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.

Monday, August 5, 2013

A New Year - a different kind of calendar


We tend not to follow a traditional calendar here – months are meaningless in this business. There’s either snow on the ground and ice in the lake or not; fishing and hunting seasons are either open or closed; we’re waiting out a long, monochromatic cold spell or celebrating a brief spell of warm colorful days created by the sun. Our calendar is fluid as the weather and sets our pace more than a cycle of 30 or 31 days.

Our New Year begins during “ice out” – that period of time when we await the melting of ice and the official start of a new season at Fish River Lodge. Lake ice left on May 4th in an unusual way this year. It actually melted away. Typically, as it melts it blows up and down the lake and piles up in frozen sheets and chunks at one end of the lake or another until it melts away. This year was calm and the white surface turned gray, then slate blue and simply slowly disappeared. With the ice gone, the dark surface of Eagle Lake started warming for open water fishing. We move back to the lodge and began cleaning away the dust and cob webs left after the last fire burned down to cold coals in the woodstove last year. We celebrated the start of a new year with the first campfire of the season on April 19th.

Spring fishing was next to arrive on our calendar. Fishermen “migrated” back for their annual fishing trips and were as anxious for ice-out as the salmon were for mayflies! Mike Duni, Larry Converse, the Knowles brothers, Greg Gordon, Joe Decker and his buddy Mike Phillips, Joe Dumont, and Ed Swift are some of the fishermen who enjoyed “ice out” fishing this spring.

We bid farewell to a dear Fish River Lodge client and even dearer family friend: Ron Webber. Ron will be remembered for so many things and among them our families fished, hunted, and skied together; he gave me my first job at R. A. Webber Construction in Cundy’s Harbor; he was a wonderful wing-shooter and fly fisherman; had a tremendous sense of humor; and was admired by many. He was more like a member of our family than friend and he spent time at Fish River Lodge in all seasons, most recently on a moose hunt. This is Ron with his son Duane in 2010.


Mark Babine and his family returned for another long Memorial Day weekend. We’re watching his daughter Eve grow in to a beautiful little girl! Another milestone…Dakota Downes proposed to his girlfriend Nicole Davis. Dakota said Nicole is “a keeper” and right after she landed a salmon he presented her with a beautiful diamond engagement ring!

It was “June” on your calendar, here it was the rainy season, nearly every day. When making a living in the outdoors we can’t let the weather affect our plans. When it rains, we keep right on doing whatever it is on our daily agenda. For Joe and Mike, it was fishing. But one day of fishing turned in to an adventure in surviving wicked weather when they were stranded on Eagle Lake during a violent storm, taking refuge at the Dumond's “Tree House” camp. Poplar trees were up-rooted and snapped off around them, swamping their boat! It took Joe and Mike all afternoon to free their boat from one tree’s grip, then they “limped" their leaking boat home just as Wayne and I were about to set off to find them! Their story made the local newspaper “Fiddlehead Focus”. The storm cleared a swath of trees about ½ mile along the north shore of Eagle Lake.

A couple weeks later it was the annual Fish River Canoe Race that went off without a hitch, on a very rainy Saturday. If you like to paddle, mark your calendar for next year and plan on participating in this exciting event! There are classes for all types of paddlers with only one short portage around Fish River Falls. There are lots of viewing areas along the course for spectators.

Larry Converse returned for an Allagash River dream trip with his daughter Kim, grand daughter Kasey, and friend Ray Hardy. We hired guide John Pelletier who outfitted our group and led us on a magical journey on the Allagash! Of all the pictures I took, this one sums it up best...three generations at "the falls" - Allagash Falls.

Through the rain we fished and hiked, canoed and kayaked, and camped until the sun shined…and that would be around the 4th of July…which just proves there are basically two seasons in northern Maine: Winter and the 4th of July! Of course John Chasse, Master Trash Can Turkey Chef, roasted a bird on the beach.

The annual pot-luck has become a favorite of guests staying at Fish River Lodge. The David and Eldon Devoe families, Chasses, Bruces, Medinas, and other invited guests all celebrated Independence Day and fireworks with us. The days that followed were glorious with sun, warmth (too much warmth at times!), and brilliant colors in the many greens of our landscape and wildflower-studded hillsides. The lake at this time of year is a brilliant blue and sunrises and sunsets bright pink and orange. Colors were muted on this particular evening as smoke from Canadian forest fires drifted across our landscape.

John Medina finished “Guide Camp”. The addition includes a spacious livingroom, full kitchen and bathroom, bedroom, and sleeping loft. Wayne and I took a trip to Preseque Isle one afternoon and splurged a little on furnishing it. We didn’t want to scrimp on anything for the “reveal”.

Mim Webber and her lady friends Deanna Purington, Becky Johnson, and Cathy Alexander were the first to enjoy all the comforts of our plushest cabin. They loved it, and the balcony overlooking Eagle Lake where they enjoyed sipping coffee in the morning and a glass of wine in the afternoon. They took a pontoon boat ride, kayaked, fished, explored northern Maine, relaxed on the beach, read, and simply enjoyed the slower pace of life found “off the beaten path”. Pat and Phil Lebrecque joined us and enjoyed visiting family in the St. John Valley during their stay. David and Melissa Smey and their dog Sophie returned for their annual vacation and were joined the second week by Randy and Debbie Murasso. We missed the Murassos the past couple of years as family commitments kept them from visiting Fish River Lodge. Alice Gove and her family are perennial visitors too and summer wouldn’t be complete without them! We welcomed the Albert family from Presque Isle– Dennis, Cindy, Hillary, and Austin – for their first visit. They too enjoyed a relaxing get-away here at the lake.

Throughout the summer I enjoyed contributing to the Eagle Lake Recreation Department’s summer programs by offering three courses: Introduction to Horses, Time with Horses, and Introduction to Canoeing. I love watching as youth gain new skills and confidence as they experience new challenges! Throughout the summer I have continued training my young appaloosa horse, Magnum. He is becoming a willing trail and general purpose horse that I enjoy sharing with others.

Alvey & his father Herve Pelletier will arrive tomorrow – Herve is 94 and wants to make the trip “home” one more time. He was born in Eagle Lake and settled in southern Maine to raise his family. I love their visits when they play guitar and harmonica, and let their little jointed “Jean Pierre” doll dance on a wooden paddle! My daughter Miranda Brannigan and friends, Diane Stroud and family, Mim Webber and more friends, and my step-daughter Kaitlyn and boyfriend John will join us as summer vacation season winds to a close. We started baiting bears last week, which can mean only one thing…hunting season will be soon upon us and next on our calendar!

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