Before spending a couple of days exploring the Kennebec River my first order of business was paddling from my Wiscasset, ME campsite to Westport Island (above photo) where my kayak was crafted by its designer/builder some dozen years ago. This was my first car-camping trip of 2024 and I could not have selected a better spot than Chewonki Campground...
My spacious campsite provided plenty of room for setting up my base of operations...
The view to the south from the campground shows the tidal Montsweag Brook reaching in from Montsweag Bay...
My visit coincided with the first heat wave of the season yet a cooling breeze from Casco Bay provided reliable relief from the heat. The campground's salt-water pool also helped in that regard.
On Day 1 after launching at the campground I rounded Chewonki Point and looked out at Montsweag Bay...
...before heading northeast up the Back River towards Westport Island. Made landfall a short distance from where I believe my Surge kayak was born. This small deer stopped grazing long enough to welcome my boat and me ashore...
After making a brief landfall (opening photo) I paddled alongside Westport Island admiring some of its shoreline structures...
...before paddling back to the campground...
Post paddle I did some scouting alongside the Kennebec and paid a visit, by car and on foot, to the Squirrel Point Light on Arrowsic Island. Reaching the lighthouse requires driving down a 2-mile long dirt road and then hiking 2/3 of a mile along a trail that looked to me like one the Wabanaki people would have used...
Signage at a fork in the trail was helpful...
Arrived at the lighthouse...
...and learned how Squirrel Point got its name...
After reading the above account, paddling to Lee Island was added to my Wednesday to-do list.
Subsequently, the following morning I launched from Morse Cove in Phippsburg and headed downriver against an incoming tide...
Along the way there were tidal currents swirling especially where the river narrowed...
Approaching Lee Island (aka Puddlestones Island)...
...where a bald eagle welcomed me with open wings...
The island shows little in the way of development perhaps looking much as it did back in 1717 when more than 200 Wabanaki used it for their headquarters during a multi-day conference with Massachusetts Governor Samuel Shute. A written account of the 4 day conference can be found on the Maine Memory Network under treaties 1717. The exchanges (through an interpreter) between Wiwurna (Kennebeck) and Governor Shute are well worth reading. The conference was said to have taken place on nearby Arrowsic Island just across the river at a place called Menaskek. The Wabanaki were given a British flag and asked to display the flag in their lead canoe when approaching Menaskek. From what I read on the Squirrel Point plaque and other accounts at Mainememory.com, the conference did not go well and there was no "meeting of the minds". Wiwurna wanted boundary lines beyond which the English wouldn't build settlements or forts. Governor Shute insisted on having no such boundaries. In the 1848 Library of American Biography-Lives of John Ribault, Sebastian Rales Vol. XVII edited by Jared Sparks the author speculated that the Jesuit Missionary, Father Rales, may have accompanied the Wabanaki to the conference and perhaps stayed out of sight on the island. Several times during the conference the Wabanaki returned to the island, possibly to consult with Rales. Rales was a Frenchman and tried to help the Wabanki hold on to their ancestral lands whereas Gov. Shute was telling the Wabanaki their land had already been purchased by the English. The Wabanaki Sagamores and Chief Captains attending included Moxus, Bommazeen, Wanudagumboit, Wiwurna, and Queguaroomanit of Kennebeck. Querenebuit of Penobscot. Adeawando of Pegwackit, and Sabbatis of Ammarescoggin.
The conference ended with the Wabanaki reluctantly acknowledging their weakened position as to the lands east of the Kennebec. Wiwurna did not attend the remainder of the conference after his dustup with Gov. Shute.
The view from the south end of Lee Island (Puddlestones Island) where Gov. Shute's vessel the H.M.S. Squirrel ran aground on the ledge at Squirrel Point...
It's said that the Wabanaki actually helped in getting the H.M.S. Squirrel afloat once again.
A conference of a different type was taking place on the Drummore Bay side of Lee Island with nearly 80 Canada geese perhaps believing there's strength in numbers when dealing with hungry eagles...
On my way back upriver I saw numerous eagles. This one looked different than any other bald eagles I've encountered...
Above Morse Cove I paddled to Fiddlers Reach and got a look at the Range Lights designed to help upriver-traveling vessels hold a safe course by keeping the two lights in line with each other...
Here the river takes a hard left to Doubling Point Light...
...where it then makes a hard right before approaching Bath, ME. The system of navigational aids was built in 1898.
Some 58 years after Governor Shute's trip up the Kennebec a fleet of 11 "transports" sailed into the Kennebec. It happened in September of 1775 in the early days of the American Revolution when an 1100-man force of Continental soldiers was assembled with the intent of journeying across the wilds of Maine in order to assault and capture British-controlled Quebec City in Canada. They'd sailed out of Newburyport, MA. I'd brought along my copy of Kenneth Roberts March to Quebec - Journals of the Members of Arnold Expedition which Roberts had used as source material in writing his book Arundel. The journal I most enjoyed reading was that of the expedition's surveyor, John Pierce (he and I happen to share a common ancestor), who seemed to notice more details than some of the others. Pierce describes the open ocean part of the journey resulting in "many of us were very sea sick". However things improved once the transports entered the Kennebec and waited for the tide. When winds weren't favorable the men "...were obliged to row all the forenoon...much sport was Occasioned by our Schooners rowing by each other - men in good Spirits... Some of our People shot at Seals that appeared in the river" (such as this fellow who verified Pierce's account)...
After returning to Morse Cove I mentioned the many seals to a local fisherman, and he said, if I heard correctly, that "they were leopard seals" (perhaps he was joshing this flatlander).
The next day I crossed over the Kennebec to Fort Richmond in Richmond, ME...
...at the upriver end of Swan Island. My destination was the Pownalborough Court House where Pierce wrote "We drank 7 or 8 bowls of egg rum Pownalborough is ye Town name/Jail and Block house and Court house the east side of the river in ye County of Lincoln". Sounds like that may have been one of the last few pleasant times those men experienced on their difficult expedition that ultimately ended in defeat on New Year's Day at Quebec City.
After passing under the Dresden/Richmond bridge...
...I headed upriver with the rising tide and kept hearing what I thought to be the unmistakable sound of beaver tail-slaps...only they weren't beavers, but rather sturgeon leaping up out of the water before slapping back down in an attempt to rid themselves of parasites. At least that's how one fisherman explained it to me.
While looking for the Court House I stopped to view this eagle nest with an eaglet inside...
It was only after reaching Cedar Grove that I realized I'd missed the Court House. A riverside resident said I was a mile past it...and he was correct...exactly a mile back downriver brought me to it...right where the eagle nest was. After landing in a pleasantly shady cove...
...I hiked up to the Pownalborough Court House passing this canon along the way...
The Court House...
It's history...
The eagle nest as seen from land...
In fact eagles were everywhere, in the sky, in the trees, on rocks, and even wading...
On the return trip I visited Lovejoy Narrows before returning to Fort Richmond Park...
With my paddling done and the temperature 94 degrees I drove another 6 miles upriver of the Court House to Pittston, ME where on Arnold Road I found the Reuben Colburn House...
...where this bronze plaque speaks to the crucial role it played in the Arnold Expedition...
Another plaque tells the story and shows some of the key figures...
In front of the shop building was a replica of the 220 batteaux that were built here...
Greatly enjoyed my time in Maine and was pleased to encounter hardly any trash. Only this over 3 days...
Also worth noting is that not even 1 "nip" bottle was seen on or off the water...perhaps because Maine has a 5-cent redemption value for these pesky little bottles.
