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May/June, 2005
Seboomook Section Trip Report
Subjective News
By Steve Bodkin
So I’m sitting in my home office watching what I hope will be the last snowstorm of the year. As a dedicated (read: obsessed) whitewater kayaker, I’ve been in the pool regularly all winter working on those moves that just won’t come together during the paddling season in say, a class IV pour-over, where I might accidentally find myself. Most rivers are still covered with ice here in Southern Maine and the paddling is sparse. The American Whitewater river gauges link is my computer home page, and I’m lucky enough to have talked a couple of paddling buddies to go south with me for a long paddling weekend next month. My goal: to remember what it feels like not to have to wear all the neoprene I own just to go near the water.
The Seboomook trip is already on the calendar for a long weekend this summer. I’ll admit that the idea of traveling around five hours last summer to paddle what Great Lakes Hydro said was a 300 cfs flow didn’t quite seem a good use of time. After all I’d be driving past the Dead and Kennebec, and declining countless other White Mountain rivers that were calling my name for what seemed like less water than I might flush down the toilet after a few beers. It turned out to be a great decision after all.
The family pop-up was packed and the kids stowed in the car seats. It took ‘till past eleven on Friday night to get there and a second mortgage on the house to pay off the North Woods gatekeeper but I wanted to see for myself what all the talk was about. Upon waking up at Seboomook Campground, I found the site to be right on Northeast Cove of Moosehead Lake. I mean be-careful-on-those-midnight-bathroom-breaks close. The put-in is a couple miles down a horrendous road and the morning run would put us back for a leisurely lunch before the afternoon do-over. It was great water, great company, great weather, and no carnage. Good stuff!
Our group was around a dozen paddlers of various skill levels and ages, there was no lack of entertainment. The low water limited the choices of lines available over these ledge drops but the pools below were deep and friendly. My only gripe is in the naming of each drop by a letter: Ledge A, Ledge B; how am I supposed to tell paddling stories about “you know, Ledge C, the one with the…”. Instead the names became “Baby Killer”, “Seventh Stitch,” and other menacing monikers. I’m not sure where they came from, but it helps me remember things. When one of our group lost his false teeth going over Ledge A (or was that Niagra Falls?) I knew it would be a fun day. Poor Steve! Brad insisted it must have happened when yelling “Oh, shit” over the boof drop. The teeth were MIA through the rest of the trip.
Now, when I read that there is a few guaranteed releases on the Seboomook stretch of the Penobscot, I say lets go! The gate fees sting a little ($5/person) and, for some, the driving’s a drag but who knew 300 cfs could be so much fun? Great Lakes Hydro is showing guaranteed 500 cfs over summer weekends, and the scenery is great. How much trouble could an extra couple hundred cubic feet get us into anyway?
Steve Bodkin is a consulting forester of ten years and lives in Acton, Maine. He started paddling on the Yough and Potomac in Pennsylvania in the Eighties, and while attending the University of Maine but went into remission to start a family and his business. Reinfection of the playboating virus occurred in the Summer of 2002. Condition terminal. No known cure. He can be found floating around at Limington Rips on the Saco in the Spring…sometimes even upright!
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