Students give Kenduskeag spring cleaning> UM program’s flotilla receives learning experience afloat

BANGOR — The New England Outdoor Center of Caratunk and the Maine Bound Program of the University of Maine joined forces Sunday to do what they could about cleaning up trash along the Kenduskeag Stream.

On Saturday thousands lined the shores during the annual Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race, but on Sunday the university students had the shore and stream to themselves for the most part. Armed with black plastic garbage bags, the students collected about a half-dozen bags’ worth of trash from the shore and field at Six Mile Falls.

The students, riding in white-water rubber rafts, spent a portion of the day floating down the fast-moving stream.

Maine Bound is a program at the university that offers academic as well as recreational programs that include canoeing, kayaking, white-water rafting, mountain climbing, rock climbing, hiking, ice climbing, winter camping and other outdoor experiences.

Sam Webster, who is a staff member of both The New England Outdoor Center, a rafting firm, and the university program, was joined by Jon Tierney and Karen Francoeur of Maine Bound, and river manager Joe Apicella and other members of the rafting company in administering the program.

The group of about 20 people filled two white-water rafts, and they were joined by others in a canoe and a kayak.

Apicella and members of his staff gave paddling instructions to the students before they even got into the water.

The students, dressed in black wet suits, blue helmets and yellow life-preserving vests, took off from the field below Six Mile Falls Sunday morning. After a brief, in-water instruction session on how to maneuver their rafts, they headed down the river. They stopped at the Bullseye Bridge, and again at the old Flour Mill, to unload trash collected.

Tierney said the event was just another way for the students to learn through experience.

Between 2 and 2:30 p.m., the rafts arrived at the small park at the end of Kenduskeag Stream across from The Greenhouse Restaurant.

Webster said students filled both rafts with enough trash to fill the back of a pickup truck. “We found everything from beer cans, truck tires, paddles, and stuff from the race like broken canoes, tarps and other stuff. We even found a car in the stream but that was too big to pick up.”

A few of the crew members ended up doing some unintentional swimming when they fell overboard, but no one was hurt.

Maine Bound offers six courses for academic credit, and more than 100 programs throughout the year that offer many other health and recreation experiences. Many of the courses are taken by health and recreation majors or those with interests in forestry or the Warden Service, but courses are open to anyone, Tierney said.