WILLOW CREEK — Twenty-two canoes launched from Thorne’s Bend on Saturday morning for the inaugural Willow Creek Canoe Regatta, a 6-mile race down the Willow River to the Mattawamkeag confluence that organizers are already calling the town’s best new summer tradition.
The event, organized by the Recreation Commission and timed to coincide with the height of the summer visitor season, drew participants from as far away as Portland, Boston and Quebec. Teams ranged from experienced whitewater paddlers in sleek Kevlar boats to first-time racers in borrowed Old Towns.
The course followed the Willow River through its most scenic stretch — past the old mill race, under the Route 11 bridge, and through a series of gentle Class I rapids before opening into the broader Mattawamkeag channel. The winning team, a father-son duo from Lincoln named the Thibodeaus, finished in 1 hour, 14 minutes.
Recreation commissioner Patricia LaFleur said the regatta filled a gap in the town’s summer calendar.
“The Ice-Out gives us a spring event. Foliage gives us a fall season. But July was empty,” LaFleur said. “The river is beautiful in July — the banks are green, the water is warm — and we weren’t doing anything with it.”
Bernie Cork, who operates the Kayak Willow Creek rental service, provided five of the race canoes and helped with safety support from a motorized skiff. She said the regatta generated rental inquiries for the following weekend.
“Every person who races sees the river and wants to come back and paddle it at their own pace,” Cork said. “That’s exactly what I hoped would happen.”
Dean Moreau set up a food tent at the finish line and sold out of pulled-pork sandwiches in two hours.
The race raised $680 for the Recreation Commission’s youth paddling program, which teaches basic canoe skills to Willow Creek K-8 students. Organizers have already scheduled the second annual regatta for the last Saturday of July 2014.