Kayaking guide helps plot paddling trips

Where do you go when you want to spend some time paddling along Maine’s coast?

What type of accommodations will you find when you go to a particular area?

Is there a place to park your car while you’re out exploring?

May I camp on a certain island?

The answers to these and many other questions are answered in Shelly Johnson and Vaughan Smith’s new book, “Guide to Sea Kayaking in Maine” (The Globe Pequot Press, $15.95). This experienced Maine couple have paddled the coast for years, and they’ve provided detailed information for 40 different trips from Portland east to Roque Bluffs.

Some of the trips are day trips, others overnights. You could string together shorter day trips into overnights. If you really want to get fancy, pick up a copy of Lee Bumstead’s “Hot Showers, Second Edition” (Audenreed Press, Brunswick, $18.95), which gives a complete description of oceanfront lodgings and boating destinations.

With these two books in hand, you’ll have most of the information you’ll need to plan your trip. Johnson and Smith’s book is a handy reference for those contemplating a new and different destination from familiar hangouts.

The beauty of Maine’s coastline is in its myriad islands and coves and ever-changing scenery. Too often we’ll keep going back to our favorite paddling spots because they are familiar, comfortable. To explore a new piece of coast requires planning and local knowledge. It’s sometimes easier to hit the familiar than to research the new.

Johnson and Smith have done the yeoman’s share of this work for you and presented it in an easy-to-read, illustrated book sprinkled with safety tips and local knowledge, pictures and maps. The book gets you started with some discussion of safety, navigation, trip planning, weather, low-impact tips and information about the Maine Island Trail. Then the authors describe their 40 selections of trips.

You get trip highlights, a route and alternates, distances, information on whether there is a campsite and which NOAA chart to have for navigation purposes. There are cautionary notes that tell of danger zones, and you’ll learn where to launch and what the local attractions are.

Want to explore Portland Harbor, check out Fort George? It’s a short 21/2-mile round trip from the Eastern Promenade parking area. Want more of an adventure, say, an overnight trip? Try the Jewell Island trip of 16 miles round trip. This trip would be fine if you like a lot of boat traffic and hordes of other boaters. Jewell gets lots of use, so much, in fact, that this year the state and MITA have hired a caretaker to oversee the busy place.

If I were looking for an outing, I’d look farther east, away from the madding crowd, say, Holbrook Island (Trip 25) or even farther Down East, say, Sorrento (Trip 33) or the Pleasant River (Trip 34) in the Addison area.

From Portland to Freeport, four routes are detailed. Next comes the Brunswick-to-Boothbay section with six routes: Eagle Island, Sebascondegan Island, New Meadows River, Barters Island and two Sheepscot River sections, up and downstream from Wiscasset.

In the Round Pond-to-Thomaston area, there are five routes and so it goes up through Lincolnville, Stockton Springs, Castine, Blue Hill, Mount Desert Island (five trips) and Milbridge to Machias (seven trips).

I’ve paddled in the Sorrento area several times and can attest to the accuracy of the authors’ description of the trip and the highlights. They tell us to be careful about placing ourselves in the “open, exposed areas” of Frenchman Bay which can turn rough quickly. Beware of wind exposure and seas from the south. They take us on a 7-mile tour up Sullivan Harbor to Long Cove picnic area (only on the upper half of the tide). If you’ve driven Route 1 east and north you pass beside this cove and the picnic area.

Another paddle out of Sorrento takes you around Dram and Preble islands, while an alternate route goes up into Flanders Bay, “but there’s no public access once you pass Preble Island,” the authors warn.

In my outings from Sorrento, I’ve paddled out past Calf Island and around Stave Island and back for a trip of around 11 miles. Keep an eye on the tide, because you cannot paddle behind Preble Island when the water’s out.

One of the highlights of this area is the spectacular view of Mount Desert Island across the bay.

After your day outing, the authors suggest you head back into nearby Ellsworth for lodging and shopping opportunities.

I have a few notices or reminders to pass along. Warren Cochrane of Allagash Canoe Trips in Greenville dropped me a line the other day. The 38th annual ACA Canoe Poling National Championships will be held Saturday, June 16, on the Sandy River in New Sharon, the first time the nationals will have been held in Maine. The fun begins at 9 a.m. at the Route 2 Bridge and should be wrapped up by 3 p.m., Cochrane said. If you’ve never witnessed canoe poling, it will be a great opportunity to see what it’s all about.

If you wish, you may compete in open, intermediate, masters and women’s classes, and, Cochrane says, don’t worry about being good enough. There are slalom and wild-water races, and registration is $10 per event. For more information about canoe poling and this championship race, call Warren at 695-3668.

Maine Guides are gathering this Sunday and Monday at the third annual Maine Guide Rendezvous at the Maine Outdoor Center on Route 201 in Bingham. Stephen Wight, a Maine Guide and chairman of the Land Use Regulation Commission, and Barry Dana, governor of the Penobscot Nation, are the keynote speakers. There will be talks on Leave No Trace, client relations, risk management, issues of land and river conservation and cultural history. On Tuesday there will be field expeditions to raft the Kennebec Gorge, hike Bald Mountain, fish the upper Kennebec and pole the lower Kennebec as well as outdoor cooking.

Jeff Strout’s column is published on Thursdays.