Kayaking Down the Penobscot

The recipe for  a great kayaking day is,, blue skies, great weather, calm water, and lots of close friends to have a fun with.

We started our adventure loading up our favorite kayak and all our safety gear. Drove to a local spot where the water is low enough to embark without having someone take a flip before the trip begins.Which on most occasions happens. There is a special way of getting in and out of the kayak, before you learn your own technique usually you spend a few times in the drink. Been there myself many times.Not a place I like to be at the start of a trip.
We had a plan .. go from Chester all the way to the boat landing in South Lincoln. About a 15 miles paddle, of course to our advantage the current  flowed down stream and not up.If you  get tired of paddling ,  it was easy just to drift for a while. Just have to stay away from the small whirlpools as you would end up going sideways and going to fast.
One thing about living in Maine is the beauty of the outdoors , and this trip does not disappoint you. The water is crystal clear and banks are full of wildlife. As we started out a eagle joined in on our journey. He is well known in this area of the river and must enjoy the company of the kayakers. He would fly ahead as if was mapping a route for us to make sure we didn't miss any of his good fishing spots. Then he would land in a tree and wait for us,

As we paddled our way down the river we enjoyed the company of  being together for this special memory.We would paddle side by side and share stories , or just float and be awed by the beauty of nature.Every once in awhile we would pull onto a bank to walk around and see things you can only see from land. There was a big bees nest part way up a tree, which any true Maniac knows means we are in for another long winter with lots of snow. So the nice warm day really had more meaning to it.

The day was warming up so we decided to pull over and maybe cool our feet off by wadding around in a low spot that was sandy, the water was crisp but felt wonderful , plus the stretching of our legs and back was worth the stop. On the bank was some beautiful wild flowers the were just posing to have their picture taken. Not sure what kind they were but we respected them enough not to pick and change the landscape.Any true out doorsman  knows you leave mother nature alone..We knew it was going to be along paddle so we got back in our kayaks and continue on.
On this part of the river back in the 1800's it was used to drive logs to the mills to make lumber . So we saw alot of old driftwood that has been there for decades.There were huge piles of rocks in the middle , so that the logs wouldn't jam up these piles would make them fork off in two directions.
As we approached the bridge that runs to the interstate we could hear and see the big trucks up over head, people were honking their horns and waving to us, wondering who are the lucky ones to be doing the river run today.

 At this point were about 3 hrs into our trip. Had eaten  most of our goodies and even stopped for a potty break. Sorry , no pics of that, I tried but everyone was in agreement I would be thrown in the water to be left behind!!I didn't didn't want to swim the last few miles.

Just as we went under the bridge we met up with another kayaker , that come up from the boat landing that was our destination. She  turned around and joined our small party as she could see were having such a good time.
Around the next bend there was a  shitpoke fishing along the shoreline..he must of seen 1000's of kayakers by now as he just watched us and continued on feeding.

The eagle had left us back at the bridge but not before sending down a message for us to have a safe trip, a feather was floating in the water and I was lucky enough to be the one to retrieve it and as he flew off  above him the clouds formed a feather , not sure what that message was but it was amazing to see.

The last leg of the trip was coming near , we slowly drifted into the boat landing and could sense the sadness of the day coming to an end. We climbed out of our kayaks , talked about the great time we had and that we will do it again soon.