- Up next on "Borealis"... (bright upbeat music) We go back in time to honor the first registered Maine guide and how she inspired generations of women to embrace wilderness leadership.

- She didn't fit in the traditional bounds, which I think Mainers really appreciated.

- [Aislinn] Meet a modern day Maine guide who's breaking the mold in her traditional dory boat.

- For me, rowing is a mind, body, spirit experience.

- Nearby at the WoodenBoat School in Brooklin, students from all walks of life learn to build their own dory while studying the history and heritage of this iconic working boat.

Come along with me as I hike up an oceanside mountain in Acadia National Park.

Stay with us.

Production support for "Borealis" is provided by... - [Announcer 1] The Nature Conservancy in Maine, joining science action and innovative partners to help connect communities and address the global climate crisis.

From our forest to our rivers to the Gulf of Maine.

Learn more at nature.org/joinmaine.

- [Announcer 2] Maine Office of Outdoor Recreation reminding you to be a good guest on trails, in towns, and everywhere in between by participating in the Look Out for ME campaign.

Learn more at visitmaine.com - [Announcer 3] My Dad taught us that protecting Maines water starts on land.

As a hydrogeologist for Poland Spring his job is to monitor the springs year round.

To check the water levels and help keep the springs healthy.

Poland Spring...for one hundred and eighty years.

- And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

You guys ready to hike?

(chuckles) (upbeat music) (birds chirping) ♪ I wanna get lost in the wilderness of you, darling ♪ ♪ I wanna get lost in the rivers and the roots ♪ (group cheers) ♪ Get you up on the mountainside ♪ ♪ And we can just climb - Welcome to "Borealis."

I'm Aislinn Sarnacki.

And today, I'm wandering around Sears Island, an outdoor destination that's loved by local residents of Searsport and beyond.

With about five miles of shoreline, plus over five miles of trails and old roads to explore, this 941-acre island has long been a place for people to search for sea glass, dig clams, listen to the waves, and bask in the sun.

While people often enjoy the outdoors on their own, sometimes it's nice to learn from a seasoned outdoor person and to experience the wilderness from someone who knows it like the back of their hand.

If that sounds like you, then a registered Maine guide is just the person you're looking for.

Maine guides have a long tradition in Maine, and they've proven their expertise through rigorous testing.

For our first story, we'll step back in time to learn about the very first registered Maine guide who just so happens to be a woman.

(bright guitar music) (gentle guitar music) Over 150 years ago, deep in the Maine woods, a legend was born.

A talented outdoors person said to be able to out-fish, outride, and outshoot anyone, became Maine's first registered guide in one of the state's earliest ambassadors for tourism.

Her name was Cornelia Crosby, better known by the nickname Fly Rod.

(gun fires) - I would argue at the turn of the century, she was one of the most significant, if not one of the most known people from the state of Maine.

- [Aislinn] Yet today, many Mainers don't know her name.

Roger Lambert is one of several people looking to change that.

- My mom was a beautician here in town and told me about Fly Rod and 'cause the buzz around was about her, you know, and when I got into the guide community, 'cause she's our gal.

(chuckles) - [Aislinn] Here at the Phillips Historical Society and Fly Rod Crosby's hometown, hundreds of photographs, newspaper clippings, and personal objects paint a story of the woman who championed Maine.

Crosby grew up just across the street in a little brick house and her early years were rife with tragedy.

Her father died of tuberculosis when she was just two years old, and her older brother died when she was 13, leaving just her and her mother.

Crosby herself struggled with bouts of illness, so the doctors prescribed fresh air.

In an effort to regain her health, she fell in love with the outdoors, especially fly fishing, which she became very good at.

- She got it done in the boat.

I mean, she out-fished them.

There's records on how many fish she landed in any given day, so when you're playing in the bigs and you're whipping them, it doesn't take long before you're a celebrity.

And she was.

- [Aislinn] She started writing columns about her adventures for local newspapers: the Franklin Journal, the Phillips Phonograph, the Lewiston Journal, and the Portland Press.

Over time her writing was picked up by national publications such as Shooting and Fishing out of New York.

- She scribbled, as she called it in her writing.

She was probably the first syndicated female sports writer in the country.

She was published all over the country.

- [Aislinn] Fly Rod also promoted Maine by traveling to sporting shows throughout New England and setting up elaborate exhibits to entice people to visit the Maine woods.

She commanded attention standing tall for a woman at six feet and taking care to dress the part, often wearing a hat adorned with feathers and a dress short enough to be considered scandalous because it exposed her ankles.

- She was the first female exhibitor in the first sports show ever in 1895, and she didn't seem to bat an eye and she put together a whole trapper's cabin, all the taxidermy, tanks with fish that no one ever did, and she just thrived on it.

She loved it and the people loved her, and she promoted Maine.

- [Aislinn] Maine Central railroads sponsored her, hiring Crosby to promote Maine, and therefore attract more passengers.

- That was the time the railroads were really fingering into Maine and getting to the sporting camps, the sporting camps, remote camps were on the upsurge.

Everything came together.

- [Aislinn] At one such exposition, she befriended the famous sharp shooter Annie Oakley.

As female athletes ahead of their time, the two had much in common.

In fact, they hit it off so well that Crosby invited Oakley to visit her in Maine.

- She called Maine the playground of the nation.

She was passionate in her quest to get people to come and enjoy it.

I admire her strength and her doggedness.

- And when you look at how much of our economy relies on recreation, she's everything for us.

- [Aislinn] Because of her own experiences, Crosby believed in the health benefits of fresh air and being active outdoors.

Her passion for activities like hunting, fishing, and canoeing evolved into an interest in protecting Maine's natural resources.

She advocated for stricter fish and game laws and the creation of the Maine Registered Guide program.

- She realized it wasn't an infinite resource and that we needed to do something about it.

And she worked very hard lobbying for catch limits, for catch and release, for licensing, for wearing bright colors in the woods.

So I think her name and her fingerprints were all over a lot of things.

(stream burbling) - Her story is really something to be proud of because not only did she promote conservation and access and guiding and Maine heritage, she really is a standalone subject to teach us today that you don't need anyone else.

You can take responsibility for our natural resources, our heritage, and work to keep these places open.

- [Aislinn] Brent West is the executive director of the High Peaks Alliance, an organization that's been working since 2009 to create the Fly Rod Crosby Trail, a path that honors Crosby by visiting places that were once important to her, such as her home in Phillips, the railroad where she boarded so many trains, and the forest where she once wandered.

- Not everyone's heard her story, and more and more we're bringing her story to the forefront.

- [Aislinn] The community-driven trail is on private land and maintained by volunteers.

- We're on what's called the Reeds Loop.

It's a one-mile loop from our Madrid trail head, and there's a mother and her three sons that maintain and sweep the trail, and they come out here three times a year and do that.

Overall, it's about 25 miles of trails that have been built and are marked.

And there's an idea that if you really want the full experience, you should also paddle across Rangeley Lake over to the Sporting Heritage Museum.

- [Aislinn] At the museum, Crosby is a part of a larger story about the area's cultural history.

- She didn't fit in the traditional bounds, which I think Mainers really appreciated.

She was out there in her dress, fly fishing, and not listening to what anybody else said.

And I feel like that speaks to the character of the people in this area that we're gonna go and recreate and live our outdoor life.

- [Aislinn] In 1897, Maine began licensing registered Maine guides.

The state issued guide licenses to 1,700 people that first year and honored Crosby by granting her license number one.

- The first registered Maine guide to Maine was a woman.

That's pretty amazing.

I am the first woman to lead this agency as Commissioner of Fish and Wildlife.

One of my goals has been to try and get more women engaged in outdoor activities.

I want more people to care about our fish and wildlife resources, and the best way to do that is to get them engaged in those activities.

- [Aislinn] The guiding community has long been male dominated.

More and more women are becoming licensed, and Maine has a tradition of strong female leaders.

- Maine women buy their hunting and fishing licenses at the same rate as men do in the state, which is very unusual.

So we're the highest retention rate of women in the country.

Maine is fantastic at providing all kinds of opportunities for women to get outside and get engaged.

(gentle music) - [Aislinn] Another recent effort to revive Fly Rod's story is being made by an organization called Friends of Fly Rod, which is raising funds to commission a bronze statue of her that will be erected in front of the new headquarters for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife.

- I think her legacy will live on in perpetuity in just her sense of outdoor adventure and pushing the envelope and getting people outside, even pushing outdoor gear for women back then.

I think her legacy will last for generations.

- We use that for educational tool.

Kids that are visiting Augusta can hear her story and we hope it inspires all of 'em, but especially women.

- [Aislinn] In 1946, Cornelia Crosby died at the age of 92.

She rests in Strong Village Cemetery with her family.

She never married or had children, but in many ways her legacy lives on through the many people who share her story.

- We've got a great thing going here.

We'd like to keep this tradition and heritage here, and it's gonna take some work.

It's all good.

We're on a roll.

We're gonna keep this going, and Fly Rod's gonna help us whether she's here in person or in a bronze statue in Augusta.

(music ending) - Historically, the guiding community in Maine has been male dominated, but more and more women are joining the ranks and becoming outdoor leaders.

Inspired by Fly Rod and many other female guides who have followed in their footsteps, these women are changing the landscape of outdoor recreation in Maine.

In our next story, we meet with a guide in Belfast doing just that.

(soft upbeat music) (gentle guitar music) It's a beautiful summer day in Belfast, Maine, and I'm meeting with Nicolle Littrell, a registered Maine guide known as the Dory Woman.

We are headed out on the water, but first I have some things to learn.

I feel about as cool as like a surfer with their surfboard right now.

(both laugh) Well, I'm excited to learn how to row today.

I've done paddling, but this is totally different than, like, kayaking or canoeing or something like that.

- Yeah.

Well, it's different and it's similar.

(slow gentle music) Rowing is very much about using your legs, your core and your glutes, and a lot of people who learned how to row, and nothing wrong with this really, use their upper body like this, but the technique that I am guiding people in is very much about this.

So think about it like the rowing machine, if you ever been on an erg.

So it's legs, back, arms.

And see how the boat is already moving?

- [Aislinn] Yeah.

- Imagine what it does with oars.

But the feeling really is that you're pushing the boat under you in a way.

So you're pushing the boat under you.

Any questions?

- Nope, I'm sure I'll have some when I'm out on the water though.

- Okay.

Excellent.

Excited to get out there.

It's just so gorgeous.

- [Aislinn] I know.

- Okay, you ready?

- I'm ready.

- All right.

- [Aislinn] To start, Nicolle rode solo weaving around fishing boats and sailboats as we navigated away from the busy working waterfront.

- Welcome to Belfast Harbor.

- This is just so scenic and iconic Maine out here.

(Nicolle laughs) Nicolle didn't grow up rowing.

In fact, she grew up in a landlocked area.

It wasn't until she moved to the coast that she discovered a passion for being on the water.

- [Nicolle] That's Selkie.

This is the boat that I learned how to row on right here, and it's a pilot gig, a property of Come Boating of Belfast, and it's a community rowing organization.

- Hi.

- Good morning.

Looking good.

- [Aislinn] Nicolle started her guiding company called DoryWoman Rowing in 2021, but it wasn't easy.

First, you had to become a Maine guide.

- I am from New York state originally, and I was living in New York City before I moved to Maine.

A family member gave me a book about Anne LaBastille, who is a legendary Adirondack guide.

It's called "Woodswoman."

And I read that book and was so captivated by the lifestyle, the values, the skillset, and I said to myself, "Maybe in another life."

And then I moved to Maine and I found out about Fly Rod Crosby, equally captivated by her story, Victorian-era guiding and learning that she actually helped start the registered guide program.

So when I found out I needed to become a guide in order to conduct my on-the-water business, I was really nervous.

When I passed that exam, it was like one of the best days of my life.

(gentle music) - [Aislinn] Now she operates year round teaching people how to row in Belfast Harbor.

Her vessel of choice: the humble dory.

- Dories used to be as ubiquitous up and down the Maine coast from Kittery to Lubeck as station wagons, and now they're dinosaurs, and you just don't see dories anymore.

I like to think I'm carrying on a tradition with a modern twist.

A dory, a sturdy, rugged little boat like this is very accessible for people of all shapes and sizes, all skill levels, all ages.

So it's a safe way to get out in the water.

- [Aislinn] So far, she's rode with clients as young as 8 years old and as old as 89.

- You're nice and tall, so use that wonderful length.

- Okay.

(laughs) - You got it, Aislinn.

- Okay, should I go?

- Come one, let's go.

- And then... - Yep.

Look at her.

She's awesome.

- Ah!

Learning to row the dory is a fun challenge for me.

I mess up a few times, skipping a blade off the water and allowing the oar to escape the oarlock.

But Nicolle is ready with coaching and encouragement.

- Nice.

And together with both oars, we got a mooring ball coming up on your port side.

- Oh, was I steering?

(laughs) - No, you're fine.

(both laugh) Aislinn, you're awesome.

You got this.

Don't forget to breathe.

- I was forgetting to breathe.

- [Aislinn] Rowing with Nicolle is a learning experience, but it's also therapeutic, similar to yoga.

- Just make sure you're dropping in those oars.

There's definitely a few things to think about, but- - So many things to think about.

- what I say is don't think about it, just feel it.

- Okay.

- It's a very embodied experience, rowing, right?

It's very much in your body.

It feels very empowering to be able to ply a small wooden craft through a big body of water with your body alone.

(gentle music) There's lots of science now that talks about how good being on the water, in the water, near the water is for our bodies and for our psyche.

So for me, rowing is a mind, body, spirit experience.

Oh, there's a seal right there.

- [Aislinn] Oh, oh yeah.

- [Nicolle] So that's a gray.

Yeah.

- Hanging out.

- So see what I mean?

They like to hang out right by the fishing boats to try to get, like, a free snack.

Isn't that cool?

- [Aislinn] After rowing just a few miles with Nicolle, I can see why she finds traveling by dory to be so special.

- [Nicolle] It feeds my soul.

Rowing feeds my soul.

It works my body, it feeds my soul.

And I feel so fortunate to be doing it.

- Rowing can be a great exercise for those looking for an outdoor workout.

But did you know there's a place you can go in Maine to learn how to make your own dory?

We headed to the WoodenBoat School in Brooklin to see how it's done.

(bright pleasant music) (flag fluttering) - Brooklin, Maine is the self-appointed wooden boat building capital of the world.

We're surrounded by water on three sides and up to 15 to 20 wooden boat shops in the area.

(bright pleasant music) The WoodenBoat School is an offshoot out of WoodenBoat publications.

It's a magazine that's been being published outta Maine since the early '70s.

This is our 45th anniversary running classes here on this property.

We get people from all over the country.

In addition to international, a lot of European and South American come during the summer as well.

We also have all ages.

We have a couple family classes.

This year we had students that were as young as five and six with their parents.

You also see a range of skills.

They're our first time people who have never held a chisel before in our intro classes.

And we have people on campus now that have been coming back to the school for five to eight years in a row.

So, there's something for everyone.

(bright music continues) So the back building right now is housing Graham McKay's class, which is titled Building the Shelburne Dory.

(planer whines) (bright music continues) (hammer banging) (planer whirring) And the Shelburne dory is one of the last traditional boats being built in Canada in a dory shop that's been perpetually running for decades.

Graham and a team went up there and documented the techniques to build this boat and he wrote a book about it and he's turned it into a class for our students.

So they're gonna spend five and a half days from scratch, building the Shelburne dory and launching it at the end of the class.

- The book that we produced about building this boat is called "How the Old Fella Done It."

And the reason that the tradition in Shelburne is so significant is that from the day the shop opened in 1880, that knowledge passed through the hands of four people and that tradition was about to be lost.

And going up there and building a boat with Milford Buchanan, who's the boat builder's name, I learned all kinds of things.

So trying to get as many of those things recorded for the future posterity is very valuable.

(planer whining) Well, what we're looking at here is the result of a week of boat building here at the WoodenBoat School in Brooklin.

These 12 students started with nothing but a pile of lumber and a boat plan.

And here we are.

That was Monday morning.

It's Friday afternoon almost.

And there's almost a fully completed dory here.

These were originally designed for commercial fishing in the 19th century.

They're stackable, and fishing schooner in that era would head out to sea with maybe 16 or 18 of these dories on the deck all stacked up, and they'd go over the side and spread out from the mothership and fish on their own.

They were fairly ubiquitous up and down the coast and they were used for pretty much anything.

What makes a dory special certainly to me, is the aesthetic.

They are rather simple.

When you look at it now, you see nice, beautiful curves, but really it's a bunch of straight things that come together to make a beautifully curved and crafted thing.

Make a curve, scoot it, make a curve until that's tight.

- Oh yeah, that's above my pay grade.

- [Graham] No, it's not.

(Karl laughs) - Graham is really good.

He's around and he's watching.

He doesn't critique, he guides, and then lets you learn by doing.

- Graham told us a lot of the history about dories in general.

It's been neat sharing that as well with my friends just because it is old school, and there's something about the wooden boats that is just different.

- It's just been an awesome experience working with these guys.

- I've learned a couple things.

It's really fun to be using my hands and working with wood.

We're hoping to put it in the water tomorrow morning, so (laughs) we got a little bit more work to do, but we're gonna finish it up and hopefully launch it.

- [Graham] With a simple boat like this, everybody comes out of it at the end, having learned something and feeling confident and being proud of what they've been able to produce.

- What we're seeing is just like the wooden boat revival in the '70s, we now have this national maker movement and it's in response to the amount of technology and staring at phones.

- More and more I find people are interested in boat building and building a traditional boat like this that goes together quickly and is very rewarding, is attractive to people.

In our digital age that we're in now, there's much more of a desire for something tactile, like creating a boat out of wood.

- It's really amazing, you know, on Monday morning we had just dimensional lumber laying around, and five days later, we have this.

- It's very rewarding.

You feel like you've taken a little bit of time out from life doing something with your hands, and I found it very rewarding.

- There's a lot of pleasure in watching a sharp tool make a curl of wood.

I mean, I started with no woodworking experience and to build something beautiful and useful is especially rewarding.

- I honestly have a lot to take home with me.

My dad always does woodworking in the garage and now that we just built an entire boat in one week, (laughs) I can go back home and I can actually help him out with things.

'Cause I know how to use my handles and power tools and everything.

- The friends and just all the people that I meet here, it's really fun and I'm enjoying that a lot, as much as building the boats.

It's just kind of this special place in the middle of nowhere where you can come as you are, come and learn, and hopefully either you're developing skills or fulfilling your dreams.

- Rowing a wooden dory that you built with your own two hands would be pretty cool, but you don't need a boat to visit Sears Island.

A scenic causeway offers easy access to everything the island has to offer.

Owned by the state of Maine, the island is truly a natural haven with about 600 acres protected under a conservation easement, managed by the nonprofit group Friends of Sears Island.

It's a great place for hiking.

Another excellent place to hike and one that's quite popular is Acadia National Park.

Join me as I take you on a hike up Gorham Mountain, one of my favorite adventures in the park, and one that's right by the ocean.

(bright relaxing music) (gentle music) (trunk thuds) Today, we're in Acadia National Park and we're gonna be hiking Gorham Mountain.

And what's really cool about this mountain is it's only 525 feet above sea level, but it's got amazing views of the ocean and the iconic sand beach here in Acadia.

(waves crashing) It's also kind of lesser known.

There's not as many people on it as, say, the nextdoor Beehive, and it's pretty good for families or people that are just getting into hiking.

We're starting the hike on the Ocean Path, which is an easy-walking path that travels along the coast.

And then we're heading up and over Gorham Mountain and ending near Sand Beach.

The overall hike is gonna be about three miles long.

(gentle music continues) So along the ocean path are awesome viewpoints like this one where you can stop and have a picnic.

And it also passes by Thunder Hole, which is this famous geological feature where the waves come into the rock on the shore and make this huge booming sound, if the tide and the swell is just right.

And today it is very calm, so people are just standing around, waiting for something to happen and it's not gonna happen.

So... Are you ready to hike a mountain, June?

Yes.

(gentle music continues) Now we're headed into the woods away from the busy Park Loop Road and the crowds.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of people out here on the trails, but you do get spaced apart and feel like you can enjoy nature by yourself sometimes.

Right now we're actually climbing into a pitch pine forest, and it's kind of special.

You don't see these trees everywhere in Maine.

They're called pitch pine trees, and there's a lot of 'em on the mountains of Acadia.

(gentle music continues) We can actually go one of two ways.

We can go up straight up to Gorham Mountain or we could do the Cadillac Cliffs trail.

And it's a little bit more interesting, I think, just because it travels through some cool rock formations.

So, we're gonna go do that.

If you don't want something quite so rocky and crazy and strenuous, then just stick on the Gorham Mountain Trail and it's a little bit easier.

So this, if June will step out of the way, please, ma'am, is a Bates cairns.

It is marking the trail and it's just a simple rock pile, but there's actually design to it.

So there are two base rocks, then the tabletop rock and the directional rock that points the direction of the trail.

And this was created by Waldron Bates, the guy that was commemorated in the plaque in the trail, and he built many of the trails in Acadia National Park.

It's really important that you don't touch any of these rock piles or make your own because then people can get very confused out here.

(gentle music continues) And we're at the top.

Gorham Mountain Loop.

It's the perfect hike if you only have about half a day to spend in the park or you don't want something super long.

It's right by the iconic Sand Beach and Beehive.

The trail is challenging in a few areas.

The footing can be a bit tricky and it can get steep in spots, but the view from up here is totally worth it.

See you on the next trail.

If you miss an episode of "Borealis" or just wanna rewatch one of your favorite segments, head on over to our YouTube page.

You'll find full episodes, individual stories, and bonus content that you won't find anywhere else.

Watch "Borealis" anytime, anywhere on YouTube.

On the next episode of "Borealis"... (gentle music) We'll join the Clifton Climbers Alliance as they work to preserve Maine's rock faces for all who love to climb.

The Summit Project carries stones and stories into the mountains, honoring the lives of Maine's fallen heroes.

I'll take you on another one of my favorite hikes, Moxie Bald Mountain, and we head deep into the wilderness of Western Maine to learn about a massive conservation project in the Magalloway region.

Thank you for watching "Borealis."

Until next time, get out and enjoy the outdoors.

(gentle soothing music) (gentle soothing music continues) (gentle soothing music continues)