My first Sunday of the summer was devoted to canoe/kayak training for the physically disabled, courtesy of Maine Handicapped Skiing's paddling program.

A group of instructors from Maine Handicapped Skiing's paddling program watch as an overturned kayaker practices a rescue.
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I was among a group of 10 volunteer instructors who gathered at the beach yesterday at Range Ponds State Park. We were led by Nate Harvey, who runs canoe and kayak trips for Great Glen Trails, in Pinkham Notch, N.H. Great Glen Trails also provided half a dozen canoes and kayaks.

Nate Harvey, who runs canoe and kayak trips for Great Glen Trails, was our instructor.
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Talking through a rescue scenario.
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Practicing re-entry after an intentional capsize.
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In addition to practicing several capsize/rescue scenarios, we also reviewed basic paddle strokes: sweep, reverse sweep, draw, cross-draw and figure-eight.

The actual program with students starts this Wednesday, also at Range Ponds State Park. Also with lots of help from the good folks at Great Glen Trails.

Yesterday may have been the most pleasant day of the boating season to date, and I enjoyed three hours of the late afternoon on Merrymeeting Bay with my paddling pal Carol Meerschaert.

Paddling pal Carol Meerschaert in the stern of my 12-foot Bear Creek Cubby.
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We put in at the Bay Bridge launch on the Brunswick side, just opposite Mustard Island, and capitalized on the rising tide to paddle southwest into a pleasant group of islands at the mouth of the Androscoggin River.

We used my 12-foot Bear Creek Cubby, a handy little canoe that I bought a few years ago. It's a Maine-made product, manufactured in Sebago.

We saw only a handful of others, including one couple paddling a canoe plus a few fishermen.

We saw only one other canoe, a couple paddling through the islands at the mouth of the Androscoggin River.
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We met only a few fishermen.
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We stopped on an island for a late afternoon snack. About a mile upstream we could see the cars and trucks streaming by on Route 1. Carol commented that it showed that in Maine you don't need to travel long distances into the wilderness to enjoy a quality paddling experience.

Carol Meerschaert relaxes on an island in the Androscoggin River.
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Our lunch island had many wildflowers, including this wild iris.
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After lunch, the tide was falling and we returned the two miles or so to take out at Bay Bridge landing.

Although I'm not looking for a new canoe or kayak right now, I stopped by L.L. Bean's PaddleSports Festival yesterday -- and found two organizations with interesting angles on canoeing and kayaking.

L.L. Bean's PaddleSports Festival takes place June 16-17 at the retail store in Freeport.
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The first thing I did was take a quick walkabout, checking out the people who were checking out the boats. On-water demos were happening a few miles away at the paddling center, but I stayed at the retail store.

Overview of the retail sales area.
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Inexpensive plastic rec boats are the most popular style of kayak today.
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Checking out the Pakboat inflatables.
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I attended Kate Williams' presentation of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail.

And yes, kayakers are welcome. It's a 740-mile semi-wilderness paddling route that runs between Old Forge, on the western edge of the Adirondack Mountains in New York, to Fort Kent.

Kate Williams, executive director of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, poses beside a map of the 740-mile route.
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Kate's the executive director of the non-profit organization that established the trail. She says that the trail is now completed -- meaning mapped and signed.

Currently Kate's focusing on three supporting and parallel programs: Waterway Stewardship, Community Economic Development and Recreation, Arts & Heritage.

Kate and I chatted for a while about the positive economic impacts of such resource-based enterprises. The canoe trail is a natural fit with the region's assets, and it can help to counteract the long-term declines in the forest products industry.

Then I chatted with Judy Sullivan, program director of Maine Handicapped Skiing, which also has a summer paddling program.

Judy Sullivan, program director of Maine Handicapped Skiing, explains the adaptations made to this kayak to accommodate a paddler with limited upper body strength.
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I teach at MHS each winter, and this summer I'm signed on as a volunteer for the paddling program, which starts next week.

The PaddleSports Festival continues today. Click here for information.

Let's talk some trash about the Presumpscot River. We're talking about yesterday's trash pickup by 64 sixth-grade students from Portland's Helen King Middle School.

In an annual school program co-sponsored by Friends of the Presumpscot and the Raft Maine trade association of whitewater rafting companies, the kids scoured the banks of the Presumpscot just below Windham Center Road and downstream into Dundee Pond.

King Middle School students get their instructions from a professional whitewater raft guide.
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Helping inflate the rafts yesterday.
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Launching the rafts on the Presumpscot River just below Windham Center Road.
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Among the items picked up yesterday was this plastic chair.
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It's more than simply a welcome gesture toward keeping the Presumpscot clean on its 22-mile journey between Sebago Lake and tidewater. Teacher Carol Nylen works this trip into lesson plans for her students all year long. Among her projects this year, kids are assigned to write essays on the subject of "Trash Talk."

Two rafting companies and 10 guides were involved yesterday. Guide Josh Gray led a contingent of six from North Country Rivers of Bingham, while guidess -- or did she say "goddess?" -- Kristin Murray headed up a quartet from Three Rivers Whitewater of The Forks.

As I did a couple of years ago, I paddled my own kayak along with the King kids, took some pix and picked up a bit of trash myself. Items I fished out of Dundee Pond included a big plastic bucket and somebody's long-gone air mattress.

My own pickup project yielded the plastic bucket and air mattress shown here in the bow of my kayak.
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Eight of yesterday's guides posed after finishing the cleanup run.
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River guidess -- or did she say "goddess?" -- Kristin Murray.
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I also talked with Dusti Faucher, head honcho of Friends of the Presumpscot, about mounting a bigger effort on the section below Cumberland Mills Dam, the last one before the river reaches tidewater.

A friend and I did some piscatorial paddling yesterday on the Androscoggin River in the Turner-Leeds area, catching a few smallmouth bass in the big pool just below the falls at Twin Bridges.

Heading upstream with Portland fisherman Jonathan Keck paddling in the bow yesterday on the Androscoggin River.
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I've fished this pool from the banks and paddled the area before, but never combined paddling and fishing. For Jonathan Keck, a Portland paddler I know through the Maine Outdoor Adventure Club, yesterday was a first for fishing that section of the river.

Yesterday was Jonathan's first fishing outing on this section of the Androscoggin.
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The action wasn't as lively as I'd hoped, but I landed four legal-size smallmouths. The biggest was just shy of 18 inches. All were caught on light spinning gear with spoons that cost under a dollar apiece. All fish were released.

Plus I did a few long-line releases. Jonathan did pretty much the same.

Jonathan holds one of the smallmouth bass that he caught yesterday.
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By the way, there's an interesting website solely devoted to fishing for smallmouth bass in rivers: www.riversmallies.com. Check it out. Two guides from Maine are among the senior contributors to the website: Captain Chuck Duggins, who guides on the Piscataquis and the Penobscot, and Tracy Gosselin, who teaches fly fishing at L.L. Bean.

Also note that farther upstream, in the Bethel area, the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance and the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce are holding a Family Fishing Festival this Saturday and Sunday.

The Upper Andro --roughly meaning upstream of Rumford -- is an "emerging world-class fishery" that's being promoted by the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife as well as the festival promoters.