Fish River Lodge Journal

Journal entries from Fish River Lodge, Eagle Lake, Maine. Adventures in hunting, fishing, trapping and running a sporting camp in northern Maine.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Spring Has Sprung!


It's May 17, already! We're enjoying all of natures colors - green flora every where, purple and gold finches, sparkling blue water - it's such an explosion of color after many months of living in a monochomatic world. Today it was overcast and windy with a high of 54 degrees. We spent the day cleaning cabins then headed to Fort Kent for groceries. We hosted our first spring fishermen of the season last week - Larry Converse, Greg Gordon, and Mike Carcia - all from Connecticut. They had a good week of fishing bringing in a 4 lb salmon, several other salmon in the 1 1/2 - 3 lb. range and several brook trout 16" and longer. But let me back track a bit and fill you in on what's been going on since the 1st of April...

On April 2nd we could see open water along the shore. Wayne snowshoed through the woods to take a few casts in the river, just because he could. Rarely is there open water this early in the season. Although he didn't catch a fish he enjoyed watching two bald eagles and an otter, and found a set of lynx tracks. The week of the 6th was quiet here at the lodge. Finances are very tight and we're scrimping and saving trying to keep up with the never ending stream of bills. A week of wind and rain and temps in the upper 30s and lower 40s did nothing to brighten our spirits. My journal entry from April 10th says we had about 12-16" of snow on the ground. The mouth of the river is opening wider, as if yawning after a long winter's sleep. On the 11th Wayne and I headed south to Brewer to attend the Maine Profession Guides Association banquet. On the way down we planned extra time to stop in Smyrna to visit the Amish harware store. If you have time on your way north or south it is worth the extra time and effort to visit this quaint community of Amish. The store contains many items in addition to hardware - they have a nice assortment of pantry supplies - flour, sugar, beans, herbs and spices; and boots, gloves, belts, purses and cutlery. I bought a new paring knife and a small bag of malted Easter eggs. A young man rang up our items on an old fashioned, hand crank cash register. The store was lit with sky lights and a woodstove was used for heat. The community also has a furniture store we've been told but didn't have time to visit it, along with a harness shop, tin roof manufacturing, and storage shed builders. Many of the homes had buggies parked in front with horses tied along side. On the way back to Interstate 95 we saw a horse drawn buggie driven by"grammy" with her grand daughter along for the ride. I fell asleep around Millinocket where there were still patches of snow. I woke in Old Town where the gress was greening - it was like I'd slept through winter! The banquet was a wonderful social event after such a long winter. We enjoyed renewing aquaintances with guides from all across Maine. Along with 14 others, I was awarded a new Marlin .45-.70 stainless steel guide model for selling $1500 worth of Super Raffle tickets last year. Now I have two of these special edition guns with the MPGA logo etched on the stock. One I will present to my grand daughter, Acadia, on her 16th birthday (in 2018!) We celebrated MPGA's 30th anniversary and honored many of its founders. Since the future of hunting and fishing belongs to our youth, we raised enough money at the banquet to send several children to Maine Conservation School this summer. A common theme throughout the evening's presentations was the importance of sharing our hunting and fishing tradition with today's youth. So, find a kid and take him or her hunting and fishing! On the drive home, as we wound our way toward Winterville, we came upon a yearling moose in the middle of Route 11. He did not want to share the road so we had to follow him for over a mile as he trotted along in front of us until finally "pulling over" and letting us by.

Easter Sunday was spent quietly beside the wood stove enjoying our malted eggs. Mike Michaud and later Ron and Travis Toussaint paid us a visit. I called home and got to talk to Nana Pat and Grandpa Armand too. It snowed on the 13th. By the 14th we were able to do a little raking around the lodge driveway to clean up a winter's worth of wood chips and bark. Juncos and house finches have arrived and are eating sunflower seeds from the feeders almost as fast as we fill them. We held our first-of-the-season ATV club meeting here at the lodge on the 17th. It was very well attended and we're all eager to get out on the 1,100 miles of interconnected trails in "The County"!

On the 19th we took our snowmobiles on the last ride of the season. We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon of riding under sunny skies with temps climbing to the mid 40s - in some places there was still snow to our knees! We rode until our tanks were nearly empty. We attended an Aroostook County Conservation Association meeting on the 21st with George Pooler, a fellow guide from Wallagrass. The mission of ACCA is to restore the whitetail deer herd in northern Maine. We enjoyed an informative presentation by Peter SeeHusen of Quality Whitetail Consultants and dealer of Whitetail Institute food plot seeds. After Peter's presentation I, along with others attending, were convinced that with a unified and concerted effort on the part of private and corporate landowners, we can establish food plots that will enable our whitetail to survive our long winters.

Through out the month Wayne and I continued working our part time jobs - he cooking at the nursing home and me learning graphic design at Paper Signs Ink. On the 24th and 25th I assisted Steve Daigle at the Top of Maine Trade Fair in Madawaska where he had a booth promoting his print shop. It was without a doubt the booth offering the most fun to attendees. We shared space with Judy Bossie (Moment In Time Photography) and superimposed portrait photos on various backgrounds, then printing 16" x 24" posters. It was a great family activity at the show! A downpour in the evening of the 24th and big wind on the 25th started breaking up our ice. It was the making of an early ice-out. It was interesting watching large plates of ice float by etched with last winter's snowmobile tracks. As soon as the lake opened up the loons moved right in! On the 27th we woke to calm water and sun sparkling on the LAKE! What a sight to behold after being iced in for so many months to watch the sun reflect off the ripples on the water! That same day Wayne started jacking and leveling cabin 4. It will be our winter home next season. We have been anylizing our expenses versus our revenue stream and have to make some tough decisions if we are to continue operating Fish River Lodge. One tough decision we made will be to close the lodge after Christmas next winter. We will move in to cabin 4 and continue winter operations, just without the lodge. We will continue renting cabins in winter and hosting guests with the exception being the "lodge" will be cabin 4 until spring. As we get to the task of remoding the inside of cabin 4 it will be done to accomodate us living there as well as being a central gathering place for our guests who want to visit with us. In addition, we will change our focus from providing lodging to snowmobilers and put more emphasis in our marketing efforts to attracting ice fishermen, cross country skiers, snowshoers, and dog sledders. We have partnered with Lindy Howe and Larry Murphy, local dog mushers, to offer 4-day and week-long sled dog schools where "students" will learn all aspects of sled dog training, care, and nutrition, and will go on excursions with a team of dogs during their stay. As much as we wish we could continue "business as usual", we must be nimble during these economically challenging times if we are to remain sucessful. Then of course, come spril 2010, we will move back in to the lodge through fall.

Anyway, back to spring "springing"! Here's a great story...The evening of the 27th was relatively warm so after dinner I went out on the deck to watch the "icebergs" float by. One in particular caught my attention. It's ragged edges formed a floe about 20 feet in diameter. There atop the "berg" were five unusually perfect "cubes" of ice. I pondered what "natural" occurance would result in five cubes on a berg? They were cut too perfectly to have occured naturally... suddenly it dawned on me...those cubes looked familiar...they were of the same sizes and shapes as the ice Wayne cut when we put our ice shack out on the lake back on January 4th! And as I looked even more closely I could see that they were left melting on that berg just as we'd layed them out to block the wind under our ice shack. At that moment I had gone out to watch icebergs and at that moment those cubes floated by on a westerly breeze, last touched by me in January! Amazing! Later that night when we let the dogs out before bedtime we heard Alli barking like only Alli does when she's alarmed. As Wayne started up the driveway he saw a cow and calf moose trot across our parking lot! They must have wandered down from the hill looking for a bite of tender grass.

On the 28th I began raking. I started out wearing a turtleneck and fleece but as temps rose I shed the fleece, then traded the turtleneck for a tank top! Temps soared to 68 degrees! I got our flower bed cleaned out and began raking around cabin 6 and across the front of the lodge. After two truck loads and five wheelbarrow loads of debris dumped on the hill the property was starting to look tidy again. I had to rake around a few snowbanks but they were melting fast! The ice cubes floated by again today, on an easterly breeze... Grace has rounded up collection of tennis balls. One was so covered in burdocks it was unrecognizable! I picked the budocks off and she joyfully rolled the ball down the hill next to the lodge, retrieved it, and let it roll again and again. Alli stretched out in the sun, oblivious to Gracie's game. Last count, Gracie's collection included 5 tennis balls in various stages of balding.

We declared official "ice out" on April 29. On the 30th I raked around the rest of the lodge, around cabins 5, 4, 3, and 2. That afternoon we took the canoe over to Pennington Pond. Wayne caught a couple 15" brook trout and released both. On the way home he asked what we were going to have for dinner? With the cupboards bare and refrigerator empty, we wondered why we hadn't kept at least one of the fish! We found a box of beans and rice and a couple pieces of frozen chicken. It was a good dinner and the trout are still in the pond to be caught another day. Back at the lodge as the sun was setting we were entertained by a large beaver "cruising" back and forth along the shore. I guess after spending so many months under "hard water" it was happy to swim where ever it's heart desired.

After working all day then going back to Fort Kent for groceries we stayed up late on May 1st finalizing our presentations and agenda for our guide study sessions. Earlier in the spring we canceled our usual guide course due to lack of interest. Then as May approached we were approached by more and more prospective guides from the area to help them prepare for the guide exam. Since Wayne and I have both attended guide schools and successfully completed testing requirements we agreed that we would hold a two-day "study group". We had seven participants who put us through our paces. Local trapper Jerry McLaughlin helped us on May 3rd when he gave an excellent presentation on trapping.

On May 5th I started "opening" cabins. Wayne put away our winter stuff...snowmobiles, plow truck, sled dog box, ice auger, snowblower, shovels, roof rake, and ice chisel, and tidied up around the shed by neatly stacking last fall's bear bait barrels then he put our dock out. Back to Fort Kent on the 8th for more groceries - this time to feed our first group of spring fishermen - yippee! It is the start of another year which always begins with spring fishermen! Larry Converse, Greg Gordon, and Mike Carcia arrived in the afternoon of the 9th. We love welcoming back our guests not seen in a year! They have become family - "Uncle Larry", "Uncle Greg", and "Cousin Mike"... We all woke to a heavy frost on the 12th. I got another couple of cabins ready. Russ and Carole Dyer and their son Danny arrived later that day to spend a few days fishing. Wayne put our boat in the water. The dining room was lively with conversation well in to the evening as we all shared "fish stories" and other tales. On the 13th I went on an excursion to Square Lake in search of fossils at Limestone Point. I brought Alli and Gracie along. We explored the point and found many nice specimens but left them for others to find although I did pick up two small ones to learn more about. I wish I knew more about geology - there are so MANY interesting rocks at Limestone Point! On the 14th I surfed the web and learned the fossils were the remains of an extinct class of echinoderms (starfish, sea urchins...). Their origins in the class Crinoidea. These sea critters spent their lives fixed to the OCEAN bottom (yes, this area was covered by sea water 500 million years ago!) There in the stone were the remains of the stalk columns, preserved for 500 million years, give or take.

On the 14th we were hit with strong winds and gusts to 52 m.p.h. It was not a good day to be on the lake so Larry and friends decided to fish the streams. Their adventure began when they tried to get back to the lodge for dinner. The dirt access road was blocked by downed trees. Mike was prepared and had a machete in his truck. At dinner they shared pictures and video of each taking a turn with the machete to chop through the trees enough so they could be pushed off the road. That night at dinner we awarded "Honorary Logging Degrees" to Larry "The Logger" Converse, Greg "Eager Beaver" Gordon, and "Machete Mike" Carcia. They enjoyed a pretty decent week of fishing and weather; we enjoyed their friendship

I learned Grandpa Armand is in the hospital with pnumonia and a low oxygen count. These are the times when I hate being so far from "home". Please say a prayer for my grandpa. Even as he lays in the hospital he is curious to know what's going on up here at Fish River Lodge.

So here it is, the middle of May. The sun is setting and Wayne has just left to play basketball tonight. Tomorrow we are expecting Bob Dauback and a friend from Massachusetts, and Malcolm Charles will be arriving with a freind from southern Maine. They will be here to enjoy some fine salmon and brook trout fishing. Spring has definitely sprung here in the north country. Fishing season is underway!

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