at Northern Outdoors
In the beginning…
All hunting and fishing guide Wayne Hockmeyer wanted in 1975 when he descended the remote Kennebec River Gorge on ropes, was a way to bring fishermen into one of the richest fishing grounds in the East. Hockmeyer thought he could float them in on a Colorado River whitewater raft. He forgot about fishing though, when he came upon the incredible river rushing before him. He began thinking of whitewater rafting trips.
Wayne contacted a West Virginia raft company. They told him he could have a very successful business if he had enough whitewater. “But,” they added, “you do not. If you did we would know about it.”
Hockmeyer answered, “The Forks, Maine doesn’t even know about it.”
Wayne and his wife Suzie bought a used British Leyland military assault raft, dubbed the “Silver Bullet.” He sent river flow data and topographical maps to the West Virginia outfitter. They promised to send an expert to teach Hockmeyer. But, after analyzing the river data, the outfitter told him to forget it. The water would be too turbulent. “You’ll turn over and die.” they warned, adding cautiously, “but if you don’t, you’ll be rafting one of the greatest whitewater rivers in the country. “
Hockmeyer flew over the river gorge, wondering what to do with the 22 foot raft sitting in his driveway, like a beached whale. “I
www.NorthernOutdoors.com
saw there were no Deliverance type waterfalls down there,” he said. “It did not look nearly as bad as they said it was.” He added, “I had no idea flying over it what was really down there.”
The first people to raft over Magic Falls was a group of bear hunters from New Jersey, with Wayne wild-eyed in the stern, futilely trying to steer with a canoe paddle. For his first trip down the river, Hockmeyer recruited Bingham guide Sonny Wade and his bear hunters, promising a free adventure. He did not tell them that nobody would go near the river on a raft. Folks around here thought he was mad as a loon. Wayne also neglected to mention that this would be the maiden voyage.
When the bunch arrived at the launch site with the Silver Bullet, the dam keeper chased them to the rivers edge and warned them they would never make it. Some of the bear hunters started mumbling they shouldn’t go. They had families and all. “I knew we had better get going fast, before the whole crew bailed out,” Hockmeyer recalls. So they quickly pushed off and vanished into the deep, wooded gorge. “We were going so fast,” Hockmeyer said, “that I yelled, ‘ Fellas this is not the same river I looked at from the air.’ When we came to Magic Falls I saw it was like Deliverance. My heart stopped. We did not know if the drop was two feet or 200. It was just a white line of water that ended.” Later, when they beached, 12 bear hunters and one guide straggled to shore like half-drowned rats. A hunter kissed the ground. Hockmeyer couldn’t wait to recruit another boatload. “It was the most exhilarating thing I had ever done,” he said.
And so an entire industry was born. Wayne and Suzie went on to establish first descents and pioneer rafting on the Penobscot and Dead rivers in Maine, as well as the Hudson and Moose rivers in upstate New York. Other’s have followed, but nobody has since been able to copy the Northern Outdoors Experience. Since those early days, Northern Outdoors has helped over 500,000 guests experience the fun of rafting, fishing, ATVing, hunting and snowmobiling. We have grown from a company with 1 used raft, 16 paddles and life jacket, a second hand cattle truck, a trailer, a typewriter and assorted cooking gear, into a true 4 season adventure resort with something for everyone of all ages …… including a microbrewery!
800-765-7238