Kennebec River, Augusta ME: Wildlife and Current

Beach beside the launch.  That tiny white dot by the bridge piling; a sturgeon jumping or an osprey diving?

  If you're in Augusta, even if you're without boats, you should stop by the boat launch under the Memorial Bridge.  There's a small park there, trees for shade, a playground, picnic tables and benches looking over the river.  And a great variety of wildlife;  we saw osprey, eagles blue heron, herring gulls, mink, and ducklings.  But we were there primarily to look for sturgeon.  Large 3-4 foot long sturgeon, which for unknown reasons jump straight up out of the river, primarily in late June and July.  And, while you can just sit on the shore and look for sturgeon, if you have a boat available, it's also fun to play on the Kennebec River.

     Augusta has about a five foot tidal range, we were there about an hour before low, with a swift moving down river current, and a moderate south wind acting against it.  Noting the eddylines, we choose to ride the current down to buoy 82, cross there and wend our way back using old boom islands to assist us.

  Just above buoy 82 are some great stone buildings, the old Kennebec Arsenal, built between 1828 and 1838.  These structures were annexed by the nearby Maine State Hospital in 1905, and abandoned in 2004.   Note the wonderful broad ship landing, and the elegant copper structures capping the ventilation shafts.  It's a beautiful property, awaiting redevelopment.   

Picking my way back upstream behind boom islands, the launch is just beyond the bridge

    Having made it back to the launch in a reasonable time and with a reasonable effort, we headed north, past Old Fort Western.   Fort Western was built in 1754, and is New England's oldest  remaining  wooden Fort.  A bateau associated with the fort was docked at the landing.

    We made it up to the railroad bridge before reaching a point of no further progress, then crossed the Kennebec and rode down to the buoy again.

Gliding by the Old Augusta Post Office and Courthouse, the mink was hiding along this shore

  Along the way we probably saw ten or twelve sturgeon jump, including a few really big ones.  We didn't get any pictures, but Linwood Riggs, a patient photographer, has captured several jumping sturgeon.  Our wildlife photography was limited to some gangly ducks hoping for a handout.

  It was a delightful evening, temps in the 70's, low humidity, incredible architecture, amazing animals and just a great time to play on the water.

Summary:  Launch:  Augusta Boat Launch, off Howard Lane.  Concrete ramp, kayak condos, several parking spaces shared with a picnic and playground area, porta-potties.  The Augusta Tide Chart is here, it's far enough up river to have a very different tide from most places.  The loop with the extra section was 2.5 miles.

Links:  Kennebec Arsenal  http://www.fortwiki.com/Kennebec_Arsenal
           Wikipedia Kennebec Arsenal:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennebec_Arsenal

Kennebec River Bath, Maine – City of Ships

Basics: Bath Town Landing South. Washington St Street, Bath Outhouse, Sufficient Parking. High noon, launch 10:00AM, finish 1:30PM, including 45 minute break, 8.3 miles. Watch for current in river.

A return to Mark’s boyhood haunts along the Kennebec River; days of freedom and exploration, adventures in a 13 foot canoe including getting caught in the current near Doubling Point Light and barely making it home. He hoped to revisit many of those sites, and I hoped to avoid becoming another story of near tragedy. Not that we were aiming for any of the danger sections of the Kennebec, the mouth, Upper and Lower Hell’s Gate and the Chop below Merrymeeting Bay, but even the long stretch along the city can get significant current.

Mark planned the trip, paying careful attention to tide tables. We started by heading down to Doubling Point and then easily back, heading up along the eastern side, a scenic area not unlike many coastal islands.

We paddled north to Bath, occasionally discovering areas of chop. There was a steady breeze from the north, and an incoming tide, though we met several back eddies. But the irregular patches of chop was a reminder that Mark’s boyhood adventures in a 13 foot canoe were probably ill advised.

I loved this view of the two bridges, the old Carlton bridge, still in use for trains and the new bridge.

In preparation for Bath Heritage Days, (always over the Fourth of July weekend) a Carnival was being set up in the shade of the Carlton Bridge.

On July 4, 2011 they will be laying a new keel for a copy of the Virginia at the Bath Freight Shed. The Virginia is perhaps the first ship built by Englishmen on American shore, built by the desperate settlers of Popham eager to escape back to a warmer and safer of England. The 51 foot pinnace should be finished by fall, and I hope to visit it someday. In the meantime we were intrigued by this boat on display by the Freight Shed.

We lunched at the Bath Waterfront Park, watching as park workers decorated the trees with red, white and blue lights. Mark spent quite a bit of time comparing tales of old Bath with another returning visitor.

Our return was along the Eastern edge of the river, though we took special care to stay outside the buoys marking the secure area surrounding Bath Iron Works(BIW).

Much had changed over the years. There was a new dry dock (and the secure area) at BIW.

There was new park south of BIW, and the Maine Maritime Museum had grown tremendously. They offer 20 cruises weekly with six themes, plus behind-the-scenes look at BIW.

The Bath Town Landing South boat launch was also new. We didn’t pull into the landing yet, but used the high tide to explore Winnegance Creek, which becomes a bay at high tide. Winnegance Creek is shallower than the river , and has very limited current. It was the area Mark spent most of his time in as a boy. Despite all those advantages, it was still the site of many remembered disasters: then he and his brothers hadn’t been able to row back against the wind and had to have a neighbor rescue them; another time they were nearly being stranded in a mud flat in low tide. We crawled around the inlet and Mark was amazed at how much smaller it had become, and weedier. Sturgeon seemed to like the area. We saw several smaller sturgeon (about 18 inches long) jumping while we paddled over to what may have been an old saw mill beside a tide mill.

Overall it was an interesting paddle, moving water, winds and traffic, and lots of fascinating scenery, even if you don’t have someone along to regale you with tales of his youth.

Kennebec River from Augusta

Why do the sturgeon jump from the water? No one really knows, but we were headed to the Kennebec to see the fish jump. It’s always a hit or miss proposition, and we’ve never had any luck getting our kids to see them.
Usually we see the fish on the seventeen mile Fort to Fort paddle, but we didn’t participate in that this year. The Fort to Fort commemorates Benedict Arnold's attack on Quebec, but goes in the easy direction. He went upstream; the Fort to Fort paddle goes downstream, a much easier proposition.
There are other attractions Augusta, however sturgeon were our goal, an evening adventure was our plan. I’ve heard sturgeon jump most in the evening, so ideally we would enjoy a dinner at Panera and paddle.
We launched from the East Side Boat launch, which is tucked behind Fort Western off Howard Street. All the parking there is deep spaces which allow trailers. There are restrooms, but the stalls don’t have doors and on multiple occasions the toilets have been toilet paper free and clogged with paper towels. These are clearly restrooms which cry out for air dryers. I didn’t even check them on this visit; we just planned on them not being available.

The East Side Boat Launch

The sturgeon were jumping, I saw them even as we got our kayaks ready to launch. But we never had a fish jump when we were near and the largest fish we saw was only three feet long.
I don’t know if we were just unlucky or if this reflected a reduced sturgeon population. Last year we had six solid weeks of rain and several sturgeons were found dead at the mouth of the Kennebec.
We launched at about 5:30PM, high was supposed to be 7:30PM. As a note, that high was five hours behind Bangor’s high, so it was definitely worth checking the tide charts. If I was doing it again, I would launch closer to high, as at the old dam site it took everything we had to make it through. As we drifted back we saw the water was just enough higher to level out that passage. Not that the current disappeared. No matter how far you plan to go, upstream first would be a good idea.
We went upstream and made it beyond the route 3 bridge, which was our goal. There were some shallow sections, some fast moving sections, and some shallow fast moving sections. There were a few eagles, lots of osprey and up to four herons hanging out together. The herons would be outnumbered by osprey on the downstream trip (much faster) when seven osprey circled above.

Since we were sure of our paddling abilities we continued on down as far as the old Maine Insane Asylum. It was a stately gray building, with heavy screens on the windows, and looked to be totally abandoned.

We saw jumping sturgeon primarily between the bridges. In truth, it would have been just as easy to sit on the shore and watch for them. But it was more fun to get out on the water and beat our way upstream, while we worked off some of our dinner.
Some great shots of Kennebec Sturgeon.