Paddlers eager to hit water Extended winter challenges racers

With Maine’s canoe-racing season only 10 days away, local paddlers are getting eager.

They’ve patched boats, retrieved their favorite life vests and paddles from the garage, and are ready to start racing.

Mother Nature, unfortunately, isn’t being accommodating.

Clayton Cole, the president of the Maine Canoe and Kayak Racing Organization, said the long winter has provided a severe challenge to avid paddlers, who are always looking for some open water to navigate.

“What’s funny is this,” Cole said. “In the last two or three years, when spring has come a bit earlier, people have been sweating whether we’re going to have enough water.

“Now, this year, we’ve still got snow … so we’ve got white water on the bank, if you want to call it that.”

With a winter storm bearing down on Maine, the area may get more of that frozen “white water” before any noticeable thaw.

And that could make things interesting: Two southern races – one in New Hampshire and one in Maine – have already been scrapped due to snow cover.

Area paddlers will kick off the busy local season March 31 with the St. George River Race in Searsmont.

That race will be followed April 1 by the Marsh Stream Sprint in Frankfort; the Passagassawaukeag Stream Race April 7 in Belfast; the Marsh Stream Race on April 8; the Souadabscook Stream Race April 14 in Hampden; the Souadabscook Sprint on April 15 and the Kenduskeag Stream Race April 21 in Bangor.

Paula Cole, Clayton’s wife and the secretary of MaCKRO, said paddlers are ready to begin training hard after a long winter, but they’re encountering some difficulties.

“Just in the past two weeks, we get two or three calls a night,” Paula Cole said.

Everyone has a couple questions for her.

“‘Is Clayton out paddling yet? And ‘Have you found water yet,’ ” she said.

Clayton Cole said paddlers aren’t able to get onto the water in traditional early-season spots, but there are options.

“Either you look for tidal water, or you look for the outlets of some of the warmer ponds,” he said.

Kenny Cushman, one of the state’s top kayakers, said he has been out paddling four times this year, and has found some open water on the area’s biggest tidal waters, the Penobscot River.

“Pretty much everybody’s been going where I’ve been going,” he said. “There’s a beaten path down toward the water over by Turtle Head Marina [in Hampden].”

The only real problem for Cushman and the other paddlers: Safety is a concern.

“It can be kind of dangerous at times because if you capsized, you couldn’t get out [of the river],” Cushman said. “There are 10-foot walls of ice that you’d have to climb up over.”

Still, Cushman and the Coles are confident the paddling season will begin on schedule.

The St. George, after all, has been a pretty dependable source of open water over the years.

“It’s 95 percent sure to be open just because of its water and how it flows,” Paula Cole said.