This is part 3 in our interview with Jim Lane, President of A.T.V. Maine. Jim didn’t hesitate to share his “Tips for Safe ATV Riding”, and reiterated several times that ATVs are great fun and offer a unique family activity, but must always be handled in recognition that ATVs are heavyweight machinery. As Jim said, “They aren’t toys. Ground is much harder than snow, if you fall off your ATV, crash through water at speed, or flip the machine, you can very quickly be seriously hurt.”

Jim’s short list of what to wear and bring on a ride on Maine's ATV trails:

1. Always ride wearing eye protection, no matter if is sunny, cloudy, or night. Also, it’s a very good practice to cover your mouth with a handkerchief, or similar, for dust while you ride. (If it is raining, the rain will settle any dust.)
2. Wear a helmet! Even though the state of Maine only requires helmets for riders under age 18, adults ought to protect themselves and act as good role models to younger riders.
3. Wear Gloves
4. Wear Long Pants: engines heat up and side pipes can burn you, as well as dirt & rocks can fly up while you are driving.
5. Get a good pair of sturdy boots; don’t wear open toed shoes.
6. Wear a long sleeved shirt for trail rides. It will protect you from branches, bugs, mud, and light scrapes. 
7. Take a pack with you with extra water and rain gear. “It’s Maine”, says Jim, “Wait 5 minutes and the weather will change.”

Learn more about Maine ATV trails & tours at Northern Outdoors.

This is Part 2 in 5 Part Series from our talk with A.T.V.Maine President Jim Lane in late July. 

Did You Know?

1. There are 65,000 registered ATV machines in the state of Maine.
2. You don’t need an ATV license but you do have to register your ATV machine if you ride in Maine. A portion of all registration fees go to Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife to oversee enforcement and investigate all accidents and complaints. Over $1.1 million goes to Maine’s Department of Conservation to help purchase lands, educate trail users, safety programs and fund trail  maintenance and improvements. Clubs apply for grants to do trail maintenance. These grants typically cover only a part of a Club’s total costs of maintaining trails, the rest is made up of volunteer time and local fundraising
3. Kids under age 16 have to take an ATV safety course in order to operate an ATV machine by themselves. Otherwise, an adult must ride with a child at all times.
4. The average age of an ATVer in Maine is 54 years of age!
5. A.T.V.Maine maintains $2 million in liability insurance coverage for ATV member Clubs and Landowners
6. Each club gets up to $400,000 per event liability coverage, through their dues to A.T.V.Maine. Landowners are similarly protected with A.T.V.Maine liability insurance. The state of Maine maintains liability coverage for landowners at $400,000 per event, not to exceed $1.2MM per year. Landowners who participate and allow trails on their land are covered under this insurance. If a lawsuit was to develop by an ATV rider, that suit would have to be against the state of Maine. The landowner cannot even be named.  (In fact, says Jim, it has always been the ATVers who have been in the wrong, if they are riding off trails)  This agreement allows the club that has signed and maintained this trail, to act in the landowners behalf against the illegal riders and can file a complaint and then have the riders summoned to court, without having the landowner’s named. The club polices the trails and protects the landowners, it is not up to the landowner to do his or her own policing.
7. Clubs sign a contract with each individual landowner about trail use on their lands, with the state of Maine backing each contract for registered official ATV Clubs.
8. All ATV machines have Spark Arrestors: By law all ATV machines have to have a spark arrestor and are manufactured with them. The only way for there not to be one is if the muffler system has been altered post-purchase, by a consumer. There is a misleading USFS ad that ran this summer alleging that  ATVs cause wildfires through sparks, but in fact this is not the case.

More information from "Captain Jim" coming up from the newest Maine ATV Trails & Resort: Northern Outdoors.

What is A.T.V. Maine?
We recently talked with Jim Lane, President of A.T.V. Maine, about Maine ATV trails  and the sport in general. A new ATV spur trail directly to Northern Outdoors Adventure Resort was officially approved earlier this spring, opening up access to hundreds of miles of exceptional ATV trails to our Northern Outdoors guests right from our cabins and resort.  Though we have years of experience as a premier snowmobiling resort in Maine, we are still  learning about ATVs. Jim has been involved with ATVs for over a decade and is an avid rider. Here’s what we found out:

A.T.V.Maine, the Alliance of Trail Vehicles of Maine, is a private, non-profit organization that represents over 100 affiliated ATV Clubs in Maine when dealing with the state, landowners, and other issues affecting ATV trails and riders in Maine.  ATVMaine has a great list of all the Maine ATV Clubs, with contact info, so you can find out detailed trail, riding, and resort information. A.T.V.Maine membership dues fund the organization’s efforts to assist Landowners and Clubs with trail issues, pro-ATV legislation, and other activities supporting responsible ATV sport.

The atvmaine.org website opening page says it best, here it is:


Look for more from Jim and A.T.V.Maine in upcoming blogs.

Rain rain don't go away -
till the rivers are as full
as possible TODAY!

It's High Water Rafting right now in Maine. Rainy weather the last 3 days has the water levels rising to awesome spring rafting levels! 8400CFS on the Kennebec and 3400CFS on the Penobscot, as we write this. Good weather is on the way all of next week, add high water and sunshine with Northern Outdoors and you've got the best of summer and spring rafting. This is a rare event in August - come on out for a fantastic Maine adventure vacation!

Check out our forecast on our Northern Outdoors website and grab your friends. It's time for whitewater rafting New England style!

Our first trips were very different from today’s Kennebec rafting trip. We put in at the East Outlet of Moosehead Lake, paddled and motored across Indian Pond, took off the motor, and carried around Harris Station dam (stopping for a traditional Maine guide lunch of grilled steak, boiled potatoes and onions over a campfire). We then re-launched just below the dam and began to float downstream without having ever seen the rest of the river.

Back then, we didn’t know how to paddle backwards. The command “About Face” was used to get all paddlers to stand up, turn around, and then sit down so we could paddle the opposite direction.  That first season in 1976, we had to call the Chase Paper Company every time we were going to raft on the Kennebec, to make sure they didn’t release logs through the log sluice at Harris Station. One day we forgot to call and the dam operator just happened to see a raft disappear downstream in the corner of his eye before he was about to flip the switch. We were lucky indeed!
 
Wayne and the bear hunters made it down the river that first run of 1976, exhilarated and terrified all at once. We fell in love with the river, the rafting, the excitement, and the beauty. Folks thought we were crazy at the time. We borrowed $15,000 from Wayne’s mother, bought more equipment, and Kennebec Whitewater Expeditions was born. We changed our name from to Northern Outdoors in 1983 to reflect the company's new year-round direction with winter snowmobiling, and built our Adventure Resort lodge in The Forks, becoming a destination for New England whitewater rafting, snowmobiling, and Maine family adventure vacations.

Harris Station dam provides consistent whitewater all summer long for Maine adventure vacationers rafting the Kennebec River. Daily summertime water releases actually get longer from Harris Station, thanks to the higher power needs of peak summer. This means guaranteed whitewater rafting excitement and vacation value for the thousands of guests annually who make Kennebec rafting part of their New England vacations.

Built in 1952-1954, Harris Station is the largest hydroelectric dam in the state of Maine. Harris Station is in the upper section of the Kennebec River basin, high in the watershed near Maine’s Moosehead Lake. Immediately above it is Indian Pond, which drains Moosehead Lake via East Outlet and West Outlet.

Indian Pond and Kennebec Gorge area is well known for its fishing and whitewater opportunities. Harris is an integral part of Maine's hydroelectric generation. As environmental pressures with respect to fossil fuel power escalate, hydropower generation from stations like Harris will likely become even more important as a clean energy resource.  Harris Station is unique for its “black-start” capability. The station can begin generating power and come on-line without the input of electricity. Black-start generating locations help start up other generators in the event of a large outage. Electricity from Harris is fed into the New England grid and moves throughout the state and the surrounding areas.

Northern Outdoors really did have to dodge logs on the Kennebec for those first 6 weeks of rafting in the spring of 1976. The last log drive in the continental United States occurred on the Kennebec in 1976, beginning in Moosehead Lake and continuing to Winslow. (Read about those early days in our next blog from Northern Outdoors co-founder Suzie Hockmeyer.)

In the 1950s, over 84,500 cords of wood per year floated through the large log sluice built on the western end of the dam that allowed logs to continue floating to the logging mills downstream. Only softwood was driven downstream because it floats more effectively than hardwoods. The log drive was stopped in 1976 based on environmental considerations with water quality issues from pulp clogging the lakes and rivers as the logs made their way downstream to the logging mills.

Students from Colby College in Waterville, Maine did a terrific research project on Maine's dams. To learn more about Harris Station and other dams in Maine, visit their research project information.

 
“We were either going to discover one of the best rivers to raft in the country, or we were going to die.”
This was the encouraging phone call to the Hockmeyers from West Virginia rafting friend Jon Dragan (founder of Wildwater Ltd. on the Gauley River in 1968), the night before the pioneer 1st run ever of the Kennebec River.  It was the spring of 1976, says Northern Outdoors Co-founder Suzie Hockmeyer.  They’d never paddled whitewater, had one huge raft (32” tubes), heavy wooden paddles, no helmets, no bailing buckets, and wore jeans, wool shirts, and wimpy life jackets. They put on at Harris Station and had no idea what was around the corner.

Northern Outdoors ran the very first rafting trip on the Kennebec River, and the first rafting trip in the state of Maine. We went on to do first descents of Maine’s Penobscot and Dead Rivers as well, leading the way in whitewater rafting in New England. It all started when Wayne Hockmeyer hiked into the Kennebec Gorge in 1975 in search of the next “ great, undiscovered fishing spot”. He realized he couldn’t get past the big rapids and decided that rafting was the thing to pursue on the Kennebec instead. 

Wayne and Suzie hired Allan Haley, the first Maine Registered Guide, to join their first descent on the Kennebec. Allan was the only one in the group with any whitewater experience at all, from canoeing. The plan was to have their friend and experienced whitewater rafting friend from West Virginia, Jon Dragan, join them for the first descent. As luck would have it, Jon and his guides had to cancel right before the launch day, and he actually talked Wayne through how to steer a raft on the phone the night before.  Since they didn’t have their WV crew coming, Wayne and team picked up some bear hunters who were hanging out in camp during the day, to round out their crew. Suzie was 8 months pregnant and was to meet the group at the takeout. Suzie went on to become the first woman to be a Registered Maine Whitewater Guide in the state of Maine. (Wayne and Suzie’s son and daughter Kyle and Avery went on to become expert kayakers and raft guides, developing strength and confidence that guides them today in their careers as film producer and ER nurse, respectively.)
Find out more in Part 2 - Kennebec Rafting History, coming up next.

When was the last time YOU went camping?

Camping in the wilderness is the universal best “back-to-nature” antidote to our harried modern lives. You can’t help but rest in the “present” while camping. You can’t avoid slowing down, at least a little bit, and thus realize the riches of nature unfolding before your eyes, ears, and senses.

Summer time in Maine is perfect for camping. Maine enjoys a rich diversity of campgrounds and campsites throughout the state. DIY Camping or Camping Vacation Packages: It’s Your Choice. Northern Outdoors has two beautiful campgrounds for guests starting at $10pp per night. The weather is absolutely perfect in Maine now, with an extended multi-week forecast promising more of the same.

The rewards of the summer camping trip are still the same, while the amenities have certainly come a long way!
The Rewards: (that we've discovered so far)

1. Heightened senses: sight, sounds, smell, touch, and taste.
2. You hear so much more wildlife and nature sounds; birds, leaves rustling in the trees, animals talking, crickets chirping, bullfrogs bellowing, waves lapping the shore of a lake, water bubbling down a stream.
3. Seeing an infinite number of stars at night (when was the last time you REALLY looked at the night sky? Can you even see it thru all your street/city lights?)
4. The chance to SLOW DOWN, for real, for a precious moment in time. Peacefulness shows up as you match nature’s pace.
5. Food always tastes better in the outdoors, after a day of refreshing activity, like hiking, rafting, swimming, fishing, and more.
6. S’mores, campfires, smiles, and laughter
7. The aroma of morning coffee in the wilderness simply can’t be beat (and hot cocoa for the kids)

(To add your favorite “rewards” to this list, just click on the “comment” link at the bottom of this post.)

The New/Better Amenities: (say goodbye to scratchy wool, wimpy sleeping bags, leaky tents, and burnt meals)

1. Sleeping pads that are actually thick enough to call a real “Pad” and offer a great night’s sleep (hello Paco Pads!!)
2. Affordable, lightweight, easy to put up tents that don’t leak. They come with handy pockets, secret flaps, convenient vestibules, and even hooks for an internal clothesline from the tent roof.
3. Sleeping bags come in every flavor of warmth now: for summer, fall, winter, and spring conditions so you don’t have to worry about getting too cold or too hot.
4. Not only that, but bags now come in short, long, wide, narrow, women’s and kids sizes, really! (And, they can zip together with your mate’s bag.)
5. Stoves are lightweight, easy to light, non-temperamental and come in the 2- burner-plus-grill variety which is great for river trips and basecamp-style trips.
6. Outdoor apparel these days really is lightweight, bug and UV resistant, warm, quick-drying, and incredibly versatile. (You’ll have fun in jeans and cotton, but only till it rains….)
7. You can make a great latte in camp! The portable expresso machines do indeed work, and a portable battery-powered milk frother (the size of a fat pencil) makes it all worthwhile.
8. If you HAVE to bring electronics along on your camping trip, you can recharge them with a discreet solar pocket charger. Works for small portables like cell phones, PDAs, ipods, gameboys, etc. (It really works - shh, don’t tell your kids!)
9. Last one, you don’t really have to backpack miles with 50+ lbs on your back to get to a campsite. You can drive up to amazing campsites and areas for hiking, playing, river trips, and more, and do day-trips from camp. This is our favorite version of basecamp-style trips: Park and Play.

Best of Both Worlds: Wilderness Camping Next to a Classic Adventure Lodge

• At our main resort campus, The Forks Resort Center, our Kennebec River campground has hot showers, quiet riverside campsites and cabin tents complete with wooden floors, cots and electric lighting - just drive up and unroll your sleeping bag. 
• The campground is a short walk from our Kennebec River Pub and Brewery, swimming pool, hot tub, game room, classic New England main lodge with fireplace, restaurant, and wireless internet.
• Enjoy Maine’s brilliant nightly star show, the sound of the river lulling you to sleep, hearty meals and fresh microbrews at our main lodge. What could be easier?
• Our Penobscot Outdoor Center has a restaurant, campsites and cabin tents along spectacular Pockwockamus Pond near the Class IV+ thrilling Penobscot River. Listen to our May Outdoor Journal Radio Reports for camping info and things to do in the Penobscot region.

Don’t have the time, experience, or gear to pull off a family or friends camping trip on your own? Try our Summer Wilderness Overnights for convenient, hassle-free, and affordable camping vacations in Western Maine. Our overnight adventures are separated into families-only and adults-only, so you'll be with others of similar interests. These 2 day/1 night wilderness camps offer lakeside camping in style: with pre-set tents on wooden platforms, a lobster bake, kayaks for paddling, tubing, a campfire and our memorable wilderness sauna and, of course, famous Kennebec River whitewater rafting for ages 8 and up.

Fun, active, classic New England Vacation – Check.
Affordable Maine Family Vacation – Check.

We look forward to seeing you in the North Woods soon.

We got great news early this summer at Northern Outdoors Adventure Resort in the Forks. A new ATV spur trail directly to Northern Outdoors Adventure Resort was officially approved earlier this spring, opening up access to hundreds of miles of exceptional ATV trails to our Northern Outdoors guests. The new trail connects to Western Maine’s great riding up to Jackman to the north, Greenville to the northeast, Bingham to the south, and of course, to beautiful Moxie Lake and on past to Moosehead Lake. What guests are saying about our area riding so far is that it offers fantastic loop rides, instead of out and back rides, which makes for better touring.

Though we have years of experience as a premier snowmobiling resort in Maine, we are still learning about ATVs. We now have fuel available for sale to ATV riders, just as we do in the winter to snowmobile riders.  We are working on maps for our area and offering GPS coordinates of the great touring options. Our resort makes a perfect basecamp for extended touring, with many lodging options from camping to luxury cabins, a microbrewery and brewpub, swimming pool, game room, and more. Coming up we’ll be blogging about our recent interview with Jim Lane, the President of A.T.V.Maine, who offers tips, resources, and insights about Maine ATVing. We will also hear from one of our guests who is big on ATVing in Maine as a great Family Vacation.  Check back often.
Ride safe, be respectful of landowners, and have fun! 

Happy July 4th weekend! Welcome to our newest blog for Northern Outdoors. This blog is all about rafting and adventure vacations in Maine. We’ll share tips and resources about things to do on your New England vacation with family and friends. With current fuel prices at an all time high of over $4/gallon today, affordable vacations closer to home are more important than ever.  That’s where a Maine family vacation, Girlfriend Getaway or Mancation (the Guy’s Getaway version) can be an ideal solution.  

Our Northern Outdoors Adventure Resort is located in the heart of Maine’s best rivers, lakes, and trails. Only a few hours from Boston, Western Maine is easy and cost effective to get to. Our comfortable resort offers lodging for every budget and taste from luxury North Woods cabins and lakeside cottages to riverside campsites and cabin tents.  A swimming pool, game room, brewpub, big main lodge with a fireplace, and more, welcome you. Our newest addition this season is an ATV spur trail that links our lodge directly to the extensive Maine ATV trails network.


We started rafting in 1976, in fact, we were the very first rafting company in Maine (see more Northern Outdoors history), and have a long record of setting industry standards for quality, safety, and professional guide training. We think we have the best whitewater rafting in New England on our nearby Kennebec, Penobscot, and Dead Rivers. (Yes, of course we are biased - we live here year-round and love it here!) Choose from easy family floats trips to exciting Class IV and IV+ whitewater thrills, May to October.  
We’ll keep you updated on what’s happening at Northern Outdoors this season. Visit also our Adventure Blog for the latest press on Northern Outdoors. When you don’t see recent blog entries from us, it’s because we’re on the river, on the trail, or relaxing at our classic New England lodge by the fireplace with one of our Kennebec River Brewery microbrews. (Yes, we have our own microbrewery on-site. We started it years ago because one of our owners has a passion for specialty beers.) “Ayup” – as they say in Maine – this is a special place. Hope to see you here!