In the frothing water of Six Mile Falls, a red canoe spun and started to tilt to one side. Frigid water spilled over the boat’s gunwales, and its two paddlers clung to their paddles, their eyes wide. As they plunged into the swift-moving Kenduskeag Stream, their faces showed a mixture of emotions: shock and dismay mixed with just a tinge of amusement.
Buoyed by their lifejackets, the two paddlers struggled against their half-submerged canoe, which was quickly herding them downstream.
But help was on the way. Just seconds after the spill, divers from Lincoln Search and Rescue were at the boat, helping the swimming paddlers drag it through the strong current toward the land. Once ashore, the paddlers regrouped, emptied the water from their canoe and launched back onto the stream to finish the race. The divers waded back into the water to wait for the next wreck.
“Our goal is that nobody gets hurt,” according to Bob Bean, a Lincoln resident who has been a member of Lincoln Search and Rescue since the group’s inception in the late ’70s.
The annual Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race, which celebrated its 49th anniversary Saturday, is the most popular whitewater race in Maine, attracting hundreds of participants each year. For many years now, volunteers from Lincoln Search and Rescue and Dirigo Search and Rescue have helped keep paddlers safe, especially while they’re navigating the rapids.
Lincoln Search and Rescue oversees Six Mile Falls, a tricky whitewater area where paddlers often tip their canoes and kayaks. Dirigo Search and Rescue, a larger operation from the Bangor area, patrols rapids below the falls, focusing on a series of rapids known as The Shopping Cart. And each year, a number of smaller search and rescue teams help them out. On Saturday, volunteers included members of DEEMI Search and Rescue, Down East Emergency Medical Institute, Maine Search and Rescue Dogs, Pine Tree Radio Amateur Club, and students from U nited Technology Center’s Public Safety Program.
“The way the water’s running — it’s a little lower than last year. And when the water’s low, people have a tendency to hit the rocks and tip over,” Bob Bean, who led operations at Six Mile Falls during Saturday’s race, said. “And you have a lot of novices in this race, and that has a tendency to cause a few problems.”
When Bob Bean joined the newly formed Lincoln Search and Rescue unit in the late ’70s, he began a family tradition. When his two sons, Justin and Cody Bean, became Boy Scouts, he got them involved in the unit as well. Today grown men, both sons usually sign up as divers for the Kenduskeag race. Standing in the rushing water for hours, they swim out and rescue paddlers of upended boats.
“When I’m out there, I have the best seat in the house — can’t beat it,” Cody Bean said.
“We grew up around it,” Justin Bean said. “A lot of the boys I was in Boy Scouts with then, we all grew up around it, so it was just kind of a natural transition for us.”
This year, Justin Bean’s son, Trevor, and his fellow Boy Scouts in Troop 50 also are involved in the operation. The Scouts cleared the portage trails, shuttled supplies and escorted cold and injured paddlers to Lincoln Search and Rescue warming tents on both sides of the river.
“We try to put four divers in on each side of the river,” Bob Bean said. “We run two separate command posts and an observer on the bridge, so he can see everything. We have EMTs and medics to treat anybody who gets injured.”
Racers with serious injuries are taken to the hospital by ambulance, which is posted at Six Mile Falls during the race.
“One of the most dangerous things is to be pinned between a canoe coming down and a rock,” Carl Stewart, president of Lincoln Search and Rescue, said. “It can crush a person. That’s one of the big concerns we have.”
For the most part, paddlers who dump at the falls come out with scrapes and bruises, Stewart said. In the many years he has volunteered at the race, he has seen a number of broken bones but doesn’t remember his team ever rescuing a racer with life-threatening injuries.
“Knock on wood,” Stewart said. “Something could always happen.”
On Saturday, the most severe injury that occurred at Six Mile Falls was a shoulder injury, Stewart said.
“It could have been dislocated or broken,” Stewart said. “After we get them to the ambulance, we don’t usually follow up. But he was in a lot of pain.”
More than anything, paddlers who spill into the rushing water of the Kenduskeag during the April race are at risk of hypothermia when the water temperature typically is in the 30s or low 40s, according to Chris Weed, a longtime member of Lincoln Search and Rescue.
“I know paddlers that have come this far, and they’re really tired. They tip over, and they’re so cold, and it’s such a rush,” Mary Weatherbee said as she zipped up her drysuit before the race Saturday.
Weatherbee’s father has served on Lincoln Search and Rescue for many years, and she began tagging along with him to volunteer at the Kenduskeag race when she was 12 years old. Over the years, she gained responsibilities and is now one of the divers for the unit.
“It’s fun to be out there and trying to be a calm, cool force and just getting people warmed up,” she said.
“The longer they’re swimming in the water, the more chance they’re going to be hypothermic, if nothing else,” said Stewart, who usually stands on the banks or islands above Six Mile Falls to rescue paddlers with throw-ropes before they swim over the falls. He also has canoed out to the islands, where paddlers will often be stranded on the rocks with their canoes floating downriver.
“They’re usually kind of in shock at that time,” Stewart said. “We deal with a lot of people who are cold, and some of them will quit right there. Their canoe is wrecked, they can’t go any farther and we help them.”
Paddlers who fall in the water usually try to cling to their boats, Stewart said, and sometimes they are so disoriented that they struggle against their rescuers. For that reason, the best way to retrieve a floundering paddler is by grabbing onto the back of their life vest and swimming backward to shore, he said.
“If we have time, we try to help them collect their boat or gear — or what’s left,” Stewart said. “But we’re really there for the people.”
In addition to whitewater rescues, Lincoln Search and Rescue conducts searches for people lost in the wilderness and technical mountain rescues, often in Baxter State Park.
“We’re all volunteers,” Justin Bean said. “We all do it because we enjoy it, and we do it because it’s a good way to give back to the community and help out.”
If interested in becoming a member of Lincoln Search and Rescue, call Carl Stewart at 794-6393. If you’d like to find a search and rescue unit in your area, visit the Maine Association for Search and Rescue website at emainehosting.com/masar.