Ka-yakking in Maine

First of a two-part series on kayaking in Maine. Today: Salt-water paddling

ORRS ISLAND, Maine -- Though running a business where ''I can play Santa Claus every day" had always been enjoyable, middle age was crashing in on 50-year-old Deb Necker.

''Being divorced, with the kids all grown up just brought on a lot of life changes," said the toy store owner from Simsbury, Conn.

And while it was far from her normal life pattern, she took up taekwondo, and even began some backpacking and camping expeditions. But then a new element came into Necker's life that made a revolutionary impact.

''Kayaking," she said. ''It opened up a whole new life for me."

Rather than riding past countryside, or walking along trails with a noise that scared surrounding wildlife into silence, Necker kayaked in Florida, where manatees floated close under her, found seals covering boulders all along the Maine coast, and saw whales diving in Nova Scotia's Bay of Fundy, where eagles ''thick as robins" soar overhead riding the thermals.

Such thorough immersion in wildlife and nature (impossible in any other form of transportation, she said), has become ''awesome . . . It's an obsession with me."

Hers is not an ususual reaction to a paddling sport once considered a local variant to canoeing, but now a force in the world of powerless boat transportation. Where canoeing once dominated the lakes and even inner saltwater stretches of New England's largest state, some estimates in the last 15 years indicate that kayaks outnumber canoes on Maine's waterways some 10-1.

Where even the standard canoe required a pickup truck or van for transportation, paired kayaks ride the roof racks of an extraordinary number of cars and SUVs driving north or Downeast of Maine's water country. Because they are unregistered, state tourism officials in Maine have no idea how many are there, but clearly kayaks are the dominant personal watercraft of choice along this coast.

If Necker's passion for kayaking makes her an extreme spokeswoman for the sport, the fact that she is also a relative newcomer explains, in part, kayaking's popularity. Shortly after her 50th birthday, she remembers looking out her window at a cold, snowy January day. Her sister's phone call came in one of those bleak moments in life.

''She wanted to take a kayak trip [in Maine] and she was really talking it up," Necker said. ''So I agreed."

Despite her camping experience, Necker said she didn't grow up near water, and acknowledged that she can't even swim very well. But the two sisters headed up to Orrs Island, home of H2Outfitters, where the first day of a four-day trip in the vast inshore coastline of Penobscot Bay provided something of an epiphany.

Although one of the first lessons is just how to get into the kayak -- sitting behind the cockpit, weight on arms, legs straightened into the front of the boat before sliding forward into the seat -- Necker had no problem.

''It felt right almost instantly," said Necker of those first moments on the water leaning to paddle her first strokes. ''I went out on the water and wobbled around to get the feel for it and found there was a lot of give. It was never an uncomfortable thing."

And from that moment, she never looked back. Like many kayakers, there's a kind of minimalist equation: for relatively little expense, a kayak gives paddlers experiences nothing else quite does. Or, says Necker:

''To be able to experience this whole other world that's right there. But most people never get to see it."

Cathy Piffath, the co-owner and founder of H2Outfitters who led Necker on her first trip, agrees that kayaking puts paddlers up close with the natural environment -- ''part of wilderness itself." Piffath explains the concept of wearing the kayak puts padders in -- not on -- the water, where so much wildlife abounds.

''Especially in New England where there's so much water between the coast and lakes and flatwater rivers," she said. ''It's absolutely amazing. I tell people I see more of the coast of Maine than I would in my whole lifetime because of kayaking."

Given the long glacial outcroppings that form hundreds of miles of protected inshore ocean, the Maine coast has more than the straight line from its border with Canada down the Eastern Seaboard to Florida.

''It's about 2,000 miles, and the reason you see so much with a kayak is that you can paddle in and out of all the nooks and crannies," said Piffath. ''You see it all."

Piffath advocates ''wearing" the boat. Rather than merely sitting on a seat, ''It's important for the paddler to make contact [with the inner hull] with the hips, thighs, and feet," she said. ''That's the way you learn to use all the muscle groups [instead of just the arms]. And it puts you so close to the water the only way you could be closer is to be in the water."

''Wearing the boat" becomes a particularly important element of control, especially when the conditions -- wind and waves -- kick up. As with all boating, all looks fairly easy when conditions are benign. But at sea -- or even in large inland lakes -- when conditions suddenly change, the level of expertise determines how well the paddler reacts to change. Case in point is one trip in the Bay of Fundy two years ago when Piffath was leading a group Necker was traveling with.

''It was a beautiful afternoon," Necker recalled. ''We were looking at whales, and everything was really beautiful when out of nowhere this big wind came up. I was carrying a heavy bag of grapefruit on my [16-foot] boat, and I was pointed out to sea. I couldn't turn my boat or get it to [respond]. She [Piffath] quickly had all the other boats form a raft, then got me to the raft and slowly turned until we were heading the right way. I'm sure she saved my life that day, and when I thanked her, she just said, 'Like, this is what I do.' "

Well-known for her kayaking prowess, Piffath, who grew up in Auburn where she was always on the lakes with her parents and was also a cross-country ski racer, was contracted by L.L. Bean in 1990 to help begin the outfitter's sea kayaking program.

She and her partner, Jeff Cooper, left Bean, and now run their own business out of a big red barn on the shore of Orrs Island. But that doesn't mean she's still local. Piffath leads kayak treks to Japan, Ireland, Peru, and Martinique, along with the East and West Coasts and inland waterways of the United States.

''Kayaking has definitely blossomed in the last 10 or 15 years," said Piffath, who has been involved with the sport for two decades. ''It has escalated in the mass market, partly because it's so easy to get into and so rewarding."

Piffath said the cost for an entry recreational boat is between $300-$600.

The options for kayaking trips along the Maine coast are nearly endless, and generally, the farther northeast from Portland, and the more seaward and remote the destinations, the more distance travelers can put between themselves and the crushing pressure of summertime tourism along the state's famous coastal Route 1.

Between Casco Bay (Portland area) and Penobscot Bay (Bar Harbor area) lies a section called mid-coast, which is an entire firmament of long rocky peninsulas and islands ranging from Popham Beach at the mouth of the Kennebec River to Point Clyde and the mouth of the St. George River.

One of our day treks took us north from Christmas Cove to South Bristol for a stop in the St. John River at Pemaquid Beach State Park. Typical of any kayak trip, when a group is ready for a break, it's easy to find a piece of shore line and land the boats for a little leg stretching and a bite.

Just as kayak aficionados describe, places are actually transformed by the means of transportation. As many times as I had visited these landmarks by car, and even sailboat, paddling up along that shaggy, pungent-smelling, weed-covered rock in a kayak -- just a few feet from shore at times, eyes trained for seals -- gave the place a completely new feel.

''What the kayak does is deliver you to your surroundings in a way you've never been there before," said traveling companion Ron Webster, a lifelong paddler from New Brunswick. ''It's always a little surprising, and the really neat thing is you never quite get used to it . . . This never gets old."