Trails to Tomorrow: The Millinocket X-Stream
Mike Smith | OSI Executive Director
History
If you ask people that grew up here, they’ll tell you there was a time when no one would even think about touching the water in Millinocket Stream. I’ve heard different reasons for this ranging from industrial pollution to trash simply being discarded in the stream. Whatever the cause, the ribbon of water that flows through town wasn’t always considered appealing.
The Stream
Millinocket Stream flows from Millinocket Lake roughly eight miles to the confluence with the West Branch of the Penobscot. Throughout that distance it alternates between easy whitewater and mellow pools before gliding into town, past the school and town park. It’s controlled by a dam on Millinocket Lake, which generally spills water in the spring and fall when lake levels are being adjusted.
Discovery
As a whitewater paddler, I was first drawn to the stream by a former student, who wanted me to see this great run in his backyard. We floated the stretch one spring, with barely enough water, and I remember feeling underwhelmed by the experience. The longest rapid, close to a mile long, was boney and hard to navigate. I could appreciate the proximity, but it was hard to get excited when compared to the nearby whitewater on the larger West Branch and other rivers.
Over the years, however, I learned to keep my eyes on the stream levels and found opportunities to paddle it in almost every season at a variety of flows. Each time I came away appreciating it more. The rapids lent themselves well to teaching others, and the pools allowed for quiet reflection as I’d float downstream.
I also started to love that I could paddle into town and carry my boat back to my house – a novelty for any paddler that’s spent hours and days traveling to far flung rivers. Each time I’d round the last few bends of the stream to Crandall Park, I’d notice more about the community. Just upstream from the school is a swimming hole that my wife and I make use of on hot summer days. Under the Central Street bridge, it’s not unusual to find kids fishing for bass or daring each other to jump in. I came to appreciate how some residents had embraced the stream as their backyard, setting out chairs and fire pits to enjoy the waterfront. Over time I’d get more waves and greetings, rather than strange looks as I floated by.
After a few years I started to think, like the student who had first introduced me to it, that this stream was an absolute gem in the Katahdin Region’s greater outdoor recreation landscape. Why weren’t more people using it? Why wasn’t someone making events happen here?
Going X-Stream
I was on a trip out west four winters ago when I saw my friend Chris’s post about a race on Millinocket Stream. It was going to be called the Millinocket X-Stream Canoe Race, a nod to the joke local paddlers made when opting for the stream’s easy whitewater relative to the nearby West Branch, but also an acknowledgement that, for the uninitiated, the stream’s rapids could pose a harrowing experience.
Chris Howe is a career river guide on the West Branch of the Penobscot, and he cares deeply for the surrounding watershed and the experiences it can provide. He saw the potential Millinocket Stream represented and took it upon himself to make things happen. That first winter I reached out to see how I could support the race. Now four years later, thanks to Chris the event is still growing, and I’m still involved.
Activation
There’s a buzz-y term in the community outdoor recreation space known as “activation.” It’s a word that is used to categorize all the effort that goes into engaging people with recreational spaces and infrastructure. A trail, for example, can be of benefit to a community, but activating that trail through programs and events will make it more valuable and better utilized. Just because recreational opportunity exists, doesn’t mean a community is inherently making use of them. Often it takes intentional activation. Millinocket Stream is a great example.
The first year of the race saw nearly 100 registrants, not bad for a new event in Maine’s already robust spring canoe race series, organized by the Maine Canoe and Kayak Race Organization (MaCKRO). A stretch of water that has always flowed through town, suddenly thanks to Chris’s determination, had filled with boats and people. Crandall Park, one of Millinocket’s charming but sleepy green spaces, looked like a packed concert venue with multi-colored watercraft lining the sidewalks (a scene that has quickly become an annual tradition).
Beyond racers, though, Chris’s dream was to see more kids getting on the water. Proceeds from the race have purchased inflatable kayaks for the Katahdin Gear Library, which supports youth programming through several partner organizations. Along with canoes and hardshell kayaks, these boats make it easier to introduce new paddlers to moving water and whitewater.
Now area schools and organizations are programming around the stream’s spring flows. Youth in the community volunteer on race day. OSI’s educational courses use the stream for instructor training and river rescue practice. A new sense of pride is developing around the stream. I sat in a town council meeting late last summer and watched as everyone in the room stood to applaud a local young woman’s efforts, one of our summer interns, to organize a successful stream clean up.
Future Flows
The thing about activation work is that it’s never done, and infrastructure can never be taken for granted. Resources like Millinocket Stream aren’t just useful for holding a canoe race, and a canoe race isn’t just useful for getting people on the water one day a year. Both are about a deeper connection to a way of life where our waterways are enjoyed, valued, and cared for.
Currently the flows on Millinocket Stream are not guaranteed. The dam that controls the stream’s flows is undergoing relicensing along with several other dams in the West Branch system. Stakeholders including American Whitewater, Trout Unlimited, the Appalachian Mountain Club, and the Penobscot Nation, along with many others, have been working diligently for the last several years to advocate for this stretch of river. With any luck, consistent recreational flows will become a staple of the summer season in years to come. This would allow future generations to grow up experiencing the magic of the stream that flows through their community.
This weekend will mark the 4th annual Millinocket X-Stream Canoe Race. In lead up to the race this week, local school groups were out paddling the stream. A couple Saturdays ago I took a friend out on the stream and spent an afternoon introducing him to whitewater kayaking on one of the mellower stretches. This summer, with the help of partners and volunteers, new youth whitewater programs will take place both on Millinocket Stream and surrounding waterways. Now when kids stop by the Katahdin Gear Library after school, they ask about paddling the stream. It’s part of their reality here in Millinocket, which to me, feels like the biggest win.