Past President and Founding Member of MWGO Kevin Slater was awarded the Wiggie Robinson Legendary Maine Guide Award at the Maine Professional Guides Association Annual Banquet. Kevin received the honor in front of over 400 people, including friends and family, and he is the 14th guide (including his partner Polly) to be honored with the award, which is named after the late Wiggie Robinson, a longtime Katahdin area guide who was synonymous with the Maine outdoors. The award is presented annually to a member of the Registered Maine Guide profession who has served as a leader within Maine’s outdoor community.

Deputy Commissioner of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Tim Peabody noted that there were numerous nominations and recommendations sent in support of Kevin, including those from agency heads, directors of various environmental organizations, business owners, fellow guides and customers. He also noted Kevin’s impressive CV:

He created the Outdoor Leader Program while he was a graduate student in the College of Education at the University of Maine, and was the founding director of the Maine Bound Outdoor Program at the University of Maine in Orono, where he served as director from 1981 to 1983. Locally, he created the Junior Maine Guide Program through Newry Recreation, and taught the Junior Maine Guide Program at the Bryant Pond Conservation School. He was one of the founders of the Maine Wilderness Guides Organization, and for ten years, was an examiner on the Maine Guides Oral Boards.

Kevin began his guiding career in 1973 at the Boy Scouts of America Matagamon High Adventure, before he moved to Alaska and worked as a guide in Denali National Park working for Alaskan dog sled tours. He came back to Maine where he founded Dirigo Mountain Rescue, and Dirigo Search and Rescue, which served Baxter State Park. During that time, Kevin was involved in a number of technical rescues on Katahdin, including the 1984 avalanche.

In 1990, he and Polly Mahoney created Mahoosuc Guide Service where the number of sports they have taken on a canoe trip or dog sled ride numbers in the thousands.

Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s Presentation to Kevin Slater

Perhaps most impressive, though, is Kevin’s commitment to education. It was noted that he is eager to share his skills with others, mentoring over 60 apprentices over the last 30 years, providing them with experience that can never be learned in a classroom, as well as teaching river guide training, whitewater canoeing, canoe, paddle, and dogsled making, and winter camping skills. Along with the skills he teaches, he also includes local and natural history, including that of indigenous cultures, passing along what he has learned from the Inuits and the Wabanaki, sharing the importance of their culture and customs, and imparting their ways whenever he can. Deputy Commissioner Peabody noted that perhaps it was best said by one of those who wrote in support of Kevin’s nomination:

Those of us non-native guides owe a huge debt of gratitude to the generations of Wabanaki guides of the 18th and 19th centuries who lived the craft we practice today, and who taught our ancestors, and through them, taught us the way of the paddle, pole and canoe. Kevin embodies this gratitude.

This was on clear display as Kevin received his award, starting first by thanking all of those (the indigenous people of the region) who have come before us (the Europeans and other immigrants) and who, for thousands of years, have taken such great care of the land that we now call Maine. True to form, Kevin then dove into an educational “acceptance speech” providing an overview of “guiding” in the time before Cornelia Crosby, including the Passamaquoddy guides who helped Samuel de Champlain navigate and map the coast of Maine in the early 1600’s. Kevin also shared the story of Henry David Thoreau’s 1857 trip with Penobscot Guide Joe Polis where upon returning to the Old Town area, after 325 miles in the north woods, Thoreau asked Polis if he was happy to be home again and Polis responded that he had been home the whole time. Safe to say, Kevin provided all those in attendance with a lesson they probably weren’t expecting and one of which few in the room were already aware.

Thank you, Kevin, for all that you have done for the Maine Wilderness Guides Organization, for the guiding community, and for all those who you have guided and mentored over the years. This is a well deserved honor; congratulations!