Brewster Academy Training

Brewster Academy is a private boarding school in the Wolfeboro, New Hampshire area and sits on the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee, the biggest freshwater body of water in the state.  In the summer months Brewster Academy offers adventure programming to their visiting students.  In addition to sailing and backpacking, they also do a great bit of canoeing and kayaking in their programs.  Seven Rivers Paddling trains the summer program providers for skills & leadership on the water in canoes & kayaks.  Peter asked me to help run the program with him and I could not resist.  He has a true love for paddling and is easy to work with.

On Day One we worked out of touring canoes and ran some basic skill sessions to get everyone up to speed.  Strangely, some of the teachers joined us on the water and in my mind, brought down the program some.  It was a surprise to me, but I didn't question it since they often join and were taking pictures.  However, it did become distracting to students and undermining to Peter and myself.  I just reminded myself that it's their program and they're eager to see their new summer staff succeed.

I try to coach at a slow pace whenever I can.  I think a solid foundation is really important for all paddle sports, but large groups like this sometimes means you need to go faster, because they need to follow a curriculum.  It's tough to deliver, but I think Peter and I trimmed enough out of their list to leave a good focus on the most important stuff.

Day Two we worked in sea kayaks until lunch, just about the same time the rain started falling.  Luckily, Brewster Academy has a world class boat house on the water's edge and we could seamlessly cap off our program with some serious on-land teaching sessions and trip planning problems.  Interestingly, these forced indoor sessions turned out to be my two favorite sessions of the whole weekend.

I look forward to returning next year.  Here are some pics.

Lamprey River Source to Sea Paddle & Fundraiser

50 mile scout trip - complete!

On Tuesday May 14th, Peter Sawtell and myself parked our truck at Northwood Meadows State Park in Northwood, New Hampshire, unloaded gear and headed out with the intent of following the Lamprey River all the way to saltwater. This was a 50-mile scout trip and fundraiser to ensure proper planning on an upcoming Lamprey River Source to Sea program that will take 12 kids onto the river for a 5-day program teaching paddling skills, river knowledge and outdoor education.  Peter is with Seven Rivers Paddling out of Newmarket, NH and Rivers for Change is partnering with his business to offer this program. 

Talking with Tim of Newmarket Channel 13

Getting a late start, we made our first portage around 2pm – a 1/2 mile stroll through the woods to find the official source of the Lamprey River, a small pond in the state park.  We quickly found the pond and within ten minutes had made the short paddle across the pond, perhaps the easiest section of paddling for the next three days.

On the far shore, a small stream flowed from the pond, under the trail and into the meadow, full from all the rain in the past couple weeks. Knowing that this was the official source of the Lamprey River, the trip had begun in earnest and once we floated the boats, we were committed.

The next 5.5 miles took every minute of five and a half hours of walking, pushing, pulling and paddling the boats downriver. Not being large enough to actually paddle yet, the goal was simply to follow the flow and explore the upper stretches of this river as it changed from meadow to swamp to pond to creek to river. It was truly exciting but took much effort and positive energy to continue, knowing that eventually the river would increase in volume enough to paddle our way towards sea. 

Floating boats at the source of the Lamprey

Slowly and carefully following the river downstream

Lots of beaver activity to contend with

Miles of walking the upper stretches of river, still just a creek

beautiful surroundings on our walk

By 7:30pm, about twenty minutes before sunset, we reached Freese’s Pond and the first dam on the trip. It’s about six miles downstream from the source and is a fairly large expanse of water considering the river had been so tiny until now. Finding a good camp spot, we setup, ate dinner and settled in for a cold 39 degree night, opting to go without a tent since the seasonal black flys had not shown up yet.

Hitting the river at 7:00am the next morning fueled with strong coffee and granola, day two would hold twelve hours of paddling at a much faster pace. Luckily, volume continued to increase, even below the first dam and sections became easier to negotiate. To our surprise, the Lamprey holds much more whitewater than we had anticipated. Small drops, modest gorges and dozens of riffles awaited our day as we followed the river, reading and running the entire time.

Lamprey flow was great during our three days, 5/14-5/16

Snack breaks, map checks, portages, strainers and social media posts all broke up the day slightly, and before long we were making true mileage while experiencing the transformation of this mighty river from little to big. The most beautiful sections of river were deep in the woods with nothing around but rocks, trees and the feeling of history with the odd piece of metal or human made rock structure. It was cool, to say the least. A number of weeks earlier, we spent a day scouting river crossings in the snow, peeking at rapids, drops and stretches that became familiar while paddling.

One of dozens of strainers we climbed over or under

By nightfall, we covered a respectable thirty three miles of river, feeling every bit of it with bangs, bruises & scratches to our bodies and equipment. Finishing the day at Wadleigh Falls, a dangerous set of falls where a historic dam had broken, we portaged and called it a day, opting to finish out the last 11-12 miles in the early morning. The entire day had been spent analyzing the river to decide what sections were safe enough and interesting enough to paddle during the July Source to Sea Camp with 12 kids from the local area. Feeling good about many sections, we developed a rough plan by nightfall.

Way more fun whitewater than we expected

A significant portion of the Lamprey is federally dedicated Wild & Scenic river

The next morning we had only three stretches of river left to paddle – Wadleigh falls to Wiswall Dam, Wiswall Dam to Packers Falls and Packers Falls to Newmarket, the sight of the last dam on the river and the barrier between freshwater and saltwater. Past that dam lay three miles of the Lamprey River and fourteen more miles of Great Bay and Piscataqua River before flowing into the Atlantic. Before we  reached that location, we still had to portage Wiswall dam and run Packers Falls, the biggest stretch of whitewater on the trip, a section of Class III with a decent drop and a substantial volume of water. 

Peter threading the needle on some small whitewater barely big enough to run

Leading the way, I dropped into the falls with my 16′ Esquif Avalon, a far cry from a whitewater canoe. I swamped in the first drop but paddled through the rest of the rapid without incident, clearing the water in the eddy below the rapids. Peter steered his 15′ P&H Delphin straight into the steepest part of the drop, got slightly worked by water but recovered control quickly to make it through the rest of the falls unscathed and hooting. 

After three days of paddling and only 3 miles from our destination, we made it through the crux. After a quick break onshore to change into board shorts and sandals, we cruised the last three miles of flatwater in warm sunshine, feeling good about the trip and the planning. We are definitely ready to guide kids down the river in July and are much better off knowing the route intimately.  

Day One: 6 miles in 6 hours
Day Two: 33 miles in 12 hours
Day Three: 11 miles in 4 hours

To learn more about the Lamprey River Source to Sea Program, visit riversforchange.org/lampreyriver.

To learn more about Seven Rivers Paddling, visit sevenriverspaddling.com

To make a tax-deductible donation to the program, visit grouprev.com/lampreyriver-mattpalmariello

Tufts University Training

This spring is shaping up to be a busy season on the water and I'm really excited to be working with Peter Sawtell of Seven Rivers Padding.  Today we partnered up and led a canoeing skills & leadership workshop for students in the Tufts University adventure program.  Later this semester they'll be leading other students on canoe trips in the Maine wilderness and need some vital training to get ready. 

Making our way up to the Lake Sunapee region of New Hampshire, we met the students on a small lake perfect for this training.  We spent the morning working on hard skills in tandem canoes and all did well.  After lunch we moved onto trip planning, more advanced paddling skills and saved our rescue practice for last, since the pond was cold, the air was cold and the students were not as prepared as they should've been.  Once in the water, they would be cold since they were not equipped with wetsuits or drysuits.  I have to give them lots of credit because they all dug in and completed rescues really well and rather quickly. 

This was a good opener for me this season.  I absolutely love paddling canoes and did not even mind keeping the bow seat warm for awhile today. 

Allagash Wilderness Waterway

The Allagash Wilderness Waterway is a 92-mile stretch of lakes, ponds and rivers flowing North through the Maine woods.  It was established back in 1970 as one of the countries first Wild & Scenic Rivers and remains as Maine's only federally designated Wild & Scenic river today.

I've been dreaming of a trip here since I learned about it twenty years ago.  I wanted to make the trip on a standup paddleboard, but the management office maintains that only 'traditional' watercraft are allowed in the region.  That means that crafts must fall into strict physical dimensions as well as construction methods.  Sups are not allowed, so I opted for a good ole' traditional open canoe.  

I've been working with an awesome crew all summer and we've been planning this trip slowly throughout the last couple months.  Well, last week we finally had the weather window and the time to make the 5-day trip.  Water was still very low this year, so we had to modify our trip a bit and excluded running the river.  Quite the bummer, but there just wasn't enough water to make a smooth trip down the whitewater sections, so we opted for a lake trip instead, with a focus on lake tripping, fishing and camping.  It was a pretty solid Plan B and none of us regretted it one bit.

After a long drive north to the area in two vehicles, we unloaded at the put-in and then immediately ran a shuttle further North to the take-out.  It was only about 45-50 miles away, but we were traversing logging roads the entire time.  Granted, they're in awesome shape, but they're narrow, filled with ruts and have some crazy logging truck traffic.  About four hours later we finally made it back to the put-in and launched.

The next four days we explored some incredible campsites, caught and released dozens of healthy fish, spotted moose and black bear and just had an incredible & relaxing Allagash experience.  Now that I'm home, I can begin planning my return trip in order to finish traversing the entire waterway, which means running that section of river we missed.  If you ever get a chance to visit, it's worth every bit of travel and planning to get the experience of a remote and pristine water-filled wilderness.

Enjoy the pics..

West branch of the Penobscot was flowing

Running shuttle.  Waiting for logging trucks to load up and clear the road.  Logging companies own this land and the roads, so we're at their mercy.

First nights campsite.  

Exploring the famous Allagash Trains.  Long story short, these trains moved lumber between two lakes.  They pretty much portaged full trees and when they were no longer needed, it was much cheaper to leave them there than to dismantle and move them.  Today, they draw many visitors.

One of our shuttle vehicles.  Little thing did pretty awesome on the logging roads.  

Close to prime foliage season.  

Love is in the water.. 

Looking up lake from Chamberlain Dam.

Gorgeous weather for the entire trip.

Settling in to the Maine way of life

I moved to Maine.

I never thought I'd live on the East Coast again, but things change and people do to.  Change is good and I'm embracing this one.

After a five-day cross-country drive listening to a Short History of Nearly Everything, sleeping in the backseat of my Subaru at truck stops with everything I own and toting 5 standup paddleboards and a bike on a trailer behind me I arrived in Maine only to find out I still had another hour and a half to go.  Trish surprised me by renting a cabin for the week on a little lake chain in central state.  I quickly unloaded my crap into a small storage unit, dropped the trailer and headed Northwest to Belgrade Lakes with bikes and sups for a week of unwinding on the lake.  Northwest?  Yes, Northwest.  I have to get used to that again.  If I'm looking north the ocean is to the East, not the West.  And I just spent the last ten years learning it the other way.  Whatever - by the end of the day I was paddling with loved ones and was off to a good start settling in to the Maine way of life.

In the next week I relaxed, read a book, visited family, got some mountain biking in and paddled just about everyday.  I canoe commuted to the market to pickup groceries for dinner and to the post office to mail some work.  I paddled in a downpour when I ventured too far across the lake (it rains here!).  I portaged Main street in order to explore another lake in the chain.  There is water everywhere and coming from a California drought, this is a huge treat.  I've renewed my love of canoeing and I'm excited to undertake some downeast adventure.

scouting some streams.  Site of a canoe poling competition.

dock life is the good life

mountain biking the Bigelow range

exploring Great Pond

freshwater & a borrowed canoe

training on Long Pond

Eppie's Great Race 41

Four days before Eppie's Great Race, I got an email from Tom saying that he needed a last minute bow paddler for the last leg of the race, a 6.35 mile downriver paddle in a tandem open canoe.  As luck would have it for me, his paddling partner had a change of plans and couldn't make it back to Sacramento in time for the race, so I was in.

I don't know Tom very well, but I have tons of respect for him and it's awesome to see a great canoeist paddling in California.  He's fun to paddle with, he's a really positive ambassador for California paddling and is just a pleasure to be around.  I knew we'd paddle well together and was looking forward to canoeing downriver with him.

This was the 41st year of Eppie's and the country's oldest triathalon, but the first year for me.  It was great to see a well-organized race getting so many paddlers onto the Lower American river for some fun and exercise and to raise money for Sacramento County Therapeutic Recreation Services.  Tom had assembled a pretty great team and when Scott and I made the handoff from cycling to paddling, we were around tenth place overall, the second canoe team to hit the water.  The first team of canoeists got about a 3-4 minute start on us and were within sight for the first half of the race.  They were paddling a faster canoe, but we held ground the whole way.

Our run was almost flawless as we held speed, hit all of the whitewater right on our lines and finished in a pretty good time of 48:47 averaging about 7.6mph.  Nice race!

Fun on the Russian

photo by John Burgess, Press  Democrat

East Bay sup / CCK sup / BPC / TBD sup did awesome at the Russian River Race this weekend in Healdsburg.  Organizers put on the Drought Edition this year due to low water on the river.  The 15-mile course was cancelled, but the 5-mile was still on with almost 200 paddlers.  Leading up to May 3rd, water levels slowly rose and presented a very runnable river leaving just a few areas of shallow water to portage or scrape over.

Last year I paddled the 15-mile course on a standup board and finished third.  But, my board did not fair well, coming home with a damaged fin and two holes.  No problem, all was repaired.  This year, however, knowing water levels could be even lower, I opted to race in a solo canoe.  Turns out I was the only person to enter solo canoe so I was added to the Men's Single Kayak division.  I felt slightly disadvantaged, but didn't care too much as this race is more about the fun than the competition.  Of course, I can get a little competitive on the water, so I went hard anyways.  

I got a good start and hit the narrow river in fourth.  I quickly moved into third and drafted one and two for a couple minutes.  These guys were going hard, but weren't fast enough, so I moved over and went for the pass on both of them.  As I passed right, three others moved up the left, also passing.  As we all moved back in line, I ended up back in fourth position, but with three fast paddlers in front of me.  They all slowly dropped me, but I caught ground in a few areas where I made better reads on the channels and found more fast water.  Nearing the end, I reeled third in to just a few boat lengths.  I could see the finish and increased my pace to put the pressure onto him.  Well, it worked because he crossed a slight eddyline and began to turn, against his will.  That was my chance and as he started to spin he noticed me about to overtake him and panicked.  That little panic was enough of a chance for me to pass him in the last 200 feet.  

So, 55 minutes 06 seconds later, I crossed the finish line third in a field of 23 kayakers with the 6th fastest time overall.  You know what they say about canoeists?  Half the paddle, twice the paddler!

In the end, our crew walked away excited with armloads of swag.  Nice job crew!

Women's SUP

• 1st - Laury Croter, 1:05:30
• 2nd - Lucija Hadziselimovic, 1:12:52

Men's SUP

• 1st - John Walsh, 52:50
• 3rd - Mitch Silverstein, 58:14

Men's Single Kayak

• 3rd - Matt Palmariello, 55:06

Laury (1st - women's sup) & Mitch (3rd - men's sup)

Celebratory high five as Lucija crosses the finish line.  John (1st - men's sup), Lucija (2nd - women's sup)