CARRABASSETT VALLEY — Young people and adults who explored the Allagash Wilderness Waterway honored their leader and mentor Gardner Defoe, a master Maine guide, who taught generations of wilderness campers to love and care for the Maine outdoors.
Defoe, 82, was the honored guest Saturday at the premiere of “Defoe’s Way,” a short film produced by O’Maine Studios in Portland, in collaboration with L.L.Bean. The standing-room-only audience of more than 150 at The Rack restaurant crammed into the downstairs showing of the documentary and stayed to share stories of past adventures.
Raised in Dixfield, Defoe spent many summers at Camp Kawanhee in Weld, opening windows, sweeping floors and helping with other chores required to ready the summer camp for boys.
“I was the little sister, so I went everywhere he went,” said Deb Townsend of Eustis. “I remember he got an Appalachian Trail guide book, and we built a three-sided hut and invited the neighborhood kids to come over and camp out.”
Years later, after graduating from Dartmouth College, Defoe decided to buy a little camp in the Jackman area. He began to lead those memorable six-week trips that took young people out of their day-to-day world and put them in a family of their peers. Often, these campers had never paddled a canoe, camped in the deep woods, prepared meals over an open fire nor lived cooperatively with a large group of strangers. They were always changed by the experience, Defoe said.
“Everyone had a job to do and had responsibilities,” he said. “It taught them how to cope and not be as self-centered as teenagers can tend to be.”
During those long winters in northern Franklin County, Defoe started his Ski Camp program for the same age group. Youths spent weekends and vacations at Sugarloaf, and many have returned yearly with their children and grandchildren for more outdoor adventures.
Because this is the Allagash Wilderness Waterway’s 50th anniversary and Defoe has a little less stamina these days, some of his younger fans decided to make one more Allagash trip. The plan blossomed into a giant adventure that included a film crew.
Rory Strunk, one of the organizers of the film effort, told the audience he had had this dream for a while of gathering a group for a six-day trip.
“We set out to tell this story and get as many campers as possible together with kids who had never had a chance go down the river,” he said.
He and a friend, Chip Harris, included in theses plans a goal of starting a foundation that would continue Defoe’s wilderness experience legacy for as many young people as possible, and they convinced L.L.Bean and O’Maine Studios in Portland that this was a film worth making. The Allagash Wilderness Waterway has had to limit group sizes. Of the many former campers who hoped to be chosen, only 20 could go on the trip in August 2016.
“The good news is that Gardner still has plenty of p*** and vinegar in him,” Strunk said, generating a burst of laughter from the audience.
Many of those who attended the film debut stayed for the exuberant celebration and much-anticipated reunion with their mentor and other fellow campers.
“I saw folks I hadn’t seen in 40 years,” said one audience member.
All proceeds from tickets will go to the Gardner Defoe Allagash Access Grant, which will provide financial support for future generations of young people to to canoe the Allagash River. That fund can be found at http://awwf.org/support-us/
After the premiere showing of “Defoe’s Way,” an independent film about legendary Master Maine Guide Gardner Defoe, his friends and fans stayed for the chance to reminisce at The Rack restaurant in Carrabassett Valley on Saturday evening. Preston Stowell of Weld said Defoe was two years older than his father, John, and they grew up together. “They used to play hockey in the streets in the early 1950s,” he said. Even then, Defoe demonstrated his budding leadership skills as the school’s hockey team coach.
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