Get your canoe paddle ready, spring’s on its way

You know spring is coming when: bright sunshine pushes the thermometer close to 40 degrees and the snow is running down the gutter in rivulets like it was last Thursday; when three press releases on paddling and camping-related events land on your desk in one day!

Hey, spring’s coming! We’re on the downhill side. Sure there’ll be a few more bumps in the road, but we’ll be flailing away at the water before you know it.

Case in point – the Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race, the official rite and pronouncement of spring, is only a month away. Race day is April 21. Call Bangor Parks and Recreation at 947-1018 for information. The entry fee this year is $17 per racer.

Another sure sign of spring is what organizers hope will be an annual event, the Paddle Smart from the Start Safety Symposium scheduled for Friday, May 18, at Bangor’s YMCA on Hammond Street. The four-hour, free seminar begins at 5 p.m. and will feature concurrent seminars and demonstrations that are scheduled so you can get to attend each one during the symposium.

Scheduled to coincide with the U.S. Coast Guard’s Safe Boating Week, the events are sponsored by the Coast Guard, the YMCA, Cadillac Mountain Sports and Castine Kayaking Adventures. Thirty-minute presentations are scheduled to: help you learn which boat is best for the type of paddling you expect to do; know effective communication skills while on the water (VHF radio protocol, paddle signals, whistles and cell phones); learn about essential safety equipment, rescue techniques (including demonstrations in the pool of the Eskimo roll, paddle float rescue, and the T-rescue); and get a taste of the basics of navigation (how to plan a safe crossing, getting from Point A to Point B, chart reading etc.).

“If folks aren’t prepared with the proper equipment and an understanding of how wind and weather can change and how to manage it, they can get themselves into some hairy situations. It just isn’t true that what you don’t know can’t hurt you! It’s just the opposite. What you do know allows you to make good choices with a preventative attitude. Sometimes knowing something as simple as the importance of eating and drinking for energy or dressing properly can be something a novice may not even consider,” says Karen Francoeur, owner of Castine Kayaking Adventures, a Maine sea kayak guide and American Canoe Association kayaking instructor.

By learning the pitfalls and planning ahead, many potential problems may never materialize. By attending a seminar such as this one, you will gain a better understanding and appreciation for paddling, and it is hoped, make yourself a safer paddler.

Call the YMCA in Bangor at 941-2815 and ask for Donna Cowan or Lydia Morgan for more information.

. . .

While you’ve got your calendar out, you might consider joining Maine Guides Mike Krepner and Jo Eaton on March 27 for the beginning of their Maine Guides Course. The course, which is designed to provide you with the information and training for passing the Maine Guide Recreation license examination, is being offered from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday. There will be two canoe camping backpacking weekends, one April 14-15 and the other April 28-29.

A fee of $300 includes study materials and instruction in outdoor safety, traveling in all types of weather, canoeing instruction, white-water safety, boating regulations, search techniques and living and cooking in the outdoors.

Krepner moved to Maine in 1976 and became a registered Maine Guide in 1979, then a Master Guide in 1993. He specializes in leading canoe trips along the coast and on traditional canoe routes. He is the originator of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail and the Eastern Maine Canoe Trail and manufactures travel gear under the trademark Igas Island. After living in a tent near Bangor for nearly seven years, he now resides with his wife and daughter in a solar-powered house in Waldoboro.

Eaton, a registered Maine Guide since 1994, has spent her life in the Maine woods. After returning to the University of Maine in 1991, she decided to organize her outdoor experience to provide safety training and outdoor educational experiences for college students, K-12 students and community members through Penobscot Riverkeepers.

For more information call Eaton at 827-0369 or e-mail her at PRK2000Jo@aol.com.

. . .

If you’re an educator or professional guide, you should consider attending the first Maine Coast Seminar that will be held Saturday, May 12, at Camp Beech Cliff on Mount Desert Island. While Saturday is the primary day, participants are encouraged to come Friday evening and stay through Sunday morning.

Sponsored by Headwaters Institute, the seminar is designed for professional guides and educators to gain a deeper understanding of Maine’s coastal environment with the belief that informed and inspired individuals will help protect, conserve and restore it for the enjoyment for future generations.

The Headwaters Institute generally organizes watershed education seminars for professional guides and their river communities in the United States and abroad, but this is the first coastal program to be offered. It is still being organized, according to Natalie Springuel of Maine Sea Grant and president of Maine Association of Sea Kayak Guides and Instructors. Potential workshop topics include bird ecology, marine mammals, fisheries, Leave No Trace, celestial navigation, coastal geology, island ecology, human waste, weather, intertidal ecology and risk management.

Part of the fisheries panel will include a discussion on the interaction between fishermen and paddlers, Springuel said.

I checked out Headwaters Institute on the Web, and this is what their philosophy is: Headwaters “believes that education is the best tool to promote public support of and appreciation for rivers. Guides have a unique opportunity to connect with hundreds of people per year. In each interaction lies the possibility for a guide to share information learned while attending a … seminar.”

Last June Headwaters, Maine Association of Sea Kayak Guides and Instructors, Maine Professional Guides Association and the Natural Resources Council of Maine sponsored the second annual Maine Guide Rendezvous at The Forks and discussed such topics as natural and cultural history education, outdoors and guiding ethics, risk management, and communication training.

For more information on this seminar, call Springuel at 581-1441 or e-mail her at natalie.springuel@maine.edu.

Jeff Strout’s column is published on Thursdays. He can be reached at 990-8202 or by e-mail at jstrout@bangordailynews.net.