BETHEL – John Wight, Bethel, Registered Master Maine Guide, will present a program, “The Allagash Experience,” at a Down Home Maine meeting from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Thursday, May 1, at the Lewin Center’s Gehring House, 77 Broad St., sponsored by Western Mountains Senior College.

Wight, a Gould Academy instructor, will show the beauty and grandeur of the Allagash region in a PowerPoint presentation. He will discuss his experiences and some of the special people who live there and show pieces of memorabilia from his experiences in the Maine woods over the past 46 years.

Wight, a third-generation Maine Guide, was raised in the tradition of outdoor education and experience. His grandfather ran a boys camp in Bolster’s Mills in the 1920s.

His father, Norm, who is still active at 93, introduced his son to the Allagash River in the early 1960s. Their first trip lasted three weeks, from Roll Dam on the West Branch of the Penobscot River, traveling into Allagash Lake and on down the Allagash River to the town of Allagash. Wight says the rest is history.

Wight grew up in Dublin, N.H., and worked with his father for many summers before guiding on his own. He shared his love of the outdoors with the students of Dublin School, where he taught math, chemistry, physics and geology for nine years before moving to Bethel. He has been teaching and sharing with the students of Gould Academy for 29 years.

The Allagash has been the mainstay for most of his canoe trips, but there have been many trips on the St. John, East and West Branches of the Penobscot, St. Croix, St. Croix Stream, Fish River, Machias, Aroostook and the Rangeley Lakes.

Last August Wight took his 60th Allagash trip, which he made with a group of faculty from Gould Academy. “Sharing something you love with people that you admire for all their skills and talents is hard to beat,” he said.

The Down Home Maine programs are offered to the public free, although voluntary contributions are accepted to offset Senior College expenses. Refreshments of light hors d’oeuvres, wine and beverages are provided. For more information, call Seabury Lyon at 836-2576 or Peter Gartner at 665-2181.