[boom!]
The firing of cannons maked the official opening of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail earlier this month.
A ribbon cutting ceremony was held in Groveton, on the banks of the Upper Ammonoosuc River.
The river forms part of the Trail, a seven hundred forty mile network of historic waterways, stretching from Old Forge, New York to Fort Kent, Maine.
During speeches by the organizers, canoers, local officials and residents huddled inside a covered bridge to escape the rain and chill.
Lamphere: I think that the weather gods are actually blessing our trail today because we need this water to run these trails so I think it’s an appropriate baptism for the beginning of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail.
That’s Jen Lamphere, assistant director of the Trail.
For the past five years, her small team has been organizing efforts in four states and two countries.
They’ve mapped waterways, developed trail guides, built campsites, and gained permission to cross private property.
The trail has a history that reaches back thousands of years, serving as trade and hunting routes for Abanaki and other native American groups.
Coos Economic Development Director Peter Riviere says the paddling died out when the mills took over the water ways.
Riviere: The tanneries dumped their dyes, paper mills dumped their sludge into it, every community dumped their sewage into it. This river literally you couldn’t see there. There were things suspended in the water. It wasn’t very enjoyable.
Riviere says waste water treatment plants and environmental protection laws have turned what was once called the most scenic sewer in New England, into majestic, pristine trout waters ideal for paddling.
Though the trail might represent history and culture, or economic promise to some, for three friends from Maine, the waterways define one of the most extraordinary adventures of their lives.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s Kerry Grens met up with some paddlers who are traveling the entire length of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail.
And has this update on their trip.
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