Connecting Sebago Lake to the sea, the Presumpscot River is a success story of reclamation. Long a cradle of industry, home to Maine's first dam (built 1732), first mill (built 1646), first paper and sawmills (1732), and first hydroelectric station (the now-removed Smelt Hill Dam, built in 1889), the river now offers a first-class natural setting for recreation.As I drifted downstream, I watched an osprey hard at work: first perched atop a white pine, then plunging down into the water, to return to its perch with a football-sized fish. After half an hour of fishing, the osprey took off low through the trees, bumped from its prime perch by a pair of hungry bald eagles. Kingfishers and mergansers flew ahead of me in short bursts of fifty yards, pushed downstream by my passage until they finally flew overhead.

Several relaxed hours later, the sound of rushing water amplified as the river gorge's walls climbed higher: it was time to land on the right bank and portage around Presumpscot Falls. Back in the water below the falls' outrun, I felt surprised that this scenic gem was so close to home – but that's the Presumpscot! Another fifteen minutes' paddle downstream across tidewater brought me to Walton Park in Falmouth. Before leaving, I took a quick hike on Portland Trails' Presumpscot River Trail, then picked up the bike I'd hidden and returned to Riverton, having seen a historically-important, yet still wild side of Portland.