Last week, Will Plumley of Ethos Marketing found a different way to get to work. He commuted to his office in Westbrook in his canoe on the Presumpscot River.
Plumley, who lives on the river in South Windham, said when Ethos moved to a location right on the water in Westbrook, he thought immediately about canoeing into work instead of driving.
“I thought, ‘Hey, this is great. Not only do I live on the river, but I work on the river, too,'” he said. “And then the next thought was, ‘I can even canoe to work.'”
Plumley said he hadn’t been able canoe to work until last week because of all the rain the area has gotten has made the river high and fast. But he set his sights on Commute Another Way Day last Wednesday, and lucky for him, the rain stayed away for the most part.
Plumley said he put in at about 7:30 a.m. on the Little River, a tributary to the Presumpscot, at the public access on the St. Pierre property near his home. He said he couldn’t put in right at his house because the Little Falls dam and Mallison Falls dam are within a mile downstream from his house and neither have portages for boats.
Plumley said it’s a total of about five miles from his home in South Windham to Westbrook, a distance that usually takes about 15 minutes by car. Last Wednesday, it took him about an hour and 45 minutes, but he didn’t mind the extra time at all.
“The river was just beautiful,” he said.
He said he started right under a bridge on Route 237 where commuter traffic was buzzing along. Within 200 yards, the noise faded into the background, and that’s where it stayed throughout the trip.
“It was very quiet,” he said.
While still on the Little River, Plumley saw an owl fly up and land on a branch in a tree. He said he saw it perched on the branch, which is something he rarely gets to see with the way owls blend into their surroundings. He said he also saw a muskrat and many birds over the next hour and 45 minutes, along with “big, old trees lining the banks.” One thing that he didn’t see during his time on the river was any other people.
He said he “poked along” for the first half of the trip and the second half, after the river widened and the current slowed and the wind, which was blowing in his face, picked up, the trip turned into a workout. Plumley said it drizzled throughout the ride and the rain got a little heavier as he got closer to Westbrook, but he “didn’t mind at all.”
Alone on the river, Plumley said he didn’t think about anything much other than the experience he was having. When he did think, though, he thought about the shore lands as a wildlife refuge and the “great natural value” they have. He also thought about the importance of getting fish passage through the river’s dams to bring back salmon and eel populations. He said he didn’t see any fish while he was canoeing.
Plumley is the chairman of the Presumpscot River Watershed Coalition, which was formed a few years ago to do restoration work on the river. He’s also a founding member of the Friends of the Presumpscot River.
“To be able to canoe to work on a river that has an important place in my life was really special,” he said.
He said he plans to canoe to work again and has even talked with a couple people about teaming up to canoe in together and even canoe home, which he couldn’t do alone on Wednesday because of the strong current.
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