{"id":64098,"date":"2022-10-01T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-01T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themainemag.com\/?p=64098"},"modified":"2022-10-03T11:28:22","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T15:28:22","slug":"go-with-the-flow-on-the-penobscot-river-paddling-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themainemag.com\/go-with-the-flow-on-the-penobscot-river-paddling-trail\/","title":{"rendered":"Go With the Flow on the Penobscot River Paddling Trail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Go With the Flow on the Penobscot River Paddling Trail<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Join a group of paddlers as they glide through Maine\u2019s impressive waterways in late fall and early spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Sandy Lang
Photography by Peter Frank Edwards<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Issue: October 2022
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The river is wide here, not far from Medway where the East Branch and the West Branch converge. This is the main stem of the mighty Penobscot, a system with a watershed that drains and flows across nearly one third of the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last of the autumn leaves have broken loose and blown to the ground in windy storms the past couple of weeks, making the scene even more open and dramatic: just water, bare tree trunks and branches, sky, and the rocks in the riverbed. The day\u2019s temperatures are expected to top out in the upper 40s, but the sky is clear and sunny, so it will feel warmer once we get on the sparkling water. At least that\u2019s what I\u2019m hoping, as I place a zippered bag with an extra jacket and a water bottle into the canoe. Clayton Cole, who helped organize the trip for several of us paddlers, suggests I clip the bag to one of the canoe\u2019s crossbars, \u201cjust in case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cole, who both competes in and coordinates canoe races, lives in Corinth and is one of the board members and volunteers who\u2019s helping to establish and maintain the Penobscot River Paddling Trail<\/a> (PRPT). Begun by local paddlers over the past several years, the organization\u2019s goal is to help others to get on the river and find their way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Unloading for a fall paddling trip to riverside campsites along the trail.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Fall paddling on the Penobscot River; in the boats, Tom and Patti Rutka, and Linda Basilicato and the writer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Everywhere, Penobscot. That\u2019s how it can feel in parts of Maine, from near Mount Katahdin to the midcoast. It\u2019s the name of a bay, county, town, river, and of the Penobscot Nation itself\u2014originating from Wabanaki words for \u201cwaters of the descending ledge\u201d and \u201cthe people of where the white rocks extend out.\u201d Joining these other canoers on the banks of the Penobscot River on this bright fall morning, I\u2019m struck by the waterway\u2019s impressive size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PRPT provides maps online and signage to mark a growing number of riverside campsites along an over-100-mile span downriver of the town of Medway so canoeists and kayakers can easily map out day trips or multiday ventures. While several of the PRPT volunteers participate in canoe races and events like the annual Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race, the group paddling today is not racing but is here simply to experience a stretch of the Penobscot together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My spot will be in the bow of a canoe with another of the PRPT board members, Linda Basilicato, an educator who\u2019s also an experienced canoe racer in slalom events. That\u2019s how she and Cole met, she says. She eventually moved from Washington, D.C., to Maine, where the two live along the Kenduskeag Stream tributary. Patti and Tom Rutka of Saco are another couple on the trip who paddle regularly. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing like the feel of a canoe beneath you,\u201d Tom says as we\u2019re preparing the boats and gear. He mentions that he stays connected to what\u2019s happening on this river and others in Maine through the Penobscot Paddle and Chowder Society, a decades-old organization that facilitates the gathering of paddlers and promotes river safety and conservation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chip Loring, Mackenzie Todd, and Clayton Cole canoeing on the Penobscot River Paddling Trail, which is being established on the main stem of the Penobscot River.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I dip my fingers into the water at the landing where we\u2019ll begin, just down-stream of the Mattaseunk Dam near the town of Mattawamkeag, about an hour\u2019s drive north of Bangor. The river\u2019s not icy-cold, but it\u2019s definitely chilly. One by one, our little group begins sliding into our canoes. The water rushes and tumbles, and there\u2019s a gush of air filled with the maple-sweet smell of fallen leaves. Paddle in hand as we push out from the bank, I can feel the energy of the current below the boat, and I think of Cole\u2019s text from a few days before. \u201cThe river is running at 13,000 CFS (cubic feet per second) at Enfield, which may sound super high, but the gradient is moderate\u2014a pleasant 4 to 5 mph pace without paddling hard, and just enough easy whitewater to make it exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The downstream glide begins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where Logs Rolled<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The largest river in Maine, the Penobscot River extends through central Maine from the North Woods to Penobscot Bay, and its watershed includes lakes, tributaries, and branches to the north, south, west, and east. Little developed or forested along much of the route, the Penobscot flows into urban settings at Bangor and Brewer and the town of Bucksport, then under the towering Penobscot Narrows Bridge at Verona Island. Having become tidal by that point, the river eventually flows into Penobscot Bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we paddle, Cole explains some of the river\u2019s logging history and points out remnants when he sees them. There are iron rods and rings still in some of the rocks, which were used to corral logs that were floated downstream from the 1800s until the 1970s. I think of the classic book Maine Beautiful<\/em>, compiled in the 1920s by author and photographer Wallace Nutting, who recalled once canoeing on the Penobscot when he heard a rumbling then suddenly \u201cwas carried through a mass of pulp wood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hydroelectric dams and paper mills of the twentieth century changed the river, harnessing its power and releasing effluent. But the river has been recovering its natural heritage in recent decades. Regional nonprofit organizations and other partners worked together on the Penobscot River Restoration Project from 1999 to 2016, and some dams have been removed or modified with fish bypasses or elevators to allow native sea-run fish, including alewives and Atlantic salmon, to return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sharing lunch on a sunny bank in the fall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The trip went from just below the Mattaseunk Dam (about 60 miles north Bangor) to the town of Lincoln.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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The PRPT\u2019s vision is to give paddlers access to a camping spot at least every ten miles along the trail, Cole explains. \u201cWe need a few more,\u201d he says; they\u2019ve coordinated with private landowners and existing facilities to create access to nine sites so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cole was right: the paddling is pleasant in these fall grays and golds. No other boats are about. We focus on paddling technique and on observing the natural elements and riverside scenery\u2014a cabin here and there, the sound of a train whistle, glimpses of deer on the wooded shore and the occasional passing car when Route 2 is near. Somewhere near Winn, we tuck in our boats along a sunny bank and step onto land to stretch and rest and enjoy a shared lunch: kale salad, a charcuterie board and crackers, and macaroons from Little Lad\u2019s Store and Cafe<\/a> in Corinth. Everything is particularly tasty, I think, in this good company and glinting light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The food fuels us for the rest of the easygoing 12- or 13-mile paddle, then we pull the boats out and take them up the bank at a land-ing in North Lincoln just before dusk. While some of the group drives out to retrieve the trucks we used to shuttle the canoes to the start at Mattawamkeag, I stay behind to help pack up the gear. The temperature drops to the upper 30s, and I watch the river, thinking of the night coming on with a shiver. I\u2019m cold but in an exhilarating way\u2014some of us are already talking about returning to the Penobscot together on another day. Maybe in spring?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second Paddle, Springtime<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In early May, Cole and some other local paddlers are talking about a possible weekday trip. The conditions look good, Cole reports: \u201cThe current is running a robust 18,000 CFS, which should make for a fast, effortless 20-mile trip to Old Town.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like the sound of that, and when the day arrives with a forecast of high temperatures into the 70s, photographer Peter Frank Edwards and I drive up to join them, passing the headquarters of Old Town Canoe Company<\/a>, the canoe and kayak maker, along the way. The iconic boats manufactured here were first made in 1898 of wood and canvas designs inspired by the watercraft of the Penobscot Nation. A longtime popular Old Town canoe model is named Penobscot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A traditional Penobscot birch bark
shelter on one of the many river islands.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Paddlers leave notes and sketches about river experiences in the guest
book at one of the riverside campsites, dubbed \u201cRiver Billie\u2019s Retreat.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Springtime foraging for fiddleheads.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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This is so cool. We\u2019re here to paddle the Penobscot to the town of Old Town, an epicenter of canoeing, and the landing is within minutes. I can hardly wait. It\u2019s like what Nutting wrote after his Maine river adventures: \u201cWhen we see a canoe, we live again our childhood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We meet up with Cole and Basilicato again; also along this time is kayaker Dan Baumert from Levant and Mackenzie Todd, who\u2019s a graduate student at the University of Maine in Orono. Todd says her parents began taking her out on canoe trips when she was a toddler in upstate New York, and she\u2019s been paddling ever since. On this trip she\u2019ll be in an Old Town canoe with Chip Loring, an elder from the Penobscot Nation who grew up on the Penobscot\u2019s Indian Island, across the water from where we are gathered in Old Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all pile into cars to shuttle to our starting point, upriver where the Passadumkeag River meets the Penobscot. From a roadside parking area and landing just off Route 2, we push boats into the water and soon begin the rhythm of paddling. New leaves aren\u2019t yet emerging from trees, but we find the green we\u2019re all watching for in the unfurling ferns on the river banks: it\u2019s fiddlehead season. And it\u2019s a beautiful day, warming up to T-shirt weather. We hit a little more whitewater this time, and I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s effortless; plenty of paddling is needed to weave down the river and around boulders and large and small islands\u2014some spanning many acres and topped with trees, obscuring the river\u2019s shoreline on the other side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When we see one of the PRPT signs marking a campsite on private land, we all pull ashore. We follow footpaths to a picnic table and unpack peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and salads, everyone talking all the while. At 75, Loring has stories and memories to share. We ask questions. He\u2019s been traversing the river all his life, in all seasons. He hunted and fished on the river as a child, on river camping trips with his father. He\u2019s stomped through snow to retrieve a canoe stashed at the edge for winter paddling. He holds out his arms in a circle to show the size of a turtle he once saw on the Penobscot River. \u201cIt was green, as big as a sea turtle.\u201d And he also remembers the pollution on lower parts: \u201cBack when I was a kid, everything would go into the river.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Penobscot River means a great deal to Loring. \u201cAs the Japanese with karate, and the energy rising from the earth\u2014I think the energy comes from the water,\u201d he explains. Loring recalls nights when he\u2019s ventured out canoeing on the Penobscot, whether there\u2019s moonlight or not, and stopped on an island to sit awhile and meditate. I try to imagine that as we continue paddling through the afternoon all the way to Old Town. At one point Basilicato and I have just navigated a nice little run of rapids when we see a bald eagle in a tall tree. The majestic raptor turns its head, observing us. What a special river this is, I think in the quiet of that moment. What a perfect place to be in a canoe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Paddle On<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ready to get on the water? Begun in 2016, the Penobscot River Paddling Trail is a volunteer organization that\u2019s creating a water trail on the main stem of the Penobscot River. The group\u2019s website offers general river information, maps, and guides about boat landings and nine camp-sites (so far) for kayakers and canoeists. They also share details about how to join in building and maintaining the trail at penobscotriverpaddlingtrail.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Penobscot Paddle and Chowder Society, founded in Bangor in 1969, holds annual gatherings and trips and also publishes an online calendar and river information at paddleandchowder.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the Penobscot River, other established water trails include those of the Maine Island Trail Association (MITA) along the coast and nearby islands (mita.org<\/a>) and the Northern Forest Canoe Trail network (northernforestcanoetrail.org<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\t\t

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