Ice Fishing Season Open

HAPPY NEW YEAR! We’re in the depths of winter – long nights, short days, cold temps. Although it has been a relatively mild winter so far (thank you!) Finally this month the Eagle Lake sled dog races are able to receive my full attention. Until January arrived I was able to do only what was necessary to keep the race planning train rolling along. With the race less than three weeks away, it gets my full attention! Most mornings and evenings are spent tying up loose ends, trouble shooting, and problem solving.

January is also the month we chose to move in to cabin 1. We gambled last winter and kept the lodge open. High gas prices, snow throughout New England, and a sour economy kept snowmobilers closer to home. We spent a fortune heating the lodge for just Wayne and me. We won’t make that mistake twice! Wayne arranged for DirecTV, phone, and internet service to change over to the cabin, which meant our “moving day” would be the 9th! Wayne took the propane heater out of cabin 1 and replaced it with the old lodge woodstove on the 5th. Wayne had to work all weekend which left our big move to me! I started early Saturday morning by cleaning the lodge. Then I moved our food, cleaned the lodge refrigerator, moved our clothes and bathroom stuff, our winter clothes, some furniture, and personal stuff to make the cabin look like “home”. I called Gracie and Alli (our German shorthaired pointers) over to their new home (although they’d been curious all day about my many trips back and forth between the lodge and cabin!) and grabbed the cat and just before Wayne got home I had us settled! We treated ourselves to a pizza for dinner to celebrate moving day!

We shut the lodge down on the 10th and BRRR it’s cold in there! Since the phone and internet hook up was scheduled for the 12th, until then I would have to return calls and emails from the frosty lodge! This was a challenge the week before the race with many calls coming in and going out. I was so happy on the 12th to come home from work and place calls and emails from the cozy and warm cabin!

With volunteers in place and all our planning done, co-director John Kaleta and I were anxious for race day. Roy Roalf and Buck had worked for weeks putting in the 50 mile sled dog trail to Moose Point Camps. Conditions were very good this year, and the forecast was for comfortable temps. Our driver’s meeting was held Friday night at the American Legion. We handed out bibs and instructed mushers where to be and when on Saturday. I had to run back to Fort Kent to finish our sponsor sign with my boss, Steve Daigle, on Friday night after the meeting. The sign was done at 11:00 p.m and would be needed for the race in less than 12 hours – we cut it pretty close!

Visit http://www.eaglelakesleddograces.com/ to read all about our race. After a last minute trail reroute (due to local “politics”) we had to send teams up Old Main Street and Convent Road (plowed!) but once they hit the trail about 1 ½ miles out it was smooth sailing on excellent snow and a firm trail - as long as temps stayed below 20 degrees. Mid-day highs approaching 30 degrees softened the trail a bit and slowed teams but all the 30 mile mushers finished before dark (Rico Portalatin (MA) won the 30). All 100 mile mushers were in to the check point by 6:30 p.m. for their mandatory 4 hour lay-over (so I took a break from my duties helping Eagle Lake Fire Chief Shawn Madore staff race headquarters and “central communications” to run home and say “hi” to Wayne – I hadn’t seen him much in the past few days). Teams began departing the Moose Point check point around 8:30 p.m. Sylvain Robillard (Quebec) won the 100 mile race finishing just before 2 a.m. We had all the 100 mile teams at the finish line by 6:30 a.m. It had been a long weekend and I had one more hurdle to jump – get through the awards presentations at 11:00 and the 2010 Eagle Lake Sled Dog Races would be behind us for another year…John and I presented checks totaling more than $5000 (sponsored by Irving Woodlands, LLC) to 100 mile finishers, and more than $2000 to 30 mile finishers. After saying “so long” to our mushing friends for another year I headed home to tie up loose ends (paper work, press releases, and fielding calls from those wanting finishing results) and then took a nap!

Both Wayne and I were back to our “real jobs” Monday morning. Check out our new web site for PaperSignsInk (the print shop I work at). If you need business cards, brochures, posters, or any other printed materials, our prices can’t be beat! http://www.papersignsink.com/

Winter set in the week of the 23rd when temps plunged to -4 on Tuesday but then warmed to 32 degrees with freezing drizzle on the 25th. Wayne shoveled roofs on the 26th in anticipation of a full house for the weekend. With the heat-loss through our cabin roofs, any snow up there melts and can build ice dams if we don’t keep ahead of the shoveling, Brandon Cox and friends were the first of our ice fishers to arrive on the 27th. His father, Steve Cox and friends and Scott McNichol and more friends arrived on the 28th. Scott brought a load of fresh scallops to the delight of many in town! I think half of Eagle Lake was feasting on scallops over the weekend!

We got about 8” of snow on the 28th. Although not a big “snow event” it is a welcome addition to the three feet of snow we have and helps keep the snowmobile trails in great shape.

The big draw for our weekend ice fishermen was the annual Long Lake Ice Fishing Derby. The two-day event had 566 entrants, including our guests, and Wayne. Wayne had never fished the derby but made time this year for it, setting his ice shack on Friday so he could hit the lake before sunrise on Saturday for the best spot on the lake for brook trout. He was out of camp by 4 a.m. and had all his tilts set up by 5. I drove the snowmobile out to check on his progress on Saturday afternoon. He had landed several brook trout in the 1 – 1 ½ lb. range, keeping a 1 lb 14 oz. fish. He was back at it Sunday hoping to best his nearly 2 lb. brook trout caught the day before. Typically, it is a 4 pound plus fish that wins the brook trout class in the derby. After fishing from sunrise to late afternoon, Wayne pulled his tilts and was home Sunday by 3:30. We called over to derby head quarters at the Long Lake Sporting Club. The winning brookie at that time was 2 lbs 4 oz and third place was 1 lb 11 oz. Wayne’s Saturday catch could be good enough for third place! He and friend Grant Shook took the fish over for weigh-in and as the final minutes ticked by, Wayne’s fish held up and earned him third place honors and a $275 check; not a bad pay for two days of ice fishing!

So we ended January celebrating Wayne’s “trophy trout” and look forward to getting back out on the lake to ice fish next month. We’re also hoping we can find an afternoon to go snowmobiling. The trails are in GREAT shape (so we’re told!) so we want to get out and enjoy some of the best riding in the northeast! If you haven’t planned your winter “get away” yet, give us a call. February and March offer some great riding and ice fishing!