Monthly Archives: September 2018

Kayaking to Historic Damariscove Island

More than four centuries ago, Damariscove Island was a busy place. Before Jamestown and Plymouth Colonies were founded, the island was settled in 1604 as a commercial fishing enterprise. Abenaki Indians were even earlier intermittent residents, sporadically visiting what they called Aquahega in primitive canoes during the summer months. Located off the coast of Boothbay, […]

Cycling Picturesque North Haven

My introduction to Maine coastal islands came when I was a young Revenue Officer with the Internal Revenue Service in 1973. Revenue Officer responsibilities did not make me particularly popular with independent island fishermen. The mission was to collect seriously delinquent taxes, often using harsh enforcement measures, and conducting preliminary investigations on those perceived to […]

Dead Weekend

A character in Kenneth Roberts’ historical novel Arundel remarked of the Dead River, “(It’s) no more dead than a bobcat after a rabbit.” Joining the Kennebec River in West Forks after sixteen miles of almost continuous Class I through IV whitewater, the Dead is in actuality the west branch of the Kennebec and one of […]