Follow The Water: A Source-to-Sea Adventure

On May 5th, 2024, in honor of National Drinking Water Week, photographer Andy Gagne and writer Jenny O’Connell embarked on a paddling expedition from Bethel, Maine, to Casco Bay; kayaking 100 miles with a small team of local adventurers and environmentalists. Their mission was to transport their audience into the watershed, demonstrating how the rivers, forests and wildlife are all so connected to the faucet, and to highlight the unique and creative ways people are working together to protect this water source for future generations.

This adventure takes place on the unceded ancestral lands of the Wabanaki people. It begins in the mountains, on Songo Pond in Bethel. Following the Crooked River, they would wind their way to Sebago Lake, and continue to down the length of the Presumpscot river, finishing the journey in Casco Bay. The story that emerges paints a compelling picture of just how connected we all are — people, river, ocean, land — and how all of us are needed to speak up for clean water.

We are honored to provide a permanent home for their story here on our site, in the hopes that it will inspire others to seek out the connections that exist between our natural world and things that we might take for granted, like the water that flows from our faucets every day.

Below you will find the film by Maine Mountain Media, as well as a link to Jenny’s essay about the adventure.