Moosehead Lake from the Indian Trail on Mt. Kineo. Kineo is home to a Penobscot creation story and inspired the famed essays of naturalist Henry David Thoreau.

Celebrating The Maine Woods!

The annual Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail Festival commemorates the ways the Wabanaki people and naturalist philosopher Henry David Thoreau’s three trips into the Maine Woods, two of which were launched with Penobscot guides here on Moosehead Lake. The trail consists of traditional Wabanaki canoe routes and portages over the great Maine rivers of the Kennebec, Penobscot, and Allagash drainages,  which Thoreau made universally famous in his book “The Maine Woods.”

Schedule:

July 21 - 23, 2024

Penobscot Ways in the Woods & Waters

Like Thoreau, participants learn under the wing of Penobscot guides about Wabanaki ways and Penobscot Life Connection to Maine Woods & Waters. Trip features easy canoe/camping on their Sugar Island. Days feature guided activities, and may include learning plant identification & traditional medicinal uses; history, archeology, flintknapping, Native ways of being in the natural world, the importance of the ash tree to Wabanaki culture, and sweetgrass weaving; visit to a wigwam, exploratory walks. Cultural immersion includes traditional drumming & singing demonstrations; campfire circle talk; learning about birch bark canoes, experiencing its feather-light maneuverability on the water. Tuesday after breakfast, paddlers move downstream to Indian Island, load out, have lunch, and gather into a closing circle before saying goodbyes. This is offered by the Penobscot Nation’s Cultural Immersion Program. Registration is limited! $600 per person. There are a few seats left on this intimate journey. For more, contact: [email protected].

All evening programs take place at Lakeside Loft & Event Center

35 Pritham Avenue, East Cove, downtown Greenville, Maine

Admission $10. Children 12 and under, free.

For further Festival details, please contact: [email protected]

July 24, 2024

Maine’s Master Wooden Canoe Builders

Outdoor Exhibition & Indoor Presentation with North Wood’s Best, 1-5 p.m.
Visit and see the canoes of some of the nation’s finest wooden canoe builders, two of whom live right here in Piscataquis County. The Wabanaki created the first canoes, birch bark and feather-light; the craft is still being learned today. The birch bark became a template for Maine’s famed traditional wood canvas canoes that play these waters. Join Master Builders Jerry Stelmok and Rollin Thurlow, with Paddle Maker and Master Maine Guide Alexandra Conover Bennett for an afternoon of what truly is some of the best the U.S. has to offer in this craft. Together, Stelmok and Thurlow have almost 100 years experience in building these traditional forms. Bennett, an expert paddle maker and woodswoman, apprenticed years ago to renowned Maine guide Mick Fahey, who shared has extensive knowledge with her. A Penobscot birch bark canoe may make a surprise visit, with a demonstration on how it is crafted. An afternoon panel presentation by these expert builders offers plenty of time for questions and answers.

Jerry Stelmok, master builder of traditional Maine wood canvas canoes, shaves new gunwales made in the repair of a client’s old canoe.

Location: Crafts Park, East Cove downtown Greenville

The Great Canoe Loop

with Penobscot Guide Ryan Kelley, 7 p.m.
Join Kelley on his 1500-mile canoe journey across ancient water routes.
The trip, taken in 2023, took four months through some grueling conditions.
The loop includes the Moosehead Lake Region, North Woods Wilderness Areas in the shadow of Katahdin, down Rip Gorge and the East Branch of the Penobscot River. Ryan and two other men paddled the entire route, encountering the risks, and the rewards, of long-trip canoeing. They were joined off-and-on by others on various legs of the journey. The Great Canoe Loop will be featured in a 2025 edition of National Geographic. Come hear it first-hand here at Moosehead Lake. Evening program includes plenty of time for questions and answers.

Location: Lakeside Event Center, East Cove, downtown Greenville, Maine

July 25, 2024

It’s For the Birds!

with Birding Experts
Bob Duchesne, Alexandra Conover Bennett, Kate Weatherby
The day features early morning birding walk, talk, and identifications on an easy, close-by trail and an old back road, led by birding experts who know this region. Morning program is followed by an evening presentation about Maine’s stunning Bird Atlas.

Location: Birding Walk meets at the Greenville Junction Wharf parking lot, 7:30 a.m.

The Maine Bird Atlas

with Kate Weatherby, 7:00 p.m.
joined by Bob Duchesne and Alexandra Conover Bennett
Ms. Weatherby, coordinator extraordinaire of Maine’s winning Bird Atlas, provides a broad overview of the project and how it fits into the national Atlas scope and leads discussion about the status of Maine’s bird populations in comparison to other states. Panelists Birding Experts Duchesne and Bennett add their regional expertise about the bird scene around Moosehead Lake. This birder’s delight is also a great introduction to anyone with a backyard interest in birds.

Location:  Lakeside Event Center, East Cove, downtown Greenville, Maine

July 26, 2024

Thoreau-Wabanaki Ways in the Woods

Children’s Guided Nature Walk 10 - 11:30 a.m.
with Greenville Educators Kathy Bishop, Prudy Richards, and Dawna Blackstone
A guided nature walk through an easy in-town school trail, learning about local trees, flowers, plants and the smells of the woods. The walk is immediately followed by an outdoor reading of the Lupine Award’s “Many Hands, A Penobscot Indian Story”.
Participants meet at the field bleachers, Greenville Consolidated Schools

The Thoreau-Polis Relationship to Wabanaki Land Back Movement

with University of Maine Professor Darren J. Ranco, 7:00 p.m.
Festival closes with the dynamic scholarship of Dr. Ranco, who carries the historical context of the relationship between Thoreau and Penobscot Guide Joe Polis into today’s Wabanaki land movement. Dr. Ranco is the University of Maine’s Chair of Native American Programs and a member of the planning team for the Wabanaki Commission on Land and Stewardship. Questions are welcomed!

Location:  Lakeside Event Center, East Cove, downtown Greenville, Maine

Date: July 21 - 26, 2024

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