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July, 2007
Penobscot Paddle and Chowder Society Trip Reports
Machias River: W. Branch & Upper Section
May 20th T/C: Brent Elwell
River was at low-medium level. Participants were: Kyle Duckworth OC-1, Mark Berry K-1, John Crocker & Denise Skonbey OC-2, and T/C Brent Elwell K-1.
Thank God the Machias watershed got enough rain to bring the river up enough to paddle. I rescheduled the trip from Saturday to Sunday because of the forecasted rain on Saturday. Since I had never coordinated a trip on the Machias trip before, Kyle who had run these rivers before volunteered to help with the trip. The W. Branch was a real gem. It had nice ledge drops and outstanding scenery. John and Denise were on their first PPCS trip. They looked comfortable paddling their tandem canoe. Barring the one time John wrestled with a tree on the approach to a drop, they stayed dry. Kyle showed us how to self rescue when he got his paddle jammed between a rock and the boat on the downstream side of the boat in a real shallow section. Mark got some spins in on a real nice surfing wave at the bottom of a ledge drop. Most of the drops in this section involved ledge. The last one was the biggest and gnarliest.
The second section of the Machias we paddled was the part between Second and Third Machias Lakes. Mark could not paddle, so it was down to four of us. It would have been really good with a little more water. There was great scenery on this section also.
Dead River @ 5500cfs
June 9th T/C: Dave Wallace
Participants: T/C Dave Wallace, John Brower, Greg and Sharon Pelotte [shredder], Tom and Patti Rutka, Ron Chase, and sometimes Randy Berrube.
The day started clear and beautiful, thunder and lightning at the beginning, and showers and drizzle thru much of the day. We had a very uneventful day enjoying the river, surfing waves, and trying a few new routes. Tom and Patty showed their surfing skills in their Jacksons. No mayhem, no swims, just another average great day on the Dead! And very few other hard boaters.
Kennebec River - Winslow to Augusta
June 10th T/C: Brent Elwell
Level was 8000-9000cfs at Sidney. Participants: Larry Litchfield OC-1, Doug Field OC –1, John & Tee Brower OC-2, Marcy Shrader-Laninger & Danna Lee OC-2, Troy Alexander & Brent Elwell OC-2, David Duggan K-1, Marian McCael K-1, Randy
Berube K-1, Dave Wallace K-1, Helen Hess K-1, Ron Chase K-1 and Nancy
Chase K-1.
We had beautiful weather on this trip. The temperatures were in the low 80’s with plenty of sunlight and very little wind. Even a little head wind can make this 17-mile trip a grueling experience, especially in higher profile boats like canoes. Sunburn was the biggest danger of the day.
This was the first time that the lower Kennebec was listed as an official trip. I was very surprised at the large number of participants. The "17-miler" was not enough mileage for some of us, so we headed upstream towards the Waterville dams at Taconic Falls from
the Ft. Halifax put-in. The water was quite clear and you could see the bottom in many places. Evidence of riverine abuse was still apparent in the discarded auto wheels and at least one ten-speed bike, but it is a much cleaner river now that it has been free flowing for eight years. The Edwards dam in Augusta was removed in 1999. There were many bird sightings - bald eagles, ospreys, cormorants and blue herons were up and down the river. The fish were surfacing everywhere. We even saw a beaver. The rapids were not ferocious – nothing over class two. This is a very nice paddle and can be broken down into a shorter trip by using the Sidney boat launch roughly halfway between Winslow and Augusta. It took the group about five hours to reach the take out. I highly recommend this stretch of river to anyone who wants a scenic paddle.
Email nick [at] noumbrella [dot] com with your questions, comments and concerns.
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