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North Woods Ways: Traveling through tradition The best way to travel through the waters of the North Woods is to yield. To put down your paddle, listen, and let the surroundings engage your senses. This is how Garrett and Alexandra Conover lead trips down Maine’s St. John and Allagash rivers; not fast and frenzied, but intrinsically slow and thoughtful. "People have tried to peg us as wacky, old-style people," Garrett says. "But what really works best in the North Woods context are traditions that have had hundreds of years of refinement." Inspired by the sensibilities of Maine’s Wabanaki Indians, the Conovers have been leading clients on traditional trips for 26 years through the guide service North Woods Ways. "Our goal is to have people engage with the landscape in a manner that lets it speak to them powerfully," Garrett says. The couple offers an organic experience, believing that too much explanation kills the moment. "When you see someone with their mouth open, really looking at something, just captivated," Alexandra explains, "even a 30-year-old looks like an eight-year-old. That look of childlike wonder is part of our paycheck. That’s our reward." The pair met on Vermont’s Long Trail, where they worked on summer trail crews. In 1980 they started North Woods Ways as a means to stay in the woods year-round and get paid for it. Their guiding brings a personal perspective to the natural world. Legendary Maine guide Mick Fahey taught them the North Woods stroke, an efficient paddle movement that Native Americans, trappers, and veteran guides used. They also learned how to make paddles—built for the rivers they run with long handles, large, flat grips, and short, wide blades. The Conovers also opt for homemade, traditional winter gear. Their homespun equipment is sturdy and multi-functional, unlike much of today’s outdoor gear, which Garrett believes is too specialized and hard to repair. Using traditional snowshoes, toboggans, and techniques, the Conovers’ guests receive a unique winter trip with extreme comfort. "Running around with a bunch of wooden snowshoes, toboggans, and canoes allows a huge level of engagement with the habitat because your tools come from it," Garrett says. "They’re defined by it." Beyond simple enjoyment, the couple hopes guests will gain a greater appreciation and respect for the North Woods and the challenges it faces from encroaching development. They’d like people to come away with meaningful connections to the region, and "that their whole world view shifts, and they realize they are part of this at once beautiful and terrible thing," says Alexandra. North Woods Ways – www.northwoodsways.com, 207-997-3723 Mahoosuc Guide Service: New perspectives on preservation Kevin Slater likes watching people experience the outdoors. "The whole pace changes once we get on a river or on a sled for a winter trip. It clears their heads, slows them down." Slowing down allows people to take in new perspectives, says Slater, who has run the Mahoosuc Guide Service with partner Polly Mahoney for the last 20 years. And perspective has always been important to him. From his Boy Scout days to working with Dudley family guides in Matagamon, Maine, as a young adult, Slater has developed a healthy respect for the natural world. But their trips are more than just wilderness excursions. Whether dog sledding across Lake Umbagog, canoeing through the North Country, or traveling with Inuit in northern Québec, each adventure provides clients with a complete North Woods experience rich in tradition. Slater’s daily commute serves as a reminder of the traditions he maintains: walking from the timber frame house he built out of hemlock and cedar; around the pens holding 39 Yukon huskies, all hungry and happy to see him; to the barn he built that houses canoes he and Polly constructed, 170 hours at a time, from native ash and spruce; past the blueberry fields to the front farmhouse and woodshop where the homemade paddles and dog sleds sit. "We make everything here," says Slater, "the way guides used to." Many of their trips combine the guides’ admiration for the North Woods with their affection for native culture. "We have a unique and unbelievably rich opportunity to travel with natives and see how they look at the world," he says. Cree David Bosum, who works for the guide service, often tells clients to remove watches before going in the bush. "We’re on NT now," he says. "Native Time—we’ll do everything when the time is right." Traveling with native cultures exposes people to a different comprehension of the world. By studying a bent tree bow, Bosum can tell which ones were broken by bears, and which were the result of human interference. Slater equates exposing people to native culture to the importance of preserving the natural character of the North Woods. If large-scale development comes to Maine’s unorganized territories, the North Woods as people know it will also vanish. And along with it, traditional jobs like logging, guiding, and fishing. To help maintain and protect the region’s remote character, Slater and other concerned business owners created the Maine Wilderness Guides Organization. Their goal is to make people aware of the need to protect the region’s undeveloped country and shorefront. "I hope we’re instilling an appreciation to keep our vast woodlands undeveloped and unpolluted." Mahoosuc Guide Service – www.mahoosuc.com, 207-824-2073 Resources Other resources for sustainably managed businesses in the Northern Forest:
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A fine balance. Illustration by Rob Dunlavey.
