Tag Archives: Canoeing/Kayaking

The Nature Conservancy and Plum Creek come to an agreement in Maine

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The Nature Conservancy, the Forest Society of Maine and Appalachian Mountain Club have signed a Purchase and Sale Agreement with Plum Creek Timber Company to permanently preserve more than 340,000 acres in Maine’s North Woods, near Moosehead Lake. When Plum Creek Timber Company presented it’s land development proposal for Maine, it was met with resistance, including acts of “eco-terrorism“. The Plum Creek plan website puts it this way, “The plan for our lands attracted significant – and sometimes overwhelming – attention from those who value the Moosehead region and its remote character, natural resources and economic opportunities.” In March, 2006, the Nature Conservancy, the Forest Society of Maine and the Appalachian Mountain Club proposed a Conservation Framework which would have preserved 400,000 acres. The size difference between the March Conservation Framework proposal and the October Purchase and Sale Agreement seems to be exactly the difference between “attractively priced” conservation easements and the unattractively priced conservation easements. The website for the Plum Creek Timber Company land development proposal gives a summary of the changes from the original Plum Creek plan.

Androscoggin River Watershed Council’s Source to Sea Trek-a-Thon

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I just read about the Androscoggin River Watershed Council‘s Source to Sea Trek-a-Thon in my latest AMC Conservation Update. I had never heard of this event; according to the website, it has been held for 10 years in a row. This is the first year that it is a “pledge event.” Participants are asked to raise money in support of 1) the event itself, and 2) the educational outreach programs.

The Source to Sea Trek-a-Thon is 4 days of paddling on the Androscoggin River, over 4 weekends. The ARWC has a Source to Sea Trek-a-Thon 2006 schedule on their website. It looks like you raise money to support paddling a section of the river on a particular day. I suppose you could do all 4 sections, or paddle the whole thing, too.

Sounds fun. I’m going to have to mark my calendar for next years event.

Saco River Pedal/Paddle Tour

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I like combining bicycling with kayaking or canoeing. I call these Pedal/Paddle Tours. Usually a Pedal/Paddle Tour involves two legs: a kayaking or canoeing leg down a river, followed by a bicycle leg back to where we launched the boat. We accomplish this by stashing our bicycles at a location where it’s easy to take the boat out of a river. We drive to a place to launch the boat and paddle downriver to the place where we stashed the bikes. Then we ride our bicycles back to where the car is parked and go get the boat.

The lower Saco River, in Saco, Maine is perfect for a Pedal/Paddle Tour. The lower Saco River is tidal from the dam at Saco Island, between Saco and Biddeford, down to Camp Ellis. The roads near the ocean in Saco, Camp Ellis, Ocean Park and Old Orchard can make a nice coastal bike route.

For this trip, we stashed the bikes at a parking area along Ferry Road in Saco, near Camp Ellis. There is a sandbar there where we could take the Kayak out and carry it up to the road. Another option would be to put your bikes at the Camp Ellis parking lot, at the pier.

After stashing the bikes, we drove back into Saco and launched the Kayak from the public boat launch on Front Street, next to the Yacht Club. Then we paddled downriver to the sandbar.

It took us about 45-50 minutes to paddle; experienced paddlers could do it in 30 minutes. The river was high; high tide had crested at 6:48 AM. The ride back was quick and easy. Much of the bike route back has a paved recreational path.

We saw some wildlife on the trip. When we were stashing the bikes, a whitetail deer was browsing in the high grass near the sandbar. Three times, while kayaking, cormorants flew so close we could hear their wings flapping. When we were loading our Kayak, an immature bald eagle circled over us several times.

Click the image below for a larger map.

Kayaking the Scarborough River, Scarborough Marsh

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I went kayaking down the Scarborough River with my family in our tandem kayak. We parked at the Maine Audubon Center and used their ramp to launch the kayak.

Most of the water in the marsh was slow moving, if at all, on the branch that winds past the boat launch. Birds are remarkably tolerant of kayaks. We were able to get close to Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets with their yellow feet, and Willets. We drifted within 20 feet of one Willet, and it seemed completely disinterested in us. A few times we saw some aggressive little fish break the surface, but no signs of Stripers. The tide was close to low tide and the water was moving quicker once we got near the culvert under Black Point Road.

We paddled to the bridge over the gas pipeline and turned around. Because the river was getting faster, and it was getting harder to paddle against the current, we pulled out at the little dirt strip near the culvert. I walked back to the Audubon Nature Center to get the car. It’s a short walk down the road, maybe a half-mile.

What a nice way to spend the morning.

Read more about Scarborough Marsh.