This past Saturday the 43rd annual Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race was held in our area. It says canoe in the title, but kayaks are welcome too. The race is 16 miles long and starts in Kenduskeag and ends in Bangor where the stream runs into the Penobscot River. We had never gone to watch before, but wanted to take Quincy along to watch the boaters.
There is a section on the stream called Six Mile Falls which is very popular for watching – mainly because of all the wipe-outs that happen there. We knew not to go there because of the large crowds, and we didn’t want Quincy to be too worried about everyone dunking into the water.
We staked out a nice spot along the lower stream near Bangor and waited . . . and waited . . . and waited. The race started at 8:30am, but the water was sort of low in places so the racers had to portage in many places. Things picked up where we were around 11am or so (we got there around 10:15 or so). The funniest part was that we were almost run over by a canoe. Yes, you read that correctly – run over by a canoe.
It just so happens that we staked out a place where racers were going to put back into the stream due to a part that wasn’t navigable. While sitting there, we suddenly hear, “Move the chairs!!!” Coming barreling down the hill towards us were about 6 people and a rather large canoe. Needless to say, we got out of their way. We also decided to move a bit more downstream so that we could actually see the boats in the water.
We saw only two boats flip – one happened while they were putting back in the stream and the other one was when a canoe tipped trying to navigate a stretch of white water. Note: don’t all lean in the same direction in a canoe at the same time. Bad things happen.
Quincy had a great time. Before we went, we told him that he had to clap and cheer the people on. So, on race day, Quincy clapped and said to the boaters, “Go! Go! Go! Yea!!!” People thought he was quite funny. The weather was perfect too. We took some pictures of the stream, us, and some boaters. You can check them out in the gallery.