The Maine I Love - Donnie Mullen

Some of my favorite places to explore are the inland waterways of Maine. Early on, I discovered that if I employed the canoeist’s skills of upriver travel, portaging, and whitewater paddling, not only would I extend the reach of my trips, I also increased the chance that these trips might become adventures. That youthful me thrived on the day-long physical push, but always too I was torn by the desire to linger. The further out we found ourselves, the more I wanted to pause listening to water slide over rock or watch the golden light from another day slip from the treetops. The camera gave me the permission I needed to pause and take the time to connect with a place or to truly appreciate a special moment. Nowadays, come summer, we still strap the canoes to the truck and head north, but the adventure tends to come less from the miles paddled and portaged and more from the company of our three ever-eager-to-pause children.