Jack Amrock and Marnie MacLean from WGME NewsChannel 13 head out onto Saponac Lake and into Passadumkeag river on last day of trip.

On Lake Champlain, which the trail crosses, the Lake Placid-Essex County Visitor's Bureau may someday put up kiosks and interpretive signs telling visitors how the route was used by Indians, trappers and sportsmen.

There's just one twist: Most of these visitors, says Ron Ofner, the bureau's tourism director, probably will arrive by car.

''We don't envision too many people actually canoeing this thing,'' Ofner says of the canoe trail.

Modern water trails under discussion in Maine and the Northeast may in time be a source of economic development in rural areas. But, tourism officials say, these trails must be viewed as broad corridors that can appeal to visitors on both land and water. This is especially true, Ofner says, of baby boomers and their families. They want authentic experiences, but within limits.

Ofner sums up: ''So when people ask, 'What's there to do today?' we can say, 'You can travel this Northern Forest Canoe Trail and see how people traveled back then.' ''

Ofner and John Laitin, a Maine consultant for the Kennebec Valley Tourism Council in Waterville, say widening the appeal of water trails also makes good economic sense. Canoeists tend to stay in tents and eat camping food. They are less likely to stay in motels and eat at restaurants.

''They don't spend as much money as other tourists,'' says Laitin, who has been involved in a proposed water trail project along the Kennebec River. ''They're not the kind of tourists we want to spend a lot of money trying to attract.''

But what modern water trails can do, officials agree, is spark an interest in ''heritage tourism,'' visits pegged to learning about historic events that took place in certain areas.

Along the Kennebec, for instance, volunteers are preparing a guidebook of the river from Moosehead Lake to Popham Beach. Part of it is expected to mention Benedict Arnold's ill-fated march up the Kennebec with 1,100 men, to capture Quebec in 1775.

But the advent of roads, dams and the army's overland route through the woods north of Bingham make it difficult, in Laitin's view, for a tourist traveling by either canoe or car to get a sense of what Arnold experienced. Maybe some day, he suggests, someone will develop package tours that take people by foot, car and boat to the most interesting sites, and also provide their meals and lodging. That's the thinking that has made Maine's whitewater rafting industry so successful, he says.

''You supply everything they need,'' says Laitin. ''They can experience it without being responsible for it.''

More about heritage tourism

A great page of heritage tourism links from the University of California, Riverside.

Lancaster County, PA has prepared a discussion of heritage tourism which nicely describes what it is and how they plan to take advantage of it.