Aqua Culture: Narragansett Chapter: Take my paddle — please
AMC Outdoors, July/August 2003
The women wear pearls, or lacy blouses, or streamers in their hair. The men add ties or cummerbunds to their T-shirts. Plastic stemware nestles alongside PFDs. This is not your typical paddling trip.
For the last four years, Narragansett Chapter canoeists and kayakers have luxuriated on a Black Tie Paddle. Adorned in their best formal water-wear, the group heads to a site along the Narrow River where they dine at a picnic table that seats 20, says Flatwater Committee Chair Linda Pease. “It’s a great way for people to sit and talk, without worrying about getting from Point A to Point B,” she says.
It’s that emphasis on savoring the journey, and sharing laughs along the way, that defines Pease’s leadership. Since taking the helm in 1998, she and other like-minded leaders have “created a little bit of a following,” she says. A small group in a small chapter, they have realized that, in the words of Sea Kayaking Chair Bev Thomas, “humor helps” — it helps draw participants and helps most of them feel comfortable and have fun.
In a sea of events with straightforward titles like “Hike Mount Madison,” theirs stand out. Annual excursions include a Two Redheads Paddle (“later in the day so we don’t burn”), an Older Male Members trip (“open to everyone who appreciates older males”), and a weekend Paddling with Loons. “That’s a new trip,” Pease reports of the last item, which included a visit to a loon center. She adds, with quiet slyness, “And I did call it that on purpose.”
“We’ve always had a chapter that appreciated humor,” says Gary Whitney, who chaired the group in the mid-’90s and leads the satirically named Older Males trips. He says the spin helps: When he gave the name to an outing that had drawn no takers the previous year, 10 people showed up. And last year, women and young members made up the bulk of his crowd. “It adds some fun and gives people something to talk about,” he says.
And it helps in other ways. Pease, who is also the chapter’s Conservation cochair, knows it can be tough to make outdoor education palatable, but it’s an important part of the outings. The loon weekend included, in addition to leisurely explorations on Squam Lake and Winnipesaukee, a trip to the New Hampshire Audubon Society’s Loon Center to see exhibits about the bird and its habitat. The group also tries to educate people about the three main watersheds in Rhode Island, she says; a trip on the Pawtucket River might start with a talk by the watershed council director, for instance. And leaders often bring trash bags, encouraging people to help spruce up the put-in, take-out, and waters in between.
Most of this conscientious committee’s current outings are geared toward beginners or intermediates. When Pease and fellow leader Steve Morra, who had both led bicycle outings, became paddling leaders, they were “interested in easier, scenic trips,” Morra recalls. “We wanted to take our time, stop at interesting spots along the way, and provide trips for people who didn’t feel up to the level of some of the other activities.”
Pease’s own entry into paddling was a long time coming. “I used to be the perfect little prissy lady,” she says. “I had a friend who invited me on weekend canoe trips for six years, and I always said no because there wasn’t a bathroom on the side of the river. Finally he invited me on a day trip. I said yes. It was wonderful, and I’ve been using the side of the river for a bathroom ever since.” After a pause, she adds, “Only now I make sure I’m 200 feet away” — Leave No Trace’s recommended distance.
Soon after Pease began paddling with the AMC, the group’s focus shifted. “We used to call the committee ‘Paddling’ because we were canoeists who didn’t want to exclude kayakers,” Pease notes. “Now the majority of our chapter paddlers are kayakers, but we still don’t want to exclude canoeists. So ‘Paddling’ still works.”
Thomas, who chaired the former Whitewater committee and has spearheaded the development of the new Sea Kayaking group, says, “If you can get out there in any kind of boat and just float, water reduces stress.” And a sense of humor doesn’t hurt.
A Few Favorite Places
- Ninigret Pond, Charlestown, R.I.: “This is a three-mile-long, mile-wide salt pond separated from the ocean by only 50 feet in some spots,” says Pease. “We can beach the boats, cross over to East Beach, and have lunch on the ocean side. There aren’t many people there, only a variety of birds.”
- Blackstone River, Mass./R.I.: “This 45-mile river was once the hardest-working river stretch in the country, so it’s got an interesting past,” says history-buff Morra. “Now it’s a National Park Corridor, and an interesting swiftwater trip. It’s a little bit more challenging than flatwater, you have to have just a little more experience. I like to kid people, ‘We’re going on the mighty Blackstone.’”
- Upper Pawtucket River, Scituate, R.I.: “In early summer, mountain laurel in full bloom cascades like waterfalls from both sides of the river,” says Pease. “On one trip, there was a periodic low-lying mist on the water that compelled us to keep going. It was like the Twilight Zone drawing us in, and we didn’t have the power to resist.”
— Katharine Wroth is Senior Editor of AMC Outdoors.
Aqua Culture, intro | Boston | Narragansett | New York-North Jersey
