We had a fun day yesterday--headed up to the Penobscot River in Old Town to spectate at the American Canoe Association Whitewater National Championship. This is a canoe and kayak event featuring downriver races for 2 classes of canoe, 2 classes of kayaks and multiple age groups for men, women, mixed doubles, and adult/kid combos.
This year's race was held on a 12 mile section of the Penobscot that until a few years ago was blocked by two dams. Both dams have been removed to restore fish passage, and the 12 mile run from Indian Island, where the Penobscot Indian Nation has its reservation, to tidewater is once again free flowing.
Arguably, the Penobscots perfected the birch bark canoe--though Passamaquoddies, Malecites, Micmacs and others might also make the claim. It's said that Old Town, White and some of the other early commercial makers based their wood-canvas boats on Penobscot birch bark designs. For the boat builders, there's a nice story on the tribe's efforts to keep the bark canoe craft alive here, with some nice photos:
http://www.penobscotriver.org/content/4060/birch-bark-canoe
I've been having trouble posting photos, so I'll just provide the link to the album my wife has posted for your enjoyment:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pixdee/sets/72157655960150730
Many of the photos were taken at the whitewater sprint event, which tool place on the Great Works Rapid, located at the former site of Great Works Dam. You can see some the remnants of the dam--actually, remnants of older dams that predated the one that was removed--in many of the photos. Before the dams, according to one historical source, the Penobscots called the site Mackeeweisis (Bad Falls), and had a well established portage trail at the site. With low water yesterday, folks were having a good time running it, though more than a few took swims. At higher flows in the spring, it's not a place for open boats, with very large standing waves.
It was a pretty cool event, and as someone who helped work on the restoration project, it was a nice celebration of the river's rebirth. I only wish I'd brought my own canoe, and a maybe a 7 weight fly rod to chase some shad!
More on the Penobscot Restoration Project here:
http://www.penobscotriver.org/
As Gary Tanner reported from up on the Mirimachi, salmon numbers seem up this year with a little over 600 fish counted on the Penobscot. But the real news has been the recovery of American shad (about 1700 fish so far), and river herring (almost 600,000). Both were absent from the river until just a few years ago. I'm also told anglers are now catching striped bass up in Old Town.
This year's race was held on a 12 mile section of the Penobscot that until a few years ago was blocked by two dams. Both dams have been removed to restore fish passage, and the 12 mile run from Indian Island, where the Penobscot Indian Nation has its reservation, to tidewater is once again free flowing.
Arguably, the Penobscots perfected the birch bark canoe--though Passamaquoddies, Malecites, Micmacs and others might also make the claim. It's said that Old Town, White and some of the other early commercial makers based their wood-canvas boats on Penobscot birch bark designs. For the boat builders, there's a nice story on the tribe's efforts to keep the bark canoe craft alive here, with some nice photos:
http://www.penobscotriver.org/content/4060/birch-bark-canoe
I've been having trouble posting photos, so I'll just provide the link to the album my wife has posted for your enjoyment:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pixdee/sets/72157655960150730
Many of the photos were taken at the whitewater sprint event, which tool place on the Great Works Rapid, located at the former site of Great Works Dam. You can see some the remnants of the dam--actually, remnants of older dams that predated the one that was removed--in many of the photos. Before the dams, according to one historical source, the Penobscots called the site Mackeeweisis (Bad Falls), and had a well established portage trail at the site. With low water yesterday, folks were having a good time running it, though more than a few took swims. At higher flows in the spring, it's not a place for open boats, with very large standing waves.
It was a pretty cool event, and as someone who helped work on the restoration project, it was a nice celebration of the river's rebirth. I only wish I'd brought my own canoe, and a maybe a 7 weight fly rod to chase some shad!
More on the Penobscot Restoration Project here:
http://www.penobscotriver.org/
As Gary Tanner reported from up on the Mirimachi, salmon numbers seem up this year with a little over 600 fish counted on the Penobscot. But the real news has been the recovery of American shad (about 1700 fish so far), and river herring (almost 600,000). Both were absent from the river until just a few years ago. I'm also told anglers are now catching striped bass up in Old Town.
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