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Go Paddle 4 Fun LLC
Newsletter V.1 Issue 1 April 21, 2003
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Audubon Camp and Kayaking (David Klinger)
Until I met Mark DiGirolamo at the Audubon Camp in Maine, I had never set foot in a kayak.
Thirty minutes into it, I was hooked.
Two years later, it’s hard to get me out of my Old Town “Loon 138.”
DiGirolamo and the Audubon Camp In Maine are riding the crest of the exponential growth in recreational sea kayaking in the Pine Tree State, where picturesque coastal towns are studded with start-up kayak day-rental shops and where seemingly every third car on the Maine Turnpike in summer carries its own roof rack .
“It’s just exploded, and it isn’t slowing down,” says DiGirolamo, who launched his Breakwater Kayak Company touring service in nearby Rockland, Maine, in 2000, and who sees no end to the boom.
DiGirolamo and Audubon, however, have compounded their success by marrying the popularity of summer kayaking with a much older outdoor tradition in Maine.
Since 1936, birdwatchers and outdoor enthusiasts have flocked to 333-acre Hog Island in Maine’s mid-coast Muscongus Bay for science instruction at the nation’s oldest continually-operating environmental camp for adults, now run by the Maine Audubon Society.
On this fog-shrouded spruce-and-fir island a quarter-mile off the mainland near Damariscotta, Maine, teachers, youth leaders, and a reliable army of Auduboners from across the country come for week-long sessions in field ornithology, marine and botanical life, and nature photography and writing, taught by an impressive array of subject-matter experts that began with the famed bird artist Roger Tory Peterson as the camp’s first birding instructor. Sessions meet at an historic compound of turn-of-the-century wooden houses and an atmospheric ship’s chandlery.
While traditional course offerings still typify the camp’s summer program, increasingly its managers have sought to diversify their subjects to reflect shifting outdoor recreation preferences, with a nod to today’s changing demographics.
In the late 1980’s, an Audubon Camp staffer, the late Eric “Rick” Ylagan, first suggested turning the camp’s natural history programs afloat. Ylagan, a much beloved Hog Island instructor who doubled as a high school science teacher in Bangor, in 1998 promoted an experimental “naturalizing by sea kayak” session, by which novice kayaker-naturalists could pursue their birding and tide pool investigations by water.
DiGirolamo, a registered Maine Guide and naturalist, was hired to lead the session. From the camp’s first 16 intrepid kayakers – “anxious,” in Ylagan’s words, “about what lay ahead of them and whether they would eventually get the hang of the sea kayak,” – it’s been steady growth every summer in the Audubon Camp’s sea-bound offerings.
“They’re my favorite trips of the season,” says DiGirolamo, 46, who’s been guiding among the islets of Muscongus Bay for 14 summers and who now contracts with the Audubon Camp to lead its annual kayaking sessions. “I get to spend time with people who share the same enthusiasm about the natural world as I do. And it’s a chance for me to learn from other people; they want to be here, and that makes my job a lot more fun. What a beautiful place to work!”
Audubon offers a variety of kayak-oriented sessions, all aimed at the novice paddler, but conducted in ways that retain appeal for the more-seasoned kayaker. In 2003, two “naturalizing by kayak” day-touring sessions, will be offered in July and August, along with two coastal kayaking adventure sessions for teens aged 14-17, both in July, where youngsters combine island touring with backcountry tent camping at a remote Hog Island cove. Additionally, two new sessions of kayak camping for adults – one coed, one limited to and led by women – will debut in July and August. Prices range from $750 to $1095 per week, equipment, lodging, and meals provided.
“We gear these sessions to beginners. No experience necessary,” says DiGirolamo. “Yet we sometimes have opportunities to split the groups into those who are more energetic, and others who may want to spend more time leisurely exploring.” A wardrobe of wet suits and a fleet of Necky “Amuruk,” Seda “Tango,” and Perception “Shadow” model kayaks in single and double cockpits enables DiGirolamo to tailor his Audubon expeditions to the ages, body sizes, skill levels, and program demands of each session.
Though she traded canoeing for kayaking nearly a decade ago, it was at Maine’s Audubon Camp that the kayak “bug” bit Maryland special education teacher Deborah Rowens. “I love Hog Island,” says Rowens, 48, who won a scholarship to the camp’s natural history program in 1997, only to discover that her other love – kayaking – would be added to the line-up the following year. She’s returned three years in a row, and now proudly boasts she’s kayaked for 51 consecutive months in the Chesapeake Bay tributaries in and around her hometown of Annapolis.
“There are a lot of different skill levels reflected in these classes,” she says. “Some novices, some experts, some who simply want to get over their fear of being in the water in a small boat.
“I also appreciate the basic safety they offer – a good refresher for me,” says Rowens. “We practice wet exits, self-rescues, assisting others, and as a more experienced kayaker, I’m able to assist in the preparations.”
Indeed, acknowledges DiGirolamo, there’s an observable progression in skill levels among participants in just the week they’re on the ocean, though never more than 3 miles out into Muscongus Bay. “They’re spending a lot of time in the boats, at least four days a week, and they have far more confidence and ability on the last day than the first.”
And though she had kayaked the Alatna River in the Arctic the previous summer, Georgian Allyson Read was new to the waves and ocean currents of Maine when she joined a “naturalizing” class in 2002. Read, 43, program manager for the Dunwoody Nature Center in Atlanta, had also won a prized adult scholarship to the camp from her local Audubon society, enabling her to pursue her interest in kayaking. “I was not new to the basic techniques, but I was new to sea kayaking,” says Read. “And though I was more advanced in both kayaking skills and in natural history than most people on the trip, I found so much to keep me interested, from birds to orienteering.”
DiGirolamo precedes each week’s session with an afternoon of “Level 1” navigation and paddling instruction and practice in safety skills; campers learn basic paddle strokes and bracing techniques, as well as rescue maneuvers. Each outing is supervised by at least two guides who’ve earned sea kayak and recreation licenses; they carry marine VHF communication and weather radios that enable leaders to keep a watchful eye on the occasional summer thunderstorm and the vagaries of winds and waves in this immense bay.
It’s then that eager campers embark on a series of island-hopping adventures that few other sea kayaking programs can match. "We land on a number of public islands, but Audubon and I have permission to land some private islands inaccessible to others,” says DiGirolamo. “Depending on the tide and the weather, we’ll explore coves, land on islands, and watch the osprey nests and seabirds that are found in Muscongus Bay.” DiGirolamo and his guides generally pack a plankton net and field microscope for paddle-powered plankton tows; a spare clam rake enables his charges to perform casual sand beach sampling once they’ve landed.
“If we stop for lunch on one of the islands, Mark can tell you about all of the plants – which ones are edible and can be sampled – and the little critters you can find,” says Maryland’s Rowens. “There’s binoculars for watching the harbor seals. These people are terrific guides!” In his off-season, DiGirolamo teaches science at Camden, Maine’s alternative high school; his three years as a field assistant conducting bird population studies for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife equip him well for a summer’s worth of expeditions where birds are a central focus for many vacationers.
Each kayak session is highlighted with a few unannounced stops that guarantee an memorable Audubon camp experience – an “up-close,” kayak’s-eye perspective on lobster harvesting from local watermen (any closer and you’d be sharing the trap with the prized catch!), a stopover at a hidden Indian shell midden, or a passing acquaintance with a pod of curious harbor seals.
For Read, her memorable moment was one night’s stargazing paddle, as Muscongus Bay magically transformed itself into a millpond. “The bioluminescence was like fireflies on a warm southern night,” she recollects. “With every paddle, there were sparkles. The water seemed so soft and mysterious.”
“Sometime during the week we tour our kayakers on our ‘Puffin IV’ powerboat out to Eastern Egg Rock, where they’ll see Atlantic puffins and three species of terns, including the endangered roseate tern,” says Audubon camp director Seth Benz. “These sessions provide a unique perspective on Muscongus Bay, and if you are interested in a ‘hands-on’ exploration of the Maine coast, sea kayaking is the way to go, where we’ll put you in touch with our exciting diversity of wildlife, backed up by Audubon’s expert interpretation.”
Interested in participating? Additional information about the Audubon Camp in Maine and a 2003 schedule of camp programs are available from the Maine Audubon Society at www.maineaudubon.org. The “Friends of Hog Island’s” Web site at www.fohi.org offers first-person experiences from this magical island. And more information about Mark DiGirolamo’s Maine-based tours is available at www.breakwaterkayak.com
David Klinger is a freelance writer who lives on an oxbow in the Potomac River near Shepherdstown, West Virginia and who kayaks alongside his 10-year-old Newfoundland, “Jackson” … who swims solo. He serves as interim president of the “Friends of Hog Island,” a support group for the 67-year-old Audubon Camp in Maine.
Copyright by David Klinger/All rights reserved
If you have an article you would like to submit, email the article or your request to info@gopaddle.com .
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