Here's where the expedition will start!

Yarmouth Town Landing

Looks a little bitter cold now, but once spring arrives and the ice melts the Yarmouth Town Landing will look more inviting for kayaking.
I want to start the Kayak for Safe Passage Kids Expedition in Yarmouth, Maine for two reasons.  One reason is that the U.S. office of Safe Passage is located just upstream on the Yarmouth Town Landing on the Royal River.  Some folks suggested I start at the Safe Passage offices, and that would be great idea ... except for the waterfall I'd have to descend.  I did meet kayaking legend Erik Boomer recently, and saw his amazing videos of kayaking over water falls, but that's not quite the way I'd like to start (or end) this expedition.

Erik Boomer descends a waterfall by Joe Carberry in Sun Valley Magazine

The other reason I'd like to start in Yarmouth is to honor Hanley Denning, the amazing woman who founded Safe Passage, as Yarmouth was her hometown.  So on July 11, 2014, I'll leave the Yarmouth Town Landing and kayak to Portland.  This will be a little shakedown paddle, a chance to remember what I left behind while there is still time to run home to get it.  The send-off celebration will be two days later on Sunday, July 13th, at the Eastern Promenade in Portland. 

I can't wait for the snow to melt, for the ice to go out the river, and the kayaking juices to start surging through my veins!