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Kayak Race kayak racing kayaking

A Week on the Passy: From Winter to Spring

The photos in the slideshow above were taken while paddling a 5.5 mile section of the Passagassawakeag River 7 times during the 8 days period of March 29 to April 5, 2009. The photos are arranged geographically, moving from west to east, along the river, rather than by date taken.

It may not be a large or famous river. It’s certainly not the longest. It might, however, be the river with the longest name: Passagassawakeag. sixteen letters, ten of which are “a” or “s.”

Passagassawakeag. Learn to pronounce it fluently and you can impress both locals and visitors alike. The origin of the river’s name has been variously translated as place of ghosts, sturgeon river, clear fish river, and place for spearing sturgeon by torch-light.

Whatever it was named for, the Passy is a fun and beautiful river. One well worth getting to know. Paddling friends and I marvel at the fact that more people don’t get out on this river. Compared to downhill skiing for example, it costs less, is closer to home, and requires no more skill or expertise than running an intermediate slope on a big mountain.

The section of the river featured in the photos is the same one used in the annual Passy River Race, this year held on April 4. The put in is near the Littlefield farm on the Savage Road in Waldo. The take-out is a few hundred yards short of the intersection of the Rount 137 and the Shepard Road. Several miles of flatwater interspersed with sections of Class I, II, and III whitewater are found on this varied section of the Passy.

For their first trip down the Passy, those unfamiliar with the river and those new to paddling should seek to to with an experienced paddler.

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kayak racing kayaking whitewater

Whitewater Dreams

This can be an anxious time of year for midcoast Maine whitewater paddlers. Although whitewater paddling opportunities statewide continue throughout the spring and summer, the season here is short — and the midcoast whitewater racing season is even shorter, focused on the period last week of March and the first two weeks in April.

The local whitewater race season opens with the St. George race on March 28, continues with the Passy Race race on April 4, and concludes with the Marsh Stream race on April 4.

Snow on the ground is money in the bank that can lead to good paddling when it melts later. A fast melt due to unseasonably warm termperatures or heavy rains is like spending all that money at once. A slow melt due to cold temperatures and a lack of rain leads rivers to remain low or even frozen. And that’s the situation we are in right now.

According to NOAA charts, the average snow depth in midcoast Maine is 10 – 12 inches. In the woods as recent it is still more than that. The water equivalent of our snow cover is 6 to 8 inches. So there is plenty of “money” in the bank — and the makings of a great whitewater season.

However, the rivers seem a little slow to open up this year. The average flow (9 year mean) for the Ducktrap River for March 17 is 75 cubic feet per second. In comparison, the present flow on the Ducktrap is about 25 cfs.

The St. George and Passy River offer relatively easy whitewater, most of it Class 1 and Class II interspersed with sections of flatwater. For this reason, they are great rivers for those eager to get into the sport but without much canoeing or kayaking experiene. Information on the St. George and Passy Races is available from the Waldo County YMCA website.

The entire Maine canoe and kayak race schedule is at www.mackro.org/ MaCKRO (The Maine Canoe and Kayak Racing Organization) sponsors a 10-race whitewater, or “downriver” series, and a nine-race flat-water series. Mackro has a goal of bringing more young people into the sport. This year has developed it’s equipment loan program and has expanded categories / awards for young and first time paddlers.

“We’re trying to pull off some really nice awards, including nice championship sweatshirts, gift certificates … and only those people — new members and youth — who do at least five of those races can have their names put in a drawing for an Old Town Canoe,” Jeff Owen, club president, says in a recent Bangor Daily News article. Owen goes on to say that some races are sponsoring high school divisions, and others have begun offering prizes to children even younger than that.

For me, paddling in the St. George, Passy, and Kenduskeag Races has become a yearly ritual and a marker of spring. This is the best time of year if you are a midcoast Maine paddler. There is nothing quite like entering a stretch of whitewater with the sunlight sparkling on the river and the snow still deep in the woods.

Sure there is mud in the driveway and frost heaves in the roads. But those won’t be getting much of my attention. I’ll be out running the rivers, enjoying the snow all over again, as it melts and makes its way to the sea.

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kayaking maine paddling

13 Reasons Mandatory Boater Education for Paddlers is a Knuckle-Headed Idea


Currently 48 states have mandatory boater education laws. Maine is not one of them. Legislation now being crafted that would require boaters of all kinds to take a 4 – 8 hour course. Unlike the laws in other states, the proposed law for Maine would require boater education of paddlers too. I don’t know enough about motorized boating to know if mandatory boater education for power-boating is a good idea. But I do know paddling. And I know that for paddlers this is a bad idea. Here’s why:

1. At a time when we are concerned with the economy and tourism, a only-state-in-the-nation mandatory Boater Education requirement for paddlers would give out-of-state vacationers one more reason to go elsewhere or stay at home – and thus hurt Maine tourism and the Maine economy..

2. At a time when government is beginning to use taxes and other measures to nudge citizens to healthier lifestyles, this requirement would discourage Maine people from participating in a healthy recreational activity.

3. Show me a boater course relevant for kayakers and canoeists, ocean and fair-weather pond-paddlers, white water rafters and river paddlers. Seems to me you would need multiple curricula to cover this diversity of interests. Now are we talking multiple certifications for someone who wants to paddle in different environments? A single course will either be huge overkill for most paddlers, or falsely enabling for those who want to go beyond the realm of what the average recreational boater does.

4. Please tell me how the outfitter providing the two-hour tour will be able to deal with the requirement that each participant have passed a 4-8 hour course. One suggested solution is that outfitters providing tours could be exempt from this requirement, once they prove they meet certain safety protocols. Again, I challenge anyone to develop a single set of protocols meaningful for ponds and ocean, touring kayaks, sit–on-tops, river kayaks, and canoes. Existing regulations require canoe and kayak trip leaders to be Registered Maine Guides. That is sufficient.

5. So you have come to Maine on vacation and want to poke along the shoreline of a quiet shallow pond for two hours on a hot July day, just as you have done for the past dozen years. You sign a form stating you will wear your life jacket and refrain from drinking alcoholic beverages while on the water. Is a 4-8 hour boating course truly necessary for you to have a safe boating experience?

6. The irony is that these policies are being pushed by the US Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary. Even more telling, they are being pushed by the motorized boating industry and lobbyists hired by them. These policies are not being pushed by people who paddle or who understand paddling.

7. As stated in Richards Louv’s The Last Child Left in the Woods – our society’s increasing trend toward risk- avoidance and liability-avoidance may be making our society safer, but at what cost to the national levels of physical fitness – and to the state of our souls?

8. In the U.S. population as a whole, a person is more than 10 times more likely to die in a car accident than to die in a recreational boating accident in a given year. You are also more likely to get hit by a train.

Among the 70 million or so who participate in recreational boating each year, apx. 650 – 700 or .0010% (that’s one thousandth of 1 percent) die in a recreational boating accident. Not exactly an epidemic, if you ask me.

9. Most recreational boating deaths (90%) involve a person not wearing a life jacket. Mandatory life jackets for paddlers would be simpler, less costly, and more effective.

10. Ok, imagine I’ve taken my boating course and received my certificate. Where exactly do I put my certificate when I am paddling in nothing but a bathing suit and life jacket (not all have pockets) on a hot summer day?

11. Even more to the point, so I have taken my boating course and I am paddling around with my waterlogged certificate in the pocket of my bathing suit on a hot summer day. Does the Maine warden service (currently under fire with budget cuts) or any other law enforcement agency really have time to be patrolling lakes and ponds in search of paddlers without certification? Do they have a right to pull me over and ask, if I have not first violated any other law? And, if they do pull me over and ask, and I am not able to produce my now very wet and very waterlogged certificate, what happens next? How can they even establish my identity in order to fine me – or am I now required to carry positive identification in the form of a drivers license in the wet pocket of my bathing suit too?

12. Power boaters are apparently concerned that paddlers are getting away with something by not being regulated. I would argue that motorized boats need to be regulated differently simply because, being larger, faster, and gasoline-powered, they are significantly more likely to pose a threat to others or to the environment.

13. If a boater education law is passed, we then have a situation where I can swim across Lake Megunticook or even paddle an inner tube or inflatable cartoon character across it, but if I want to paddle a fully outfitted touring kayak across it I need to pass a course. For that matter, I guess I could just swim alongside my kayak across the lake – no one is telling me I need a boater education course to do that.

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Downeast Maine Great Wass Jonesport kayaking Mistake Island Moose Peak Light

Make No Mistake: A Kayak Trip Around Head Harbor & Mistake Islands

Kayaking is a year-round sport, but my winter trips tend to be on the conservative side. Each trip after Labor Day, then, has potential to be the last “big trip” of the season. The sense that this could be the last big one only adds to my enjoyment and appreciation.

My plan was to head up to the Jonesport area, close up the camp, and do some paddling. And then I got a call from a friend who had put together a group of 4 who also wanted to paddle that weekend. Perfect! An expedition was born.

Following a hearty second breakfast at Tall Barney’s in Jonesport, we drove across the bridge to Beals Island and traced the narrow road to the Beals Town Park, which includes trails through the woods, a fine beach, and a million-dollar view. We loaded our kayaks with spare clothing, food, safety gear, and other essentials, launched from the gravelly beach, and set out paddling east past Sheep Island and then along the northern shore of Head Harbor Island.

The forecast was for gusty winds out of the northeast, but we soon found that the winds were more easterly than anticipated. This added up to a 15-knot headwind at the start of the trip. And it became a beam wind as we curved to the southeast as we got further along the shoreline of Head Harbor Island.

The high black cliffs of the largely wild 1100 acre Head Harbor Island created rebounding waves that can make for difficult paddling. Conditions intensified as we approached Black Head, on the southeastern tip of the island. Waves, wind, and challenge were three of the ingredients that had brought us there, however, so it just made things all the more to our liking. Still the 50 degree water temperatures and remoteness of our location also inspired some caution.

After playing among the ledges and rock formations that stretch between Black Head and Man Island, we turned north into the calm protected waters of Head Harbor. We then circled through Head Harbor and past tiny wooded Black Island. Having had a chance to relax, we turned southeast to the more exposed waters between Steele Harbor Island (450 acres) and Knight Island. The high granite cliffs of Steele Harbor Island are a spectacular sight. We paddled in hushed awe beneath them.

Next we sought the narrow channel between Mistake and Knight Islands. (Note for future trips: you don’t see the channel until you are nearly past it. Don’t turn right until you can nearly reach out and touch the lighthouse with your left hand). We rode steep-sided swells up the narrow channel, curved around the southern tip of Mistake, and then pulled our kayaks ashore for a late lunch in a protected spot. After donning cold weather gear to protect us from the biting wind, we hiked the 500-yard Coast Guard boardwalk to Moose Peak Light.

Like many of the islands in the Great Wass Archipelago, Mistake Island, with it’s acidic soil and cool wet climate, is home to rare “raised bog” plants such as lush blueberry, crowberry, leatherleaf, lambkill, and Labrador tea. Most of the island is owned by the Nature Conservancy with the southern 6 acres, including the lighthouse, owned by the Coast Guard.

The 57-foot brick lighthouse was built in 1851. Somehow the white tower has withstood 150 years of winter storms and still stands, a solitary feature, on this treeless island.

The day was shorter than our ambitions. Hastened by the sun that was slipping into the west, we paddled back past Knight and Steele Harbor Islands, and then cut across Eastern Bay past Little Hardwood and Spectacle Islands before returning to our launch site.

We sighted eagles and seals on several occassions. Flocks of eiders were rarely far away during this trip of about 15 nautical miles.

The trip was just another reminder of the incredible richness and diversity of natural beauty Maine has to offer. If you have a chance to get up to Eastern Maine and do some exploring, either by foot, sailboat, kayak, or chartered boat I highly recommend you consider making it part of your plans for summer 2009, if not before.

Resources:

Great Wass Island Preserve Guide

Jonesport, Maine
Coastal Cruises and Dive Downeast
Puffin Tours of Machias Seal Island
Water Walker Sea Kayak

Click the link below for an enlarged version of the trip slideshow:

Comments and questions can be sent to ray@touringkayaks.com

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kayak kayaking kayaks

Point 65 N Whisky 16 Kayak Review

16′ x 22″, 57 lbs. (fiberglass layup)

The Whisky looks and paddles fresh. Unlike so many new kayak models coming out these days, it is the result of some creative design work and is far from being a retread of other models already in production.

The most “gimmicky” thing about this kayak is the 6 x 6 inch round “whisky hatch” just in front of the cockpit. I put flares, binoculars, sunglasses, and sunscreen in mine — and still had plenty of room for a handful of energy bars. The hatch doesn’t interfere with my knees and is easier to access than a knee tube or underdeck bag — not a bad gimmick!

After paddling the boat for 2 days while guiding a trip in the Great Wass Archipelago in Downeast Maine, in everything from a dead calm to rock gardens to 4.5 foot swells to confused seas off “Red Head,” I’d say this boat is a winner. It is now unequivocally my boat of choice for all kinds of guiding, as well as for surf play, and rough water work.

The layup (mine is the standard fiberglass) is of excellent quality if on the slightly heavy side, the hatches (3 plus the whisky hatch) are tight, the deck lines are adequate. The seat works well and provides good thigh support. Excellent thigh bracing is provided by the keyhole cockpit and the contour of the deck in front of the cockpit. Even without added foam, the fit is comfortable and secure.

The hull is moderately rockered with hard chines and the shallowest of shallow arches underneath. The bow and stern are slightly upswept and the boat carries a fair amount of volume in both bow and stern. The somewhat unconventional appearance (snub nose, hard chine, flattened hull under the cockpit) really works well in the water. Even without putting the boat on edge, a couple quick sweep strokes turns the boat 180 degrees. Dropping the skeg just an inch or so keeps it on course in most conditions. It’s a solid boat in rough conditions, and is a blast to paddle in rock gardens or along a rugged, irregular shoreline.

Initial stability is a little loose but the secondary stability kicks in very quickly. Easily leaned and probably the most solid boat I have paddled when on edge. Overall provides a very secure ride in varying conditions.

The Whisky will probably fit a range of paddler sizes from small to medium large.

It compares very favorably with the VCP Avocet, which is a similar boat in terms of dimensions and design intentions. The Avocet may be a shade faster but does not turn as readily. The Whisky has added features, can accommodate larger paddlers, and has more storage space for gear.

The Whisky doesn’t have the glide or top end speed of a svelte 18-footer, and that’s really the only way it falls short of being “the perfect kayak.” Unless you are racing, doing point-to-pint touring over long distances, primarily paddling flat water, or trying to keep up with ultra-fit paddlers in svelte 18-footers, you’ll be having so much fun in the Whisky you’ll forget all about the fact that with a longer boat you might be going half a knot faster.

–As of 8/16/08, the Whisky is available for test paddle and purchase at our shop in Belfast, Maine.

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Great Wass kayaking Maine islands sea kayaking

Into a Land of Superlatives: Kayaking Great Wass Archipelago (Maine)

Four miles to the southeast of my place in Addison is Jonesport. Across the high arched bridge over the Moosabec Reach from Jonesport is Beals. And to the south of Beals, extending far out into the Atlantic, is the Great Wass Archipelago.

At the center of the archipelago is Great Wass Island, a wild island of high granite cliffs and subarctic vegetation which has more than 1500 acres land protected by the Nature Conservancy.

Several miles of trails allow hikers to explore the interior of the island as well as several miles of shoreline along the eastern coast. Kayaking is the best way to explore the entire shoreline — as well as the other 50 or so islands that make up the archipelago.

Quite simply, for the sea kayaking adventurer, no other place in Maine compares to the Great Wass Archipelago.

Kayaking Great Wass is not for novices though, nor for the faint-hearted. Tides are bigger here. Exposure to open ocean means the seas are bigger too. The fog is thicker — and the distances (between islands, and back to civilization) are greater.

I led a guided tour of the eastern side of Great Wass Island earlier this summer. The day started clear, but as we headed south, fog began to move in off the ocean. We traced the islands and ledges east of Great Wass, sighting seals, osprey, eagles, and eiders. As we reached Mink Island, the fog thickened, and we altered our plan, which had been to continue to the southeast toward the lighthouse on Mistake Island. Instead, we headed southwest toward Little Cape Point on Great Wass. After lunch on a beach between Little Cape Point and Mud Hole Point, we paddled into Mud Hole (a pleasant place really) before retracing our route along Great Wass and Beals.

Two more days of paddling are scheduled for August 14-15 — and we still have openings. Please see www.touringkayaks.com for more information.

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kayaking paddling

Paddling Moosehead, Maine’s Other Coast

It had been 34 years since I had visited the Maine’s Moosehead Lake region, and if it is a bit more developed, it is no less magnificent — and still provides plenty of opportunity for the experience of wilderness. We were in Moosehead for four days around the 4th of July, which was barely enough time to scratch the surface of what the area has to offer in terms of paddling, hiking, fishing, and more.

I spent time before, during, and after the trip studying maps and refreshing my knowledge of the facts. Moosehead is not just the largest lake in Maine. Among states east of the Mississippi, it is the largest lake enclosed within any single state. Period.

Moosehead has a north-south length of 35 miles, an area of 120 square miles, and shoreline length of 400 miles. The long and short of it is that it offers enough adventure to fill a lifetime for most paddlers, fisherman, and outdoorsmen.

Driving through Greenville or on the surrounding roads, paddlers and fisherman will have the sense that they are members of a brotherhood or sisterhood. Every second car, it seems, has either a kayak or canoe on the roof (and the hull is still wet.)

We arrived on the evening of July 2 and were able to get one of the few nonreservable campsites at Lily Bay State Park. There were a few other sites available, but we felt very lucky, at that late date, to get a site right on the water.

From our campsite, we could launch our kayaks and paddle west across Lowell Cove and around the following point for spectacular views of Big Moose (formerly Squaw) Mountain. Or we could paddle east into Matthews Cove with its many islands and inlets, and grand views of Mt. Kineo. We had thought about paddling out to Sugar Island, which sits just a mile offshore from the Lily Bay Campground and offers several campsites, but decided to save that for another trip.

The lake elevation of 1,023 feet above sea level means cool nights, even in summer. My summer-weight sleeping bag proved a bit on the lean side on at least one of the nights. And the combination of cold and modest elevation made my small white gas stove difficult to operate.

The easy thing to forget, until you go there, is that Moosehead is just one lake in a region of 1,200 lakes and ponds. The region can brag about having 24% of Maine’s total area in lakes and ponds, most of them underappreciated, since Moosehead is the big draw for the average tourist.

We spent our last day in the region paddling Prong Pond and taking a brief side trip to Lower Wilson Pond. Both ponds were equally beautiful as Moosehead, and seemed equally rich in fish and wildlife.

We saw deer each of the 4 days in the region, and saw Moose on a pond off Route 15, just as we were leaving the area on Saturday evening.

I enjoyed thinking about the Moosehead area as what was for Native Americans, the beginning of their highway to the coast, as the region contains the headwaters of the Penobscot, Kennebec Rivers, Piscataquis, Pleasant, and St. John Rivers. While you are there, it is still possible to feel that you are at the center of everything. And to wonder what could possibly bring you to ever leave.

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kayak kayaking maine paddling Penobscot Bay

Circumnavigating the Cape: A Kayak Trip Around Cape Jellison

One of the great things about Midcoast Maine is that you can find adventure without going far from home.


A friend and I planned to paddle around Sears Island, but the causeway was closed off due to a chemical spill. Plan B? We had no plan B, but the plan that evolved was to launch from the Stockton Springs boat ramp off the Dock Road on Cape Jellison and paddle out to Squaw Point. The sun was warm, the sky was blue, and the breeze was light. We decided to push on along the Cape to Fort Point.

Squaw Point, at the southwest tip of Cape Jellison, offers one of my favorite views of Penobscot Bay. From there, you look past Sears Island to the Camden Hills. You look across the bay to Turtle Head and Islesboro. You look up the bay toward Castine and Fort Point.

The coastline here is rugged, the weathered cliffs broken in only a few places by rocky beaches. I’ve paddled there when the wind was from the south — and the rebounding waves off the cliffs can create confused seas and challenging paddling conditions. On this day, though, a friendly tailwind and light chop out of the southwest pushed us northeast up the coast toward Fort Point.

At Fort Point, after turning to enjoy the fine view out the bay, we passed the high cliffs and the lighthouse and went ashore at the state park — on a sandy spit just north of the lighthouse.

While we ate lunch and relaxed in the sun, the wind picked up considerably. Soon the bay was full of whitecaps — usually an indication of a wind speed of at least 15 knots.

Rather than retrace our route and face that stiff wind over the 3 mile stretch back to Squaw Point, we decided to paddle northwest past the Fort Point docks and through Fort Point Cove to the narrow part of Cape Jellison where we could then walk the mile or so back to our vehicle. The shoreline here provided protection from the wind — and conditions were calm. We easily completed the paddle and walking legs and got back to Belfast just as it was getting dark.

The total distance of the trip was about 7 miles. Unless you are an experienced paddler in a seaworthy boat, avoid paddling the trip when the wind is out of the south. There is no public access and few good places to go ashore in the 3 miles between Squaw Point and Fort Point.

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kayak kayaking maine paddling

Paddling to Islesboro

May 15, 2008

On days like that, Islesboro seems close, almost within reach, as if on the opposite shore of a tranquil river, as if you could step into a rowboat, take a few lazy strokes, and glide ashore on the other side.

Despite a light breeze, the bay was as tranquil and glassy as a mill pond. The hilly profile of the island was colored with the fresh green of spring.

I’d made the two-mile crossing from Saturday Cove to Islesboro many times before, but only a few times on water as unrippled as that. The one mile crossing to Seal Island took just 10 minutes — the silkiness of the water punctuated only by the occasional surfacings of seals and the landings of loons and eiders. After tracing the rocky western shoreline of Seal Island, I continued north and crossed to little Ram Island. There I went ashore and walked the island’s piney paths before heading back south to aptly named Flat Island — a sandy, low island that was noisy with seals and gulls. Then I turned east into Crow Cove and The Narrows — a part of Islesboro that is less than 100 feet wide at the highest of tides.

I hope to return soon — to portage across to the other side of Islesboro and then paddle further eastward to explore the island-filled bay beyond.

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kayak kayaking maine paddling whitewater

License to Paddle

A lengthy recent discussion at Paddling.net focused on whether the idea of requiring training and licensing of paddlers is a good idea. The argument in favor of licensing holds that the number of costly rescue operations is increasing — and that requiring paddlers to be trained and licensed would reduce the number of required rescues as well as providing a source of funds to pay for the rescues that do take place.

Those who operate powerboats over a certain length are required to have licenses, so requiring paddlers to be licensed could be seen as an expansion / extension of that law.

While I encourage kayakers to get training commensurate to the kind of paddling they will be doing, I believe that this kind of increased regulation of kayaking would would be wrongheaded, ineffective, and unenforceable.

For some, kayaking means lengthy unsupported solo night crossings between distant points of land. For others, kayaking means floating in a shallow pond on a sunny summer day, while never venturing more than 100 yards from camp. What single standardized mandatory basic safety course could possibly be helpful to each?

My point is that paddling is an incredibly varied activity — and that no standard basic training course could effectively prepare the wide range of paddlers for the types of paddling they will be doing. At its simplest, paddling is an elemental activity that is little more sporting or dangerous than taking a walk around the block. To subject those who take a daily walk around the block to a new set of safety developed to protect mountaineers would be ridiculous. To certify prospective mountaineers with a basic safety course oriented to walkers would be equally ridiculous and falsely enabling.

The fact is that paddlers die each year because they fail to wear their life jackets, venture out on cold water without proper clothing, don’t pay attention to weather conditions, or paddle in conditions above their abilities. It would be great if we could reduce the number of these deaths, but I’m not convinced that regulation is the way to get it done.