Tag: sheepscot

Participants: K1: Jake Bourdeau, Ron Chase, John ?, and son, Noah; OC1: Ross Cameron, TC: Kenny DeCoster 

With all the rain this past week, the rivers were flowing and mostly in flood stage. A safe choice for a Saturday club paddle appeared to be the Sheepscot. When I posted it to the club, I was reminded that Carolyn Welch and David Lanman always had midcoast class II trips scheduled a week before my “ice breaker” trip on the Sou (Saturday, March 23). I was constantly impressed how eager Carolyn was to get people out paddling in the spring. She was on my mind as I floated down the river.

Friday was sunny and a toasty 50+ degrees. Saturday was overcast and never reached 40. Fortunately, there wasn’t any wind. 2 local paddlers, John and Noah, met us at the take out and knew Ross. They drove home, pick up their boats, and caught up to us on the river. With 1220 cfs, the current picked up and standing waves formed. The six of us had a grand time exercising our dormant paddling muscles catching eddies and surfing waves. Jake successfully ran the broken-down dam in Whitefield in his new creek boat which I had never witnessed before.

The waves below the breached Head Tide dam proved to be the challenge. 2 boaters swam, 1 a little further downstream. All paddlers and gear were recovered so I can proudly announce that I didn’t lose anybody on my trip. Thanks goes out to Ryan and Shweta Galway who showed up for a second run on the Sheepscot and instead were instrumental in the rescue efforts. I ‘ll be watching the ice shelves melt away this week. See You on the Water.

Participants: Bruce Weik C1, Helen Hess OC1, Paul Plumer OC1, Reid Anderson OC1, Daniel House OC1, Peter Hubbard OC1, TC: Kenny DeCoster OC1, Ron Chase K1, Greg Gerbi K1, Ken Gordon K1, Catherine Kimball K1, Dan Bennis K1

The plan was to hold a weekend paddle festival in Winterport area on the Marsh on Saturday and Sou on Sunday- a repeat of last year’s schedule. But mud season weather can make scheduling trips a nightmare. When Saturday was predicted to be rained out, I forfeited my trip on Sunday, so we all would get a chance to paddle the Marsh again. On Friday, the Sunday outlook deteriorated and Charlie canceled the Marsh trip. I gave up on the weather until Ron called Saturday morning asking where I was going to paddle on Sunday. Within 24 hours, 12 people showed up for a glorious sunny day on the Sheepscot River. Although the temperature was below my threshold of 40 degrees, the full sun and breeze at our backs made up for the pool of water in the bottom of the canoe freezing my toes.

We had great diversity in the participant list: the entire PPCS executive committee plus Reid were present, Paul Plumer made a rare appearance and used his Stearns award fame to delay the meeting time to noon, I recognized Greg this time around, Bruce finally took a day off of work to join us, Catherine, sea kayaker extraordinaire, paddled a much shorter boat, I finally had the pleasure of surfing with Peter, and new members, Dan and Dan, paddled with us for the first time.

The water level was 650 cfs and the rocks dotted the waterscape. There were many attempts at surfing to limber up the dormant paddling muscles, and plenty of time to float down the current and enjoy the sun and everyone’s company.

I’ve only paddled the Sheepscot once in the past decade and struggled to find the take out (no GPS) to meet everyone. 18 years ago as I was learning to solo paddle, I would join Carolyn Welch and Dave Lanman on their class II weekends: Sheepscot, Ossippe, Saco, Sandy and Carrabassett. Today brought back a lot of memories. There are still a couple more class II trips this spring- SYOTW.