Best Hotel for Canoeing the Pemigewasset River

Enjoying our slopeside hospitality here at the Mountain Club on Loon, you’re nestled in the midst of the highland paradise of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. The high peaks and ridges draw the eye, but just as fundamental to the landscape are the great rivers flowing through the gorges, canyons, and valleys between the ramparts.

At our luxury hotel, you’re overlooking the East Branch Pemigewasset River, a mighty stream that originates in the glorious Pemigewasset Wilderness—the “Pemi”—not far away. Just downstream of our Loon Mountain wonderland, the East Branch joins the (actually smaller) Pemigewasset mainstem, a fabled river heading at Profile Lake in Franconia Notch State Park and joining the Winnipesaukee at Franklin, New Hampshire to make the mighty Merrimack.

Besides hiking and biking along the Pemigewasset and the East Branch, you’ve got plentiful opportunities to paddle this wonderful White Mountain river system while staying at the Mountain Club on Loon!

The Joys of the Pemigewasset

The roughly 65-mile-long Pemigewasset, named from an Abenaki word roughly translating (according to the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services) to “swift current and where the side-entering current is,” drains a watershed of some 1,000 square miles.

Its waterfall- and cascade-studded upper course in Franconia Notch State Park (which we recently profiled at the Mountain Club on Loon blog) includes such famous features as the huge pothole called “The Basin.” The waters and riparian corridor of the Pemigewasset and its tributaries, meanwhile, support such wildlife as beavers, river otters, black ducks, and bald eagles, not to mention Atlantic salmon, trout, and other fish.

For canoeists and kayakers, the Pemigewasset is a fabled stream, offering as it does such a rich variety of whitewater, flatwater, and quickwater stretches and such breathtaking scenery. Those fond of real wildwater have a field day in the eight-mile reach of rapids at Ayers Island, which includes Rodeo Hole.

There are plenty of easy-to-reach put-ins along the Pemigewasset if you’ve brought or rented a boat and want to do some self-guided exploration. Meanwhile, numerous outfitters in the area lead canoeing and kayaking tours, including Out Back Kayak in Lincoln—just minutes from the Mountain Club on Loon.

Take a Paddle on the Pemi During Your Mountain Club on Loon Getaway

Whether it’s a lazy paddle or a whitewater adventure you’re after, enjoy the fabulous flow of the Pemigewasset during your White Mountain escape at the Mountain Club on Loon this summer!