Paddling offers lots of variety Outings can be relaxing, scenic, challenging

Wild, wasn’t it this week? How many bolts of lightning could there possibly be? They seemed to be relentless Monday and Tuesday, didn’t they?

That wasn’t the case over the weekend, though, and I’ve talked with several folks who had fantastic times on the water. Once again I had a chance to venture out on Castine’s waters in search of dinoflagellates (microscopic single-celled algae that when disturbed emit light. A minor disturbance, say from a paddle or drop of water, causes a chemical reaction within the organism that results in light production).

Actually, when I say I was searching for these little critters, I exaggerate. They are all over the place, all you have to do is know where to look and how to make them evident. Last Friday night was truly awe-inspiring, they were so prevalent. In places, areas about two feet wide around my paddle blade lit up with each stoke. Drips of water off the paddle shaft would form pools of green-blue iridescent light, and strings of firefly-like luminescence would trail off my bow wake.

I thought I was going to have to tow the two women with me away to get them back to the dock. What with the bioluminescence in the water competing with the reflection of the stars on a glassy harbor’s surface it made for sensory overload. They wanted to stay out all night!

Saturday was a gem of a day to be on the water. This paper’s Executive Editor Mark Woodward filled me in on his adventure around the Frazer Point-Mosquito Harbor-Winter Harbor area. He and his wife, Bridget, had time in their busy lives to get in some camping at Ocean Wood campground at Birch Harbor and make a seasonal maiden voyage in their kayaks. Aside from a very crowded parking lot at Frazer Point, they enjoyed a scenic and relaxing six- or seven-mile tour, Woodward said.

Across the bay

Their outing sounded much more relaxing than that of Jonathan Sprague of Brewer and Jim Claus or Orrington. Sprague dropped me a lengthy e-mail Monday morning to tell me of his adventure. I feel compelled to pass along a chunk of it just to make you weekend paddlers a bit jealous, or awestruck as the case might be.

“To celebrate me getting my Registered [Maine] Sea Guide License, my friend Jim Claus and I decided to do a long-planned trip to the Vinalhaven archipelago last weekend,” Sprague wrote.

The pair rose around 4 a.m. to drive to Rockland, and launched into calm seas around 7:30 a.m. The harbor was abuzz with commercial boats, and the air full of the smell of diesel exhaust and lobster bait as they paddled over to Owls Head for a quick pit stop and course plotting before heading across Penobscot Bay to Vinalhaven.

This is a crossing I wouldn’t recommend to the unskilled. It scales out to be more than six miles, close to seven of open ocean that can be wild. Fortunately the weather cooperated with these guys.

Anyway, Sprague said, the crossing went uneventfully. There were plenty of seals and porpoises for company, he said, to say nothing of the small army of lobster boats plying the waters. Sprague joked that “if we had run into trouble we could have walked back to the mainland on top of the thousands of lobster buoys. I grew up on the Maine coast so I’m used to lobster pots. However this area has more then I’ve ever seen, even more than Stonington.”

The paddlers headed for a Maine Island Trail Island at the northern end of Hurricane Sound, set up camp and had lunch before getting back in their boats and paddling some three miles south to Hurricane Island.

“We took a short walking tour of the Outward Bound School. It has changed a lot since I was there as a student in 1972 – cabins for the students and staff instead of tents, etc. Then it was back in the boats for a one-mile paddle over to the light at the southern end of Greens Island. From there [we went] back to the campsite. After dinner we took a short paddle around the northern part of Hurricane Sound (short for me, longer for Jim who decided he would paddle around Leadbetter Island).”

Sunday the paddling pair was back on the water around 7:30 a.m., Sprague said, and headed west toward Owls Head. Seals and a “funny looking dorsal fin – not a porpoise, a shark maybe, who knows?” provided the visuals. “The conditions where not as calm as the day before with a two foot chop in the middle of the bay, but were still relatively mild with only a 5-7 knot breeze out of the north,” Sprague reported.

“The only commercial traffic we saw Sunday morning was the Vinalhaven ferry – fortunately we had intentionally plotted our course to run to the south of its route and only had to cross its path at Lairays Narrows It was a great trip but one that demands a suitable weather window, careful planning, and experience in open ocean paddling.”

Regatta crashers

After overdosing on Castine Friday and Saturday I beat it for quieter shores – Milbridge – where my folks have a summer place. My wife had driven down from Bangor earlier. I arrived in time to grab a quick bite and we headed off to cousin Bruce and Sally Leighton’s house in town to watch the Milbridge Days fireworks celebration. We were about the last to arrive. The yard was full of vehicles and the deck out back overlooking Milbridge harbor was packed to overflowing. What a vantage point to view what turned out to be a great display.

A peaceful Sunday morning provided the time to shore up the stockade fence next to the garage and replace the lobster buoy d?cor that hangs from the pickets. We also had time to clean out the gutters that annually collect enough needles and dirt to provide a great growing medium.

Later we ventured to the Mudge estate at Harrington’s Pineo Point where the Petit Manan Yacht Club gathered for cocktails and light snacks for the annual post-regatta gathering. There was plenty of time to chat and catch up on the day’s “race” that some folks take almost seriously.

There were a few egos resized this year when John Schlegel and Joe Letourneau of Milbridge cruised their tandem stitch-and-glue kayak over the line an hour or more ahead of the six sailing craft in the race. Schlegel and Letourneau had a GPS aboard to keep track of their progress and they reported making 7 plus mph over most of the course. That’s in a straight line, something sailboats can’t do. So while others tacked, the duo in the tamden headed straight on course.

Schlegel pointed out that his crew had to paddle about three miles to the starting line and start last, then paddle another three miles back home, and then wait for the rest of the gang to get to the party.

I’m sure there’ll be some handicap next year for kayaks – if kayaks are ever allowed again to darken the doorway.

Great Pond Mountain trust

“The Great Pond Mountain Wildlands: Protecting a natural treasure and outstanding recreation area” will be the topic when the Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust holds its annual meeting Saturday, Aug. 13 at Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery in East Orland. GPMCT purchased the 4,200-acre Wildlands June 30, and the program will highlight some of the special natural areas within the property and discuss the future of the land. The meeting will start with a potluck dinner at 5 p.m., followed by a business meeting at 6 p.m. The informational program on the Wildlands will be at 7 p.m. All are welcome. For more information, call 469-2008 or e-mail greatpondmct@yahoo.com.

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.