Category: paddling

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More tours, so you can paddle more with us

A photo from our recent paddling adventures in Sitka, Alaska.

Our tour offerings are greatly expanded this summer — in hopes you’ll tour more with us. In addition, our website has been re-organized so that it is now either to search for kayak tours by date or by geographical area.

You can now search for our sea kayak tours in the areas of Rockland (including Muscle Ridge), Belfast, Stonington, Schoodic (including Acadia National Park / Mount Desert Island), and Jonesport.

If the dates of our scheduled tours don’t work for you, please contact us as we still have many open dates and are eager to provide custom tours.

Hope to see you on the water soon!

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cold water kayaking Downeast Maine paddling sea kayaking

Winter Cliffs of Machiasport

Life circumstances and weather conditions came together to allow a February afternoon paddle out of Bucks Harbor in Machiasport (downeast Maine) and toward Jasper Beach.

We had paddled this cliff-lined section of Maine coast a number of times before — and for a number of reasons, it has become a favorite. This short section of the coast offers a picturesque working harbor, views of photogenic Yellow Head, craggy high cliffs, rock gardening opportunities, and the unique volcanic rhyolite stones of Jasper Beach.

Cliffs on the western shore of Bucks Harbor.
Cliffs on the eastern edge of Jasper Beach.
Jasper Beach.
Jasper Beach.

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kayak racing kayaking paddling whitewater

Why Wildwater?

From my biased perspective, it’s hard to understand why wildwater kayaking is not more popular.

Wildwater kayaking gets you outside, provides adventure, and takes you to beautiful natural places.

Wildwater provides similar cardiovascular benefits as sports such as running, bicycling, and surf ski racing.

Photo from WWKC.net

At the same time, wildwater provides the same rush of that can be found in sports such as downhill skiing, snowboarding, and whitewater playboating.

In addition, like golf or tennis, wildwater is a thinking person’s sport that rewards experience, knowledge, and technique.

One trend in paddlesports is the “first descent” — elite paddlers racking up air miles in order to take on never-before-paddled stretches of whitewater in Africa, Asia, or South America — and expending increasingly huge amounts of resources as they do so.

Many local paddlers follow the same pattern but on a smaller scale.  As they master local rivers, they are forced to drive farther from home to again experience the level of challenge and exhilaration they used to get from rivers closer to home.

Wildwater paddling is an antidote to this problem.  Imagine spending months or years paddling the same local river but in progressively narrower and tippier boats.  Imagine that each time you race that same river, you are looking to run better lines and to cut seconds off your previous best time.

If a quest for improvement that draws on cardiovascular fitness, strength, technique, ability to read the water, and knowledge of particular rivers is appealing, wildwater racing could be for you.

A couple of resources for learning more about wildwater racing include:

Wildwater.org
Danger Zone

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kayaking maine Maine islands paddling sea kayaking

Best of 2015 — A Year on the Water

Despite a winter that brought 100 inches of snow, the 2015 spring whitewater season in midcoast Maine was all too brief.  Our annual transition to the bays and islands thus came a little sooner than usual.  Based on demand, our summer featured day tours out of Belfast, Rockport, and Camden harbors as well as Stonington.  in 2015, for the first time, we offered stand up paddle board rentals and instruction.  Our own paddling included racing in the Whitewater Nationals in Old Town/Bangor and sea kayaking forays further Downeast to Cutler, Lubec, and Campobello.  Early dawn paddles seeking out whales in the fog has become one of our passions.  We plan to offer tours out of Lubec and Campobello in summer 2016.  Thanks to all those who joined our tours in 2015.  We hope to see you all again next summer!

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Belfast paddling SUP

Stand Up Paddle Boarding Lends New Perspective

Kayaking remains our primary focus, but we do admit to having a lot of fun messing around on stand up paddle boards.

We picked up a few Cruiser SUPs to use as rentals last fall and have enjoyed paddling local ponds, flatwater rivers, as well as Belfast harbor.

One thing to like best about SUPs is the standing up part. It’s somewhat of a rush to be standing up on top of the water, not unlike the first time I got up on water skis and felt, for a brief few minutes, like I was king of the lake.

You can see more from your 5 – 6 foot vantage point, especially when paddling through a marshland where — if in a kayak — the grasses would obscure your view. Being up higher improves the angle so you can see farther down into the water. Last fall, we spent a magical afternoon on Belfast bay, seeing the sea life on the bottom more clearly than we had ever seen it from a kayak.

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Standing up on Belfast Bay.

SUPs being the simple “boards” that they are, they lend themselves to mixing activities and crossing boundaries. Tired of standing up? Sit down or kneel for a few minutes. Want a break from paddling? Lie down and soak in some rays? Getting hot? Go for a swim right off your board. Have a family member, friend, or dog on shore? Have them sit in front of you and take them out for a spin.

Did I mention that one of the best things about SUPs is standing up? Most Americans sit more than we should. Stand up paddle boarding goes even further than kayaking in terms of strengthening core muscles and helps improve your balance.

This may not be true for everyone, but for me, kayaks are destination machines. I get in a kayak and I think about going somewhere. Being on a paddle board is about the experience of being out on the water, not necessarily going anywhere, just playing around, being a kid again.

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Best of 2014 — A Year on the Water

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Best of Summer 2013 — Our Annual Slideshow

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Around Kineo — A Kayak Trip on Moosehead Lake

Over the next  few months, we plan to feature some of the places in Maine that we explored last summer in hopes this will  inspire our readers to “get out there” in 2013.

We’ll start with Mt. Kineo, located on a peninsula extending from the eastern shore of Moosehead Lake.  Mt. Kineo, as well as the 1,000 acre “island: it is situated on, is a Maine landmark long famous to calendars and postcards.  Native Americans used it as a gathering place. Thoreau journeyed there and wrote about it.  Hundreds of thousands of tourists have visited it, dating back to the 1800’s.

During the summer months,  you can take a boat trip out from Rockwood for $10.00, and then hike around the island and climb to the summit.

If you have a kayak — and get the right day, you can do as we did, and paddle out to the island yourself.  We launched from the public boat landing in Rockwood, made the one mile crossing to the island, and then, after debating whether to hike or paddle — not enough daylight left for both —  we paddled around it.  Our chosen route took us in a counter-clockwise direction.  It included a short portage over the causeway on the eastern side of island and breathtaking views of the 700 foot rhyolite cliffs that rise directly from the lake.  The distance around the island is about 7 miles.

A caution — the crossing can be choppy, and this part of the lake is especially susceptible to sudden changes in weather and wind.  Please do not attempt to paddle there unless you are experienced in making crossings, have settled weather, and have a plan for what to do if the weather undergoes unpredicted changes. Winds tend to intensify toward mid-afternoon, so morning is often the safest time for your crossings.

Resources:
Mt. Kineo State Park

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Kayaking Maine — Best of Summer 2012

The hottest summer on record has meant an increase in the number of  guests from states like Texas, Oklahoma, and Virginia.

It also has meant a lot of great weather for  kayaking.  While summer is not officially over yet, the approach of Labor Day and the start of the school year means it’s time for our annual slideshow — a celebration of some of the summer’s best moments — so far.

There’s still time to get out and enjoy the lakes, rivers, bays, and islands.  We hope you soon have the chance to do just that.

(To view the slideshow is larger format, click the slideshow and then click the text link “Full Screen” in the upper left hand corner of your screen.)

 

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kayaking Maine islands Maine rivers paddling sea kayaking

Moving to the Sea

This time of year I trade  my downriver kayak for a sea kayak.  Rather than a wing paddle, a flat-bladed Euro paddle occupies a place in the backseat of my car.  Instead of monitoring stream flow data, I keep an eye on the tide charts.  The bays and islands, not the rivers, become the target of my afternoon and weekend plans.

River paddling is linear.  We drive upriver and then make the trip down, sometimes repeating the trip on the same day.  The days are still short.  Daylight is at a premium.  We look at our watches and paddle harder to make sure we can get to the take-out by sundown.  The river itself is a line, albeit a living and moving one.  In sections where rocks interrupt the river’s smooth surface, we seek to run the ideal lines, following the current, avoiding the rocks and holes.  As spring advances, we move from the first rivers to ice out to the ones that hold their level longer, due to upstream dams or large watersheds.  This migration, too, is a line, a sequenced progression repeated from one year to the next.

Ocean paddling is more about arcs and circles.  The days are longer and warmer and we shed the sense of urgency that kept us in continuous movement.  We linger in quiet coves or pause for a moment to bob in the  waves.  The number of put-ins and take-outs is almost infinite — as are the routes between them.  Getting from point A to point B is about possibilities.  The tide rises and falls.  The winds swing from north to south and back again.  We skirt shorelines and trace the gentle arcs of pocket beaches.  We circumnavigate islands for the sake of doing so.  Destination becomes less important.  There is no end to get to.  Just a vast sea to experience and appreciate.

It’s a very human thing to resist change and to mourn it.  The time to ride the rivers on the flood of snowmelt and spring runoff is always abbreviated.  The brief season of running rivers is one of thrill and urgency and a little bit of danger.  And then the rains slow and the rivers subside, and we make the transition back to the sea.  We go reluctantly at first, but then, after arriving, we are glad to feel waves rise underneath us, glad for the early light and the islands, glad for the seal pups and eider chicks, glad for the island blueberries and wild roses, whose own time is even now growing closer.