William Clunie of Dixfield, a fishing, float-trip operator, guides trout and smallmouth bass anglers on the Androscoggin River, and in summer heat, his bass clients outnumber trout casters interested in the river’s rainbows, browns and brookies.

When writers meet, a topic often pops up that intrigues me. Someone will mention an incident that makes such a salient point that the experience appears far too perfect to be true. Most writers feel reluctant to use these phony-sounding anecdotes, but as our courage builds through the years, we eventually write the story, because it’s too good for proving an axiom.

MONMOUTH — Jeri Kahl doesn’t belong to any birding organizations. And Midge Burns doesn’t consider herself a birder. But both women are loon experts on their respective big-loon lakes.

A lazy canoe or kayak float on an August river or large stream has everything to recommend it to average canoeists — sense of adventure, exercise, scenery, fishing, wildlife sightings and far more. River trips often inconvenience paddlers, though, because paddling from a put-in to take-out spot may require putting one vehicle at the beginning of the river stretch and another at the end — the old two-vehicle shuffle.