Maine Rafting and Hiking Guide: Ted Tibbetts
Name: Ted Tibbetts
Hometown: Otisfield, Maine
Age of First Rafting Trip: 24
Year you started guiding at Northern Outdoors: No idea. Guided a few trips here and there then found myself full-time!
What type of guiding do you do?
Whitewater Rafting, Hiking, Leadership Programs
What do you enjoy most about working at Northern Outdoors?
The people! Our management is committed to guests and staff. Our guests are adventurous, generous, and enthusiastic. The staff is committed to the guests, our management and each other. The summer lifestyle of sharing a passion with our guests everyday, returning to the river in the early evening for “professional development,” then gathering together for a dinner composed of something everyone brings feels like paradise…. I am forever grateful for all of you that are part of that world!
What is your favorite river to guide, and your favorite rapid on that river?
The Penobscot and THE FALLS!! There is nowhere in the world where you can run a drop that exciting over and over until you’re too tired to go on! Thrilling enough to flip rafts at times and safe enough for my daughter to chuck herself over on an inflatable shark. Then there's surfing at Little Hole and Fisherman's, climbing into the caves behind the falls, and occasional glimpses of deer, eagles and osprey. In all of my travels I've never seen anything like it!
What’s your classic Northern Outdoors memory?
Ooh, boy…there are too many! Todd running Exterminator Gorge wearing fairy wings. Flipping at Little Hole and Gus climbing on top of the raft and exclaiming, “Did you see that?” on the Go-Pro. Hanging out at the Cribworks with my Northern Outdoors brethren and sisteren, on a sunny day, BBQing and watching the Gorge / Crib kayak race.
Where do you adventure when you are not working?
Anywhere that I can find other rivers for my lovely bride and I to continue our “professional development!”
What do you do in the off-season when you’re not guiding for Northern Outdoors?
During the snowy days that divide rafting seasons I can be found flinging Shakespeare quotes at my high school English students.
Tell us about any certifications, special talents, guide awards.
Whitewater and Recreation guide with a handful of swift-water and medical certs. I have a talent for singing entertaining songs between rapids. And, I've been fortunate to garner a few guide award mugs, however, one I leave at the bar in the Forks and my daughter always beats me to the other one.
What rivers have you run outside of Maine?
Chile, Futalafeu; Costa Rica, Pacuare; USA- Pennsylvania: Youghegeny; Tennessee, Occoee; South Carolina: Chattooga, Nantahala; Washington: Skykomish, Wenache; California: American, Kern.
Which Kennebec River Brewery beer is your top choice after a day on the river?
Sledhead Red
Here’s Ted skillfully guiding a raft through the Cribworks (class V rapid) on the Penobscot River:
