Updates: Excuses, Buoy, Castle Rock, Blog

As the sun goes down, ice crystals begin to grow on the surface of the river

Excuses: “It’s too hot”… “It’s uncomfortable”… “I’m not paddling anywhere dangerous”…. “I’ll stay close to shore.” It’s not a pretty thing when excuses that I've heard from those who don’t want to wear lifejackets play back from inside my head. It’s all about the drysuit. I’ve thought about buying a drysuit since I saw the “I Shouldn’t be Alive” episode about two kayakers crossing Rosario Strait, (which I was a little embarrassed to see was first shown in 2005. ) It was obvious that a drysuit well outperforms a wetsuit in cold water. I’ve actually had a drysuit for a couple of years. But I’ve never worn it. The story in the August Sea Kayaker about Randy Morgart falling into a river on a warm, calm, winter day reminded me how weak my excuses really were, particularly by late November. Plus this year I’ve had all the good examples of folks wearing drysuits showing up in blogs. So, those of you wondering if being a good example has any pay off, I’ll confirm yes, you’ve done your good deed for the year.

It's a misty day, so it must be above freezing

I’ve cut some rings off the neck of my drysuit, but nothing at the wrists, even though the gasket it a little tight, especially on my left wrist. I figure the neck can just be snug as opposed to tight, since I plan to keep my head well above water, but that excuse doesn’t apply to the wrists. I’ve gotten larger boots to accommodate the feet. And it’s been pretty comfortable. I hope to stick to my good intentions come spring, with its warm air and cold water.

Buoys: This is a picture of a buoy on the Penobscot taken Saturday.

It’s depressingly not a different buoy than it was this summer. I now suspect that the buoys are not changed out annually. Eventually I will get the final answer.  And look - by Dec 4 they were in place.

Castle Rock: I’ve discovered that Castle Rock can be viewed from the Orrington Picnic Area, which is about one mile south of Center Road along route 15. I suspect that the picnic area is closed for the winter, and Castle Rock does lose something when viewed from over a quarter mile away, but it is there.

Castle Rock as viewed from Orrington

Also, Friday as we paddled by I spotted a raccoon slinking away on the ledge. As I sat in my boat regretting that missed photo opportunity, a second raccoon followed behind it, then a third! Just like clowns from a clown car they kept appearing from this nothing little indent, until at last there was only this final raccoon, head down hanging out on the ledge.

Not much of the snoozing raccoon shows

Blog: Paddling less means more time working on other projects, including the blog. I’ve redone some of the pages, and added some links to the right. One, which appears as just a tiny link is to Paddling Planet. That’s a fun site which accumulates sea kayaking blogs from around the world. Gnarlydog, and A Whole Bunch of Ings posts appear there; and it’s a handy way to track them. The other links to the Outdoor Blogger Network , a site working to accumulate links to outdoor themed blogs. Many of the blogs there are currently fishing and hunting blogs, but there are categories for ecological, paddling, nature photography, hiking and more. That’s another fun place to spend some time. I often look through the photography blogs, and I enjoy Belfast Bushcraft, whose efforts at bushcraft remind me that you don’t have to be an expert to have fun and create something useful. And I can’t help but hope that lots more paddlers show up there.

Daily Paddles:

Mark takes a moment to free his release strap of ice

Daily paddles are fewer. We’re approaching our temperature limits, it gets harder to keep the hands and feet warm, and without nimble fingers, I’m not interested in paddling. In addition, ice is showing up on the Penobscot, and though it looks attractive in small clusters, it is decidedly less so in major sheets.

Mark has lifted some newly formed ice

And finally, my work hours are increasing. January through February I expect to work six days a week, and though I love my job, that does eat into the available daylight. So, every paddle may be our last, and those paddles we do take will be close to shore (and with a drysuit).

Calkin's Castle/Castle Rock

About the same time I came across the postcard with the steamboat on it, I found this postcard on Ebay.

It was a postcard of the river that I'd never seen before, and the rock was very familiar to me, though I knew it by a different name, Calkin’s Castle. It’s a soaring bold rock.

On the postcard they've colored over much of the rock with pale green

It’s always received a lot of attention from me, since that fall day I paddled by and found a porcupine hanging out on the rock.

Note the tide line.

I wasn’t sure if the porcupine was caught by the tide, or trying to bask in the limited sunlight.

Same shot, trimmed

I learned the name of the rock from Burpee Calkin, a nonagenarian who is one of Hampden’s treasures. He had a smelting license and was often out tending his nets when we paddled by. Though he is hard of hearing, he was very outgoing and shared with us tales of smelting. He also showed us a path, worn away to a narrow strip, which was once a road he’d used to cart ice up from the Penobscot. He’s lived through when the Penobscot was clean enough to be world renowned for its ice, through the heavily polluted years and is again seeing the river’s renaissance.

There are indents under the rock, though not properly a cave.

Looking upstream at Calkin's Castle

Looking downstream at the cliff

The tale printed on the card is plainly nonsense. When Hampden became a town, the Penobscot Indians already had an established settlement, Old Town. They traveled down the river to summer on Penobscot Bay, often in the Castine area. They traveled back up in the fall, sending the hunters to the North woods in winter. When the rivers reopened in the spring the hunters built canoes of moose skin and paddled back. The Penobscot were known as canoeing experts. They would have known the river better than anyone.

I wondered if the Braggons may have been early settlers. I did not find their name in Hampden Historical Sketches, but I thought I’d drop by Calkin’s Farm Stand, and see if they had heard the name.

Calkin’s Farm Stand is a familiar name in the area, open May through December, providing flowering plants and vegetables in spring, fresh vegetables through the summer, mums, apples, cider and more in the fall and Christmas greens in December. I spoke with Janice, Burpee’s daughter.
She’d never heard of the Braggons either, and she felt I may have been led a bit astray, that the proper name for the rock was Castle Rock.
That’s the term referred to in the interview stored at the UMaine Folklife Center.
"Castle Rock" - you may have heard that before. It is the name of the Maine town which was first used by Stephen King in the Dead Zone and was also the setting for his short story, the Body. After the Body became the hit movie, Stand By Me, Rob Reiner took the name Castle Rock for his production company.
Castle Rock, as written about by Stephen King, is not Hampden. On his own map Stephen King places Castle Rock in Oxford County. There’s no record of where Stephen King got the name, though some note there is a Castle Hill in Aroostook County.
But there is another option. Stephen King was a teacher at Hampden Academy in the early 70’s, and Janice says Burpee talked to him about local names and legends.

In either case, its a magnificant cliff, and you may see a porcupine there, so if you’re headed up the Penobscot River, keep an eye out for Castle Rock. The GPS Coordinates are 44° 43.277'N 68° 50.081'W.

If you’re headed down river, the old instructions remain true, Castle Rock is the second point below the (no longer existent) Hampden Wharf.

Left arrow, second point, Castle Rock, Right arrow by the yellowish grass is the old wharf location

And if you’re driving down Route 1A, be sure to stop in at Calkin’s Farm Stand for wonderful plants and local produce.