Expedition full of surprises for College of the Atlantic senior | Bangor Daily News

Expedition full of surprises for College of the Atlanticsenior | Bangor Daily News

Five things to do this July 23 weekend | Bangor Daily News

Five things to do this July 23 weekend | Bangor Daily News

Canoe trail turns 10 | Lewiston Sun Journal

UPTON — Aldro French peels off his shirt and saunters toward the edge of the aptly named Rapid River.
Kicking off his giant-sized, baby blue Crocs, he stands shin-deep in the water.

"I haven't done this all summer," says French with a slight grin, just before shallow-diving into the current.

French takes a few long, Australian-crawl swim strokes, pulling his head up once to look at the churning rapid below. He gives one strong scissors-kick, sliding head-first into the full force of the river's current, arms forward, belly down like an otter.

French is barely visible as he shoots through the boiling turbulence and into a pool of slower-moving water below. He comes up slicking his silver hair back with his hand and smiling as he breast-strokes slowly to the side of the pool and the rock ledge leading to it.

A pair of helmeted and life-jacketed kayakers, who were playing in the whitewater, sit in their boats, nose clips on, watching. They shrug at each other as if to say, "What was that?"

French, 68, has lived on the Rapid River for 52 years. The waterway is literally in his backyard, and each bend and rapid are as familiar to him as an old friend's face. He is the curator and caretaker of Forest Lodge. The lodge was the home of author Louise Dickinson Rich and the inspiration for her novel “We Took to the Woods.”

On the National Register of Historic Places, it is one of dozens of sites along the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

Click on the link for the rest of this story by Scott Thistle in the Lewiston Sun Journal.

Maine is more than half unorganized

Today’s DownEast.com trivia question is fun. It is about “unorganized territory” or UT. I used to camp, fish, and canoe in some of that UT. It is essentially and specifically and eternally Maine.

What is “unorganized territory” and how much of it does Maine have?

Answer:

The UT is land outside the boundaries of organized towns or cities, and is predominately found in the sparsely populated North Woods. The UT includes 16,250 square miles, or some 10.4 million acres, of the state’s 30,862 square miles, more than half the state.

Canoe season in Maine on hold despite nice weather | Lewiston Sun Journal

FRYEBURG – Maine Registered Guide Fred Westerberg is in no hurry to get his canoes and kayaks on the river.

It may be costing him money in the pocket, but he's been around the Saco River long enough to know you don't rush Mother Nature.

“This is an outdoor business. You rely on the weather. It's the chance you take. You don't cry about it,” Westerberg said as he and his wife Prudy and their daughter Beth began cleaning up their Saco River Canoe & Kayak store on Main Street during a sunny, 80-plus degree day.

If it were a month or two later, he would be fielding calls from hundreds of people wanting to rent one of his canoes and kayaks that go out as many as 160 times during a summer weekend. But Westerberg, an Auburn native who opened up the canoe business in 1972 with his wife, is satisfied to wait it out.

Click on the link to the rest of today’s story by Leslie H. Dixon in the Lewiston Sun Journal.

Nah, the Allagash has to be longer than that … doesn’t it?

When I was a kid – I don’t remember how old exactly – my family and my Uncle Wally’s family loaded up canoes on various mode of land vehicle and we drove to north central Maine and camped near the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, of which the Allagash is the central component. The next day, we put in canoes and we paddled out way north – the Allagash flows northward – for nearly a week of paddling along the waterway.

DownEast.com today had a trivia question about the length of the waterway and I was surprised at the answer. It seemed a little short, from what I remember of that trip. But then again, I was a youngster sitting in the back of a canoe. It was a pretty sweet adventure.

As I recall, we had to pick up the pace a bit about midway. A Maine game warden caught up with us to tell us that a relative of my father had died. He wanted to make the funeral services so we paddled double-time after we got the word.

Here’s the question and answer.

How long is the Allagash Wilderness Waterway?

Answer:

Ninety-two miles in northern Piscataquis and western Aroostook counties.

Trust me, it felt much longer than 92 miles.