Maine Guides open a world of outdoor adventure
Photo / Courtesy Maine Outdoors
Cornelia “Fly Rod” Crosby was the first registered Maine Guide. She received her license in 1897.
Photo / Courtesy Maine Outdoors
Master Maine Guide Don Kleiner, who owns Maine Outdoors in Union and heads the Maine Professional Guides Association, is seen here guiding Florence and Bill Nestor on a beginner course.
Registered Maine Guides comprise an iconic sector of Maine’s tourism industry.
Guides had been used going back to Maine’s early days. Thoreau canoed in northern Maine with two Penobscot Indians, decades before the first license was issued.
The idea of a registered Maine guide came after the wave of fly fishermen and hunters started in the 1880s as a way to regulate what was already becoming an industry.
Cornelia “Fly Rod” Crosby was issued the first Maine guide’s license in 1897. Born in 1854 in the remote Rangeley Lakes region, Crosby was a writer, fly fisher, hunter and outdoor enthusiast who worked for the Maine Central Railroad promoting the sporting life in Maine at the turn of the century.
During that first year, Maine issued 1,700 guide licenses, primarily in the hunting and fishing disciplines, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
Today, there are 5,000 licensed Maine Guides, said Master Maine Guide Don Kleiner, who owns Maine Outdoors in Union and is executive director of the Maine Professional Guides Association.
Guides can be licensed in one or more specialized classifications for hunting, fishing, sea kayaking, tide-water fishing and a range of recreational activities, including guided watercraft, all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiling, camping and paddle sports on inland waters.
The Maine Guide sector had a heyday in the late 1800s and early 1900s, declined a bit, then came roaring back when canoe trips along the Allagash River in Maine’s North Woods became popular.
Subsequent activities have seen surges in popularity as well, including bear hunting, then sea kayaking and whitewater rafting. Today, clients seek out Maine Guides for paddleboard trips.
“People think you need to be an expert to go with a guide,” Kleiner said. “In fact, no one’s better qualified to take a beginner. They know what to do, when to do it, what equipment works best.”
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments