Gathering riverbed data in Skowhegan's Kennebec River Gorge has long proven to be a difficult task. Water velocity and flows—both of which will make the gorge an ideal location for a whitewater park—make traveling up the gorge tricky in any motor boat and nearly impossible for paddlers.

In May, Alden Labs and community volunteer Joe Almand were able to gather necessary riverbed data in the Big Eddy for the third wave feature, which will be located at the end of the gorge. However, due to high water,  they were unable to travel upriver into the gorge to gather additional data for the first and second wave features.

In August Alden Labs traveled back to Skowhegan to give it another go, only to puncture a hole in the bottom of the boat as they traveled up through the gorge. It was clear that the only way to gather the data necessary for permitting and modeling was to enlist some help.

Over the course of two days in August, the team from Main Street Skowhegan—Mary Haley, Alanna Wacome, and Kristina Cannon—and volunteer Joe Almand assisted Alden Labs with gathering riverbed data via downriver trips through the gorge in a whitewater canoe. Mary paddled the canoe, filled with data gathering equipment, down through the gorge five times, gathering data in different sections of the river as she went. Alanna and Kristina provided assistance in kayaks, and Joe added manpower to lift the boats and heavy equipment up and down the banks of the gorge, in and out of the river. 

Finally success! 

With all data gathered, Alden Labs returned home to process it for future use during the permitting process.