Maine Hunting Fishing Whitewater Rafting Guide: Dan Levy
Name: Dan Levy
Hometown: Haverhill MA
Age of First Rafting Trip: 19
Year you started guiding at Northern Outdoors: 1990
What type of guiding do you do? Whitewater Rafting, Fishing, Hunting, Snowmobiling, Hiking, Leadership Programs
What do you enjoy most about working at Northern Outdoors?
There are so many answers to this question it would be an entire chapter in the book!! We can start here: after 33 years I still feel like family at Northern Outdoors from decades of new guides (which all become old guides and friends), to 30 years from the Hockmeyers, Yearwoods and Walters, to the river community who all still treat me like family!
What is your favorite river to guide, and your favorite rapid on that river?
After my second week of training in 1990 that answer was very clear to me! THE PENOBSCOT RIVER. The rapids are all my favorites, but I guess I will say Nesowadnehunk Falls only because it is probably the safest rapid there with the same high drama as the others!
What’s your classic Northern Outdoors memory?
I am sure there are dozens of people in our Northern Outdoors family and community with DOZENS of stories that may start with my name in it!! One of the first things that enters into my mind would be "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" in 1996 on the Penobscot River. The river was very angry that day, my friends! Exterminator flipped so many rafts in the first ten minutes of our day it took a couple of hours to recoup the last swimmers all the way past The Cribworks! It is probably the most intense day I have ever had. The guide team was world class and never waivered or relaxed until our jobs and responsibilities were finished for the day!
Where do you adventure when you are not working?
Whoa! A whole other chapter! I say it that way because I feel like one of the luckiest people on this planet! When I am not working on Maine rivers with my second family, I am working or playing on other rivers from The Gauley in W.Virginia to Costa Rica to California and everywhere in between! I am sportfishing a few times a year in Islamorada to bowhunting elk in Montana this year to skydiving,scubadiving,mountain climbing and many other things in between.
What do you do in the off-season when you’re not guiding for Northern Outdoors?
When I left Northern Outdoors from a full time position and went back to part time I became a commercial helicopter pilot. I also run my own business in construction. When I am not working I make a great effort to spend time with my friends wherever that adventure takes me!! And that alone has been one great adventure!!
Tell us about any certifications, special talents, guide awards.
I have my masters guide license in the state of Maine, I have been certified in swiftwater rescue, scuba, accelerated free fall skydiving, rock climbing, etc., etc., I was the first brewer in The Kennebec River Brewery after Jim Yearwood, I play the harmonica, have sung with Suzie and The Smelts, have won two state championships in darts, fished for 4 years on the striper pro fishing circuit (made the cover of Amercian Striper magazine once), I have been guide of the year 2 times, I have also been awarded with the greatest group of friends and family anyone could ever imagine!!
What rivers have you run outside of Maine?
The Gauley River W.Virginia, The Youghingheney River Maryland, The New River Gorge W. Virginia, The Hudson River, Upper Moose River and Upper Upper Moose River in upstate New York, The Middle Fork of The American River California, The Rio del Toro in Costa Rica, The Zoar Gap in Vermont/Mass
Which Kennebec River Brewery beer is your top choice after a day on the river?
Whenever available the KRB Porter is one of the best anywhere!!
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