T6 R11 WELS, Maine – Rangers on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway (AWW) are reporting good ice conditions on the larger waterway headwater lakes. Rangers were out checking the ice thickness on December 29, 2019. They found 8 to12 inches of good ice on Telos Lake, Round Pond, Chamberlain, Allagash, and Churchill Lakes. The ice thickness could be inconsistent, so Rangers advise ice fishermen to use caution when heading out to fish this weekend.
"The south end of Chamberlain Lake skimmed over for the first time on December 1," stated Matthew LaRoche, AWW Superintendent. "However, the middle of the lake did not freeze until the third week of December."
Rangers will be out checking the ice in the upcoming days. Current ice conditions will be posted on the Conditions and Alerts page on www.maine.gov/allagash. Visitors should stop at the Chamberlain Bridge Ranger Station for up to date information on ice conditions or call the waterway dispatch service in Ashland at (207) 435-7963. Anyone with sporting camp reservations is advised to check with camp operators before heading out on the ice.
Rangers are urging people to check the ice as you go out, and not to assume the ice is safe if you see a snowmobile track going out across the lake.
AWW staff are warning all visitors to stay away from thoroughfares and avoid tributary streams when traveling on the ice. Everyone heading out to fish this weekend should tell someone where you are going and when you plan to return. The best plan of all is to take a buddy with you.
“We usually have a good crowd out ice fishing on the first weekend of the season,” LaRoche said, referring to the upcoming ice fishing season, which starts Sunday, January 1, 2020. “The native brook trout fishing is usually excellent when the season first opens.”
The AWW provides winter campgrounds at the Chamberlain Bridge and Kellogg Brook, public drinking water, vault toilets, and snow plowing. A groomed snowmobile trail is marked from the Chamberlain Bridge parking lot to the south end of Chamberlain Lake and to Round Pond/Telos Lake.
The AWW is a 92-mile-long ribbon of lakes, ponds, streams and river, that wind through the heart of northern Maine’s vast commercial forest. The waterway became the first state-administered river to be designated by the United States Department of Interior as a component of the federal Wild and Scenic River Program. This designation was the culmination of an effort that began in the early 1960s, to protect the outstanding natural character, unique recreational opportunities, and historical significance of the Allagash River and its associated lakes and ponds.
