As part of its year-long Centennial Celebration, Chewonki is offering teens ages 15-17 the opportunity to explore the historically important Wabanaki canoe routes that Henry David Thoreau traveled during his treks to Maine in 1857. Two co-ed trips are offered this summer, the first from June 23-July 14 and the second from July 19-August 10.

“The protected lands and waters of the Thoreau-Wabanaki Canoe Trail will forever provide remote canoe experiences for wilderness travelers while highlighting the important contributions of the Wabanaki who first traveled these waterways,” Greg Shute, director of outdoor programs at Chewonki said about the trip. “This is a trip of a lifetime for anyone interested in understanding the importance of Maine’s environmental and cultural legacies while enjoying adventure in the Maine outdoors.

“As with all Chewonki trips, we teach “Leave No Trace” ethics and as a result, participants learn to live and travel responsibly in the outdoors.”

The Wabanaki, or “people of the dawn land,” include the Abenaki, Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes. For thousands of years, these native peoples lived in the vast forests of Maine, traveling extensively by canoe. Overland portages of their canoes between rivers, lakes and ponds made long-distance trips possible. On the Chewonki expedition, as was the practice of the Wabanaki and Thoreau, canoes enable the exploration of this place of legends.  

This Chewonki trip begins north of Moosehead Lake at scenic Lobster Lake. After three days of canoeing down the West Branch of the Penobscot River and portaging into the Allagash Wilderness Waterway via the notorious Mud Pond Carry, the trip travels east, exiting the Allagash at Telos Dam, and then paddling Webster Brook, which Thoreau referred to as somewhat like ”navigating a thunder spout.”

After Webster Brook, the voyage continues down the East Branch of the Penobscot River to Whetstone Falls, paddling through the magnificent Katahdin Woods and Waters Recreation Area, the proposed national park area.  

To learn more about the route of the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail, go to www.thoreauwabanakitrail.org.

For more information on the Chewonki Thoreau-Wabanaki trip go to www.chewonki.org/trips/trip_thoreau_wilderness.asp.

In 2015, Chewonki, a camp and school in Wiscasset, Maine, celebrates 100 years of providing innovative outdoor teaching to young people. A nonprofit organization since 1962, Chewonki reaches over 20,000 young people each year through summer, semester, and school programs.

Chewonki inspires transformative growth, teaches appreciation and stewardship of the natural world, and challenges people to build sustainable communities throughout their lives.