ERROL, N.H. – There’s a new kid in town on the Androscoggin River.
July’s traditional – and free – 20-day Source to the Sea trip is dead in the water. Its replacement, a four-day, pledge-raising trek-a-thon designed to keep the Androscoggin River Watershed Council’s collective head above water regarding its river awareness event.
During the past decade, the council has had to eat losses totaling $3,000 to $5,000 annually for the trek, which costs $15,000, Ferg Lea, council chairman said Wednesday afternoon in his Auburn office.
“Our objective was to get people on the river, get them to realize what a resource the river is, and get a group of them interested in protecting the river,” Lea said.
“We accomplished our objective even though the trek cost us. Last year, it only cost us $2,000. Basically, we wrote it off and we couldn’t afford to do that, and, a lot of the people were repeats, so we weren’t doing the outreach we wanted to,” he said.
This year, paddlers are required to raise a minimum of $35 per person per day to participate in the 11th annual trek.
“It’s a small price to pay to support improvement of the river and its watershed,” Lea said.
Traveling from Errol, N.H., to Gulf Island Pond in Lewiston-Auburn, the trek will be held on four days only – Saturday and Sunday, July 8 and 9; Saturday, July 15; and Saturday, July 22.
Lea said there may be flexibility for people wanting to do three or four days, but who don’t meet the daily minimum, which buys a T-shirt, lunch, shuttle service, guided tour of the Androscoggin, and membership in the council.
“We don’t want to discourage people,” he added.
Children under 16 paddling with an adult are not required to pledge. Prizes will be offered to people who raise the most money.
Another departure from tradition is the raffling of a 14-foot Kevlar Lincoln kayak worth more than $1,500.
“We’re raffling a kayak as opposed to a canoe, which we think will bring in more money,” Lea said.
When the trek began, canoes dominated. Only 10 percent were kayaks, he said. Now, kayaks outnumber canoes by a 60- to 70-percent ratio.
“It is kind of interesting. A lot of paddlers used to be in canoes; now, they’re in kayaks,” Lea said.
In addition to the trek change, the council has developed two outreach programs which require some local funding to help match grants – the Mahoosuc Initiative and a water quality monitoring operation.
The Mahoosuc project is a collaborative effort with local and regional organizations to evaluate the economic and ecological importance of the Mahoosuc Mountains Range stretching from Gorham, N.H., to Andover, Lea stated in a release.
Water quality monitoring is being done from Lake Umbagog to Gulf Island Pond.
Lea said the water study results should give residents a better picture of the river’s water quality.
In the future, he said the council wants to expand evaluation of the natural resources and the monitoring program to include the entire 170-mile-long Androscoggin.
And, while next year’s trek-a-thon may target another stretch of the river, the council is not ready to pull the plug on the 20-day trip. Lea said it could be held every five years.
“I won’t say we wouldn’t go back to it,” he added.
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