AUGUSTA, Maine — People who want to spend their weekends ice fishing this winter along the Allagash Wilderness Waterway will be lining up Saturday morning to reserve their spots.
Registration for the winter campgrounds begins at 8 a.m. at the Chamberlain Thoroughfare Bridge ranger station in Piscataquis County.
Matt LaRoche, superintendent of the Waterway, says the reservations go fast, and recommends people get there early to get in line.
"We have 48 campsites available, and usually they fill up on the first weekend we're doing this," he says.
LaRoche says the same people rent the campsites year after year, although there are always a few new people.
Rentals are $50 per month, but LaRoche says most people stay for the whole season. Camping along the waterway might be cold, but he says it's not wilderness camping.
"This campground is a big parking lot, and people put self-contained camping units there, and we keep it plowed out all winter, we have a snowmobile trail that goes out to the lake, we have some vault privies that pepole use, and we have a drinking water supply there," LaRoche says.
The Allagash Wilderness Waterway is part of the state Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forest's Bureau of Parks and Lands. It is a 92-mile ribbon of lakes, ponds, rivers and streams through Maine forests.