MEDWAY — Kathy Winslow kayaks the Penobscot River and other Katahdin region waters two or three days a week.
Riding in one of her Wilderness System kayaks, Winslow can count on seeing eagles and hawks above her, beaver, moose, deer and loons around her, and fish and snapping turtles in the water beneath her pretty much every time she goes, she said.
What the 58-year-old Millinocket resident doesn’t see as often, she says, are people.
“You see more of them at the lakes with camps on them than people lugging them to Togue Pond or on the river,” Winslow said Saturday. “Very rarely is anybody else out there.”
Kimberley Lyons and the rest of The Katahdin Paddlers want to change that. The Woodville resident formed the 44-member group two months ago to encourage watercraft exploration and exercise to improve the quality of life for Katahdin region residents and draw more people to the area, she said.
“I like the idea of getting people out, getting them talking, making new friends and being able to appreciate what we really have here,” said Lyons, a retired Maine Master Guide.
Any non-motorized watercraft is welcome, Lyons said, but most members bring kayaks.
“With a kayak you can float in a couple of inches of water and you can hear wildlife in the woods,” said group member Peggy Stanley of Medway, who has a 12-foot Acadia kayak.
A member of the Katahdin Citizens Group, a 134-member volunteer organization dedicated to regional business and community development, Stanley said she hopes Katahdin Paddlers will help townspeople recreate together more.
“We want everybody getting involved in the region, not just this town doing this and this town doing that,” Stanley said. “Singly we can only fail. I don’t know if people want to see it. I think we are all in denial, but I hope we start doing more with each other.”
Katahdin Citizens is among a half-dozen community groups that have been meeting, some for more than a year, to pursue economic and community development projects. The goal of all the divergent efforts is the same — the revitalization of a community beset by the impact of brutal job losses, officials said.
Katahdin Paddlers has held two river tours so far, daylight and moonlight trips, from the boat launch in the Penobscot’s East Branch off Medway Recreation Area Road. The moonlight ride on June 18 drew about 40 people, including many who brought kayaks and other equipment for those who didn’t have them.
Extra stuff can be available for new members who join the group’s next ride, the Boom House Paddle, at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, July 16, if they contact Lyons through The Katahdin Paddlers Facebook page, she said.
They will paddle Ambajejus Lake from the North Woods Trading Post on Millinocket Lake Road to the Boom House Museum, a circa-1835 National Historic Register property and the only structure remaining from the famous West Branch river drives. They will tour the museum and picnic there. Membership in the paddlers group is free, but museum admission is $2, Lyons said.
The group also will paddle Togue Pond, beginning at 8:30 a.m. on July 23.
The volunteers also are organizing the Penobscot River Fest at the Medway Recreation Area from Aug. 19-21. The event will feature talent and amateur movie shows, baked bean, pie and chili contests, and an Anything That Floats water parade, Lyons said. Admission is free.
