Whoa, nothing's loaded It's sitting pretty good though. I think it's on bottom You don't yeah Well, we got shotguns axes fly rods cameras He's sitting pretty level Yeah, but you know We haven't got our weight in there. Yeah going up or down. Are we coming or going We could take two trips. Is it dangerous through this stretch? You'll probably see some big bigger rocks. Okay You want me just to haul her? Yeah, okay Just tell me which side of the you know the boat They're on uh, okay Which way to to make the bow go What is it? It's a dime. It's not even old is it? It's a dime What year can't it doesn't look that old to me No, but it looks coppery. No, it isn't there's there's Truman's I guess that's Truman. Yeah, we just we just started We discovered a Dime on a random random spot We just stopped here and I grabbed the metal detector just turned it on because we're going to go up in the woods Where this old campsite is and it just started beeping. We're like no way Wow, that's amazing. Well, I think it beeped twice over here. Let me Yeah, I did. We're rich. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty sure there's something there Whatever You moved one of them here. I'll you can pick up the stuff and just hold it right over the metal detector It'll let you know So it's in your hand now if you want you could put it right on this rock, donnie There's nothing Oh, was that your ring? Do you have a ring on? Yeah It likes something here Right there in that pile who you moved it. Oh, it's sitting right there. What is it? We are going to be rich. I think it's a might be a penny. Oh, you think this whole river's got money like that We are going to be so rich this one's a penny. Oh It's not that old all right, donnie landed us on a camp That has long been overtaken by the woods and the earth And there's a ton of metal in the woods. I got my metal detector, but There's no chance of finding There's just too much stuff. Yeah, you can You can hear it going off And it'll go off the whole way in but I could show you what this camp used to look like and Donnie'll be tell us a little bit more about it because he saw it when it was standing. I think What do you think old boy? So we're pretty far down the river And he got us right to the spot and when I got out we found those two coins right away. So We're up to a we're up to 11 cents. So I almost got this metal detector paid for All right after that little excursion We are gonna have a lunch and a little water We're gonna finish up those meatloaf sandwiches from yesterday If you've never had a meatloaf sandwich boy, you're missing out They are tremendous It's been easy going no wind. We hit one log on the river. That was about it And donnie thinks it might get shallower further up There's definitely got to get shallower It's gonna get shallower. So we'll see how far we can go Well, we found our campsite. Yeah Where we're gonna camp and uh, geez, I don't know how many miles was that quite a few miles, wasn't it? Yeah I don't know four or five. Yeah, at least yeah Quite a few miles over well over an hour. Right No moves. I was surprised. Yeah, no moves a couple hours. So what we're gonna do now is We're gonna unload and get camp set up before we go on our next journey Which I don't know what it is yet Oh Well, we brought a lot of stuff sure did I think we probably don't need half of it. No I think we're not roughing it like the Old timers. So we got one tent up. This is an old timer tried and true And I'll show you guys what not to do if you're on a camping trip unless you're a millennial Or a newbie is don't show up with it still in the original packaging never opened before Just pick that one up from l l bean and they ensured me that it's got everything in there I need so We'll see we'll see how it goes All right camp is all set up. We got donnie's almost we got to top the We got to top the picnic table. Yeah Yeah Over here This is the new tent from l l bean called the Adventure dome four It's supposed to be for four people. I could see You could definitely get four in here if you stacked them But you're not getting four in with cots, but yeah one two three four just on the ground or on uh sleeping pads You could get four in it'd be pretty tight But I'll give you guys a review of this tent after After I use it for a week or or more and maybe get some different Weather conditions. I hate reviews when somebody takes it out of the package like I just did and tells you how great it is Without ever using it. So you won't ever get that from a donnie's Set up over here. You said you got this tent from camp more camp more never heard of it which was uh a mail order Outfit I god, I can't remember what state. I think it was Vermont And uh, they also had you know just a retail store there too and uh That's where I got that probably 30 30 years ago or more and this was a four person tent 30 years ago. Well, I think it I think it's a just a two-man tent There's no four people You can get in that plenty of room though for one person in some gear Donnie and I went uh moose antler Hunting last winter in january right mid january. Yeah up in northern main and he slept in that Every night I slept in my truck because I have a bed in there and We would eat in that every morning and every night and then uh worked out pretty well. Yeah, it was I think it got as cold as 10 Yeah, 10 was the low I think at night and it got as high as maybe 20 So we had a pretty good stretch But he never was cold with a good good sleeping bag and up off the ground Hey, we might Get our fly rods ready. Nice. That sounds good to me. I don't I don't want a fly rod, but I borrowed one, so We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. Stay tuned I'll tell you my only fly fishing story ever because I've only fly fished once in my life I'll tell you that if you guys stay tuned Got him. Oh, he jumped He's jumping Oh, he's jumping all over the place. He's not he's 12 inches Oh, he jumped again Oh, he jumped again Oh, should I lose him? I think no, I still got him I might have lost him or he's coming right at us. I think I lost him No, he's still on he's he's going again. He's going for another jump. Oh here he comes See him? Oh, yeah Look at that job. Oh, oh, yeah, he's he's peeling drag on me Nice salmon, right? Nice one. All right, that's my first salmon on a fly rod. Well, oh, he's gone That was awesome. Nah, he's just digging deep Man, he's pulling. Look at that. Why ain't he moving him? Really? Good fish He is holding bottom, don't he? He was right at the end of my cast. I got that fly out there He might jump Oh, he's pulling drag on me. Whoo. What a jump What a jump He's pretty good size, huh? He's right at the motor All right, there we go. Geez, he might even keep Oh, is he? It's weird. It's weird. He only jumped once He's got a hook in his jaw, right? Yeah, he's over 15 inches Who do you think of that one? Hook jaw. Yeah, he's 16, I bet Well, just like that The weather turned on us We got one decent shower Maybe an hour ago and now she's pretty steady raining And the temperature dropped quite a bit It's not quite see your breath yet. So it's probably 41 42 maybe We're gonna have Potatoes of vegetable What kind of vegetable do you like? Potato Yup any kind Pork tenderloin Little touch and go getting in here today With some shallow water and I know the rivers fluctuating quite a bit. So to keep an eye on The water and make sure we don't lose too much or uh If we gain it we can keep going down river further, but if we lose a lot then We're gonna have to maybe think about picking up camp and going back up river because We'd end up having to leave all our gear and it's a long long walk out from here With with no trails. So that's uh Right where that stick is Is right on the edge of the water and if it drops Below that we know it's dropping and then we can kind of meter how much it drops each day One burner shot. Where should I put that one out here? Yeah triple burner You've got a heck of a nice kitchen set up over here Yeah, it's not too bad I'm under the top. That's the main thing. Yeah Got to warm up these biscuits. Oh beauty Well, that's kind of do it for the second day out here first day on the river It is still raining pretty good. It was what's the most rain till Tomorrow, so maybe this is just that rain coming in early and hopefully tomorrow's a nice clear day Looks like the tents pretty dry after Oh, probably three hours of rain, which is good Another great day Looking forward to an awesome day tomorrow I think that's a good camp coffee this morning. I know it's good and black. Yeah It's gotta be rugged Thought it stopped raining, but man it didn't it rained the entire night My tents dry Donnie's tents dry So that's good because it never stopped And it's kind of slowed a little bit this morning. The canoe's got quite a pile of water in it Wow six inches in the back Still raining a bit Your tarp worked great Donnie kept all our gear dry We had a little fire last night, but With all that rain coming down. It's no fun sitting around the fire. So We used it to heat up some dish water and That was it. What's the plan for today? Today, you know probably head out on the water and sure And do some exploring there was a farm on the river here way back at logging times and The house The loggers and had some Cattle there and raised a few crops. Of course the house is gone now They after the log and got over they they burned everything down destroy it So we'll just search around there and see if we can find any treasures I ever tell you about this fry pan. I don't think so It was made in Ohio And it's a steel fry pan that I bought at LL beans probably back in the 70s, I guess I would guess And my old fishing buddy Al Had one and of course, whatever Al had at that time Donnie had to have So I I bought one and made these handles for it And it cooks bacon and cooks anything just wonderful a great little pan So LL had a good product They sold a bunch of them but Like everything that LL seems to have anything good they discontinue I don't know why but anyway Uncle Al was a A guy that lived in Jefferson and I and I knew him when I was a little kid But never knew him well just knew him. He was always hanging around doing Stuff at the garage and he was a pretty clever guy He was one of these guys that could do anything if he put his mind to it But a lot of times he didn't put his mind to it But I got to know him when I was in high school my cousin Went with his daughter and we became good friends and good fishing buddies And he brought me up in this area for the first time when I was in high school He was quite a little quite a drinker. He liked his tea every morning. He would Wake up when we were up here on the trip He'd make a cup of coffee He'd put a little Little liquor in it every morning just to wake me up depending on How cheap it was is he'd always buy the cheapest stuff he could get for booze He might have vodka one time. He might have bourbon another time So he always had to wake me up and he was always sipping during the day but he never Except I said I did see him really plastered a couple times but most of the time he was coherent and Could function and but he was always sipping on it But he was my mentor when it came to coming up in this area. He He would come here at a drop of a hat Uh, if I said today this morning Let's go up to camp. He'd be ready in an hour He was always willing to go and he came with me We came together his last venture up here He was 92 years old And he was getting hunched over But he still loved to come As he got older he did less fishing and more cribbage playing so we played a lot of cribbage and uh He was a great friend and great guy loved him when he died before he died. He says I'm giving my body to for research he died of course at 95 and They sent his body away and and uh, I think for students that were studying anatomy or something and they cut him up and And about two years later. I got a call and said his ashes are ready Did I send it to your address and of course? Yes But he always wanted to be dumped over Hannibal's cross and bridge, which is Crosses of west branch. We we went underneath it coming down here So his grandson and I brought his ashes up Throw him over the bridge His grandson said a little something And I said a little something and and uh, I said ill I'm not going to dump any Any booze in this river. I'm afraid you'd come back to life So we had a chuckle about that Let's check our stick for the water level. Yeah, she went down an inch Oh, wow. Yeah, she's down an inch overnight, Donny Even with all that rain What's our what's our get out of town level? Six inches Yeah, okay Maybe a couple little rocks once in a while, but not much a couple love taps. Yeah, that's all No, I've been up and down this river When there's been less water Yeah And of course I was always in the bow of the canal I was in the back and Guess who had to get out and pull I'm through the shallow places. That's why you brought me the bowman. That's why I have a younger guy on the bow To do all the work. Yeah He ate it out good Wowzers, look at that. Look at that salmon He's well over 18 Oh, he's a beauty. Wowzers Oh, no way. Look at that awesome Awesome We found either a blacksmith shop here a metal dump. I don't know what it is, but It's just look. No, you found an axe head Donny Donny Oh my god, you believe it. I don't believe it. We've been talking about finding an axe head for years title