Mollidgewock State Park sits right on the edge of the rushing Androscoggin River. It is raw. You get 44 primitive campsites, a few wooden lean-tos, and the constant sound of whitewater. No fancy bathhouses exist here. Actually, you just get basic pit toilets, campfire smoke, and the cold northern breeze. It rules.

This stretch of Route 16 cuts through the famous Thirteen Mile Woods, which means you are deep in prime moose territory. Keep your eyes peeled. They love to stomp through the marshy shallows right at dawn. Anglers easily hook native brook trout and salmon here. But paddling is the real draw. You can launch your canoe directly from your campsite and spend hours drifting downstream, scouting for bald eagles nesting in the high pines. It is totally unpretentious.

Long ago, the Abenaki fished these deep waters. They called it home. But things changed fast when 19th-century timber barons eyed the massive stands of spruce and fir. The Brown Company and other logging giants bought up thousands of acres. They turned the wild river into a watery highway. Every spring, millions of logs jammed the currents, floating down to the hungry paper mills in Berlin. It was dangerous, muddy work. River drivers ran across spinning logs with spiked boots, risking their lives for a dollar a day.

The logging era eventually died out. Still, the timber companies kept the land for decades. Then, in 2001, a massive conservation deal saved this thirteen-mile stretch of river corridor from being carved up into vacation homes. Locals stepped in. They desperately wanted to keep the river wild and accessible. Today, if you paddle the rapids, you can still spot old iron rings bolted into the shoreline boulders. Loggers used these heavy rings to anchor sorting booms. Look closely. You might spot waterlogged logs resting on the bottom. Just quiet remnants of a brutal, hardworking past.