Narratives add to guidebook for Kennebec

Kennebec Valley Trails Inc. of Skowhegan has recently published a spiffy guide for “paddlers and friends” of the Kennebec River. The 222-page loose-leaf book is printed on 4-by-11-inch stock and held together with a plastic binding comb so it lays flat when you open it, perfect for photocopying a page or two to take along on a trip.

David Larkin, chairman of Kennebec Valley Trails, told me the organization’s idea to do a guide was born some five years ago. Kennebec Valley Trails grew out of the Kennebec Valley Tourism Council, which was charged with promoting recreational offerings in the valley. Part of the effort was to do an inventory of all these recreational assets. A few years ago Don McKenzie was commissioned to paddle the length of the river and his narrative and observations of the river on that trip formed the basis for the sectional descriptions in the guide.

Kennebec Valley Trails started in June to market the guide in the river valley basically from the back seat of a car, Larkin said.

“We published it ourselves and distribute it ourselves. We’ve put it in mom and pop stores,” he said.

It sells for $15, or you can get one by signing up for a one-year organization membership for $20.

If there’s anything you want to know about the river, get your hands on this guide, which divides the Kennebec into 18 sections and the Moose River tributary into five sections. Each of these 23 sections is described in detail and most can be done as a day or part-day trip. Each of the river’s sectional maps “connect” end to end with the previous and following sections with each map showing the river section in its upstream to downstream flow.

A narrative for each of the sections describes the water flow, its rapids, classification of the rapids, portage points, and danger zones. If you love exploring by water, particularly by canoe or kayak, this guide will help you plan your trip and execute it as well.

Consider the description for the Moose River Bow Trip: It’s a 36-mile, three- to four-day trip. “Aside from the unavoidable portages at Holeb and Attean Falls, the passage consists mostly of flat water paddling with a few, well-dispersed Class I and II waters. … To bypass the lake crossings and the Attean/Holeb portage, begin on Holeb Pond at Holeb Landing … crossing Holeb Pond, entering Holeb Stream, you’ll find that the channels vary and some dead end. … Holeb Stream joins the Moose River in about one mile. From the confluence, past Barrett Brook, it’s about four flat-water miles to Camel Rips. From here, the Moose oxbows another 4.5 miles to Holeb Falls. DANGER: This 30-foot drop must be portaged.”

What makes this guide interesting is the inclusion of historical information, much of it by Madison native Mary Calvert, who has written several history books on the Kennebec River: “Dawn over the Kennebec,” “The Kennebec Wilderness Awakens,” and “Black Robe on the Kennebec.”

I confess I haven’t had time to read the entire guide, but I loved the section Calvert wrote on McKenny’s sluice. Henry Patrick McKenny (H.P. to his friends) was a lumber tycoon between 1890 and 1925. To get his logs to market they were floated and pulled over tote roads, the Moose River, Long Pond, Brassua Lake, Moosehead Lake, and into the Kennebec River.

In the late 1800s, H.P. began looking for a shorter route and decided that Enchanted Stream was the way to go – except for its myriad of obstacles (boulders, sharp turns, and disappearance of the stream itself.) No problem, H.P. said, lets build a mile and a quarter-long sluice! Two years of backbreaking labor later, H.P. had met with success. Logs flowed through the sluice like you-know-what through a goose! (My words, not Calvert’s.)

As you make your way through this guide, you’ll find each section has similar stories associated with it. That’s what makes this fun to read even if you don’t plan to paddle the river. The section called “Brassua’s Canada Pacific Railroad Bed” tells of the tragic death of 12 Italian workmen who were killed “when a charge failed to ignite until the men returned to check the cause.”

And there are other sections that provide the reader with details on Native American archaeology. Also included are the words to an old river driver’s song written by David Calder of Skowhegan.

Want information about rafting trips on the Kennebec? There’s some here. Want information on boat launches? Check this book. Want to know the principles of Leave No Trace? It has a very comprehensive, 11-page section on that as well. It takes each of the seven LNT principles and explains them in the context of river travel.

Flip to the back of the book and you’ll find a raft of off-river information from lodging to boat launches, to banks, restaurants, outfitters, town offices, truck stops, grocery and hardware stores listed town by town the length of the river from north to south.

If you’d like to get your own copy of this guidebook, write to Kennebec Valley Trails Inc., P.O. Box 144, Skowhegan 04976, or call 474-9606 and order one by phone.

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