Great Day to Enjoy the Outdoors

Taylor and I scooted out after lunch today and hit some of the remote areas off the beaten path. We left and headed up the Stacycille Road and made the Logan Pond Loop. The trail was in excellent condition and we continued on up to Abol Bridge Store along the West Branch.

I stopped for a quick shot of the mountain from the bridge. I don't think Taylor was overly impressed sitting on the narrow snowmobile bridge attached to the side of regular crossing.

We crossed the bridge and headed down the Herd Pond Road. Lots of trucks in the parking lot which usually means lots of people fishing the lakes. We stopped for a quick pic at Abol Falls.

We continued on down the trail coming to the intersection of the Grant Brook trail where juice box must a been taking a nap as she came into a corner. The man upstairs was looking over her today. Unscathed, as well as the sled, we stopped for a break to collect our thoughts and for another pic from Dad.

We continued on to the side trail to Third Debsconeag where we headed over to Fourth Deb. Stopped for a pic of the ledges by the Chewonki Camps.

While we were on 4th we skipped over to the camps where I showed Taylor the old Indian Camp. The walls in this camp were covered in Birch bark with many old artifacts in the building.

We back tracked to Third and headed down thru to Second Debsconeag Lake. We kept right along going down to the end and over to First. One party of ice fisherman were spending the day on the lake. We passed to the end of the lake and thru the thoroughfare onto Joe Francis Deadwater where we stopped for another Katahdin picture.

Getting back on the trail we made a brief stop where the trial came onto Passamagamet Lake we scrounged in the saddle bags and found a bag of bar ba que chips. Juice box did her thing and we headed back home. Our round trip covered 78 miles on this sunny and seasonable day today!

6th Grade Science Project

Shelby has started working on her science fair project. Her first progress report is due this Wednesday February 25th. She has chosen as her project the Bilological Oxygen Demand Before and After Wastewater Treatment. We set up our first set of seeded samples today with a influent duplicate at the Winterport Water District's wastewater treatment plant. She has had a visit to the East Millinocket Wastewater Treatment and plants for more orientation at 2 other plants, hopefully Bangor Wastewater Treatment Facility and Veazie Sewer District.

The incubation time at 20 degrees Celsius is 5 day for today's samples so she is going to have to come down to Winterport Friday after school and perform the final dissolved oxygen tests on her 11 sample bottles.

The lab in Winterport. These are Shelby's analysis materials.

The dissolved oxygen meter and BOD bottles.

Preparing the seed for the bottles.

Our Ride Today

Well Dad forgot his camera today so we'll just have a little text post. We got about 5 inches of snow from yesterday so we broke out a few of the trails around the Debsconeags today. We left the house around 11:00 and headed up thru to the Wadleigh Pond Traill and out Deep Cove. We swung out around Ambajesus Point and up the backside of the West Branch Boom House.

We sledded up ITS 86 to the Whitehouse intersection and broke the trail out over to Third Debsconeag. The scenery was amazing as the new snow clung to all the trees. Eyeballing my rear view mirrors to make sure Short Bus and Taylor were following me I headed to the lakes outlet and cruised thru the untouched fluff down to Second Debsconeag Lake. We stopped out of the wind just before the lake and stayed in the woods while I hunted for a bag of potato chips that we left in the trunk bag from the trip before.

We jumped onto the lake and headed thru more unsoiled powder snow with the Venture leading the way and 2 red Phazers clinging the the tracks I leave behind. We got to the end of the lake and hopped on the old carry trail for about 3/4 of mile until we hit ITS 86 again. Crossing the ITS we traveled thru the woods for about 20 yards where we hit First Debsconeag Lake. Cruising down the side of the lake in that pile of fluff from last night we came to the thoroughfare and traveled along the side of it into Joe Francis Deadwater. We finally hits some fresh tracks there and hooked up on the carry trail trail into Passamgamet Lake.

A check behind me showed two thumbs up from 2 red helmeted kids and away we went down the lake. We picked up the old trail at the end of the lake where a large group of people were ice fishing. We hooked back up on ITS 86, crossed the bridge over the West Branch and traveled on out to Grant Brook, down the state road, down the poleline and stopped at the Northern Timber Cruisers Snowmobile Club for some late lunch.

Back home at 4:00 PM and covers on the sleds.

Its Winter in the Katahdin Region!

The long awaited white stuff has fallen on the ground and we're ready for it. We're heading to YAMAHA Country Today!

Rainbow Loop Ride

Matt, John, Shelby & I did the Rainbow Loop Ride today. Yeah, I know.......Ski Doo's.......but we let them come along anyway!



















Our trip took us from the house to first stopping at the NTC clubhouse for lunch. John & matt showed up and they decided to come along with us for the ride. We left the clubhouse and turned up the the pole line and onto ITS 86 at Grant Brook. We crossed the West Branch River and turned off the main trail onto the Passamagamet Lake trail (no one fishing today). We crossed the lake and traveled the narrow trial onto Joe Francis Deadwater. We proceeded thru the thoroughfare onto First Debsconeag Lake. We got onto the trail at the end of the lake and cut across ITS 86 traveling on another narrow woods trial onto Second Debsconeag Lake. I stopped for a moment and told Shelby how Grampy Lane used to love coming here in the summer and the winter to fish. I told her how he always brought me along when I was a little tyke.















We continued our sled ride down the lake and headed up over the hill onto Third Debsconeag Lake. We headed over to the cove where the trail to the Beaver Deadwaters started. This is a long narrow trial that took us across 2 small deadwaters enroute to Rainbow Lake. Shelby was doing an absolutely great job on her Phazer negotiating the narrow woods trails. We arrived at the upper end of Rainbow Lake. We stopped for a bit and I told her how Mom and I got into a little mess on this lake one winter in the middle of a thaw

















We continued down the lake past the Webber Camps and connected onto the Chesuncook Pond trail. We proceeded thru another narrow trail out onto the pond whee we stopped and discussed our travel plan. We turned around and got back out onto Rainbow and headed down towards the dam at the end of the lake. We stopped for a few minutes and I told Shelby how Gramp used to take me in here on snow sled thru the woods. It was an old trial and we used to have to cut allot of trees out of the way so we could get thru back in those days. Gramp used to love those types of trails.

We traveled down yet another narrow trail until we reached the intersection of the Nahmakanta Lake Camps and Rainbow Stream. John took a nice photo of Shelby and I on the bridge across Rainbow Stream. We took the trail down towards the lake and the sporting camps. When we reached the camps I took Shelby over to the camps and showed her where mom and I used to stay when we took our vacations over here.

We then headed down Nahmakanta Lake and took a short break about 3/4's of the way down the lake. I told Shelby that this was the spot where Mom did a loop de loop on her snow sled one day when she hit a patch of glare ice. The ice fishermen where clapping their hands as she must have put on quite a show going around in circles and keeping the sled upright. Of course I missed all the action being ahead of her on this ride.

















We got down the end of the lake and took a trail that brought us out onto ITS 86 and we rode a brief way and took a side trail down to Fourth Debsconeag Lake. We rode by the sporting camps that Chewonki now owns. The camps are rustic but are being taken care of pretty well now. I showed Shelby the tall ledges covered in ice and snow that protrude along the backside of the lake.


We continued on to the trail that would take us to Third Debsconeag Lake and head us towards back home. We got onto the lake and headed out around the point where the Campbell family has a set of camps. We reached the end of the lake and traveled a narrow trail to the intrestection of ITS 86 again. Matt and John had a hot date to their Mom's house for a big supper so they smoked it back to town . Shelby and I chatted for a bit and then started homeward at a good pace.


Unfortunatley Dad missed a turn and added about 12 miles onto our trip. We got back to Millinocket Lake at the dike and took a break. I could see Shelby was starting to feel the effects of our long day. We saddled up and headed for the pole line trail not knowing the final brutal miles of trail ahead of us. The trails were very rough showing evidence of allot of sled traffic. We pulled in past the Northern Timber Cruisers Clubhouse proceeding to Currie's Pits and the bridge across Millinocket Stream .


After crossing thru the "pits" we got onto the Jerry Pond Trail which took us the last brutal 2 miles home. Landing in the backyard at 6:30 PM Shelby announced she had made her longest ride ever.....a whopping 92 miles!

School Vacation Ride

Took a little ride with the kids today. We rounded up Leah and she rode with Shelby on the 2-up. We left the house and headed up the pole line. We turned onto the Wadleigh Pond Trail and came out onto Ambajesus Lake at Deep Cove. A stop at the Mackin's Camp for a visit and then back to the NTC Clubhouse for lunch!

Family Fishing Day at Jerry Pond

The Fin & Feather Club hosted its Annual Kids Fishing Day at Jerry Pond on February 15th. Weloaded the traps on the sled and headed down from the house. Although we didn't get any flags or catch any fish there was plenty of other action going on. One of our ice fishing traps got run over over by a grandmother giving her grandchild a ride on the snowmobile. Good show Judy! The turn out was very good and a good time was had by all. The Fin & Feather Club provided free hot dogs and hot chocolate gor all.........everything made for made for a great time. It was a great time to enjoy the Maine outdoors.

Roger Boynton serving up the hot dogs and hot chocolate.

Lots of people on the ice.........

Dicky Berry watching the action......

Shelby says COOL..............

Taylor's not impressed with the ice fishing part of the day..............

The Logan Pond Loop Ride

Taylor, Shelby and I rode the Logan Pond Loop today. The temps were seasonal and we covered 41 miles round trip from the house. Its not too tough to take to be able to look at Mount Katahdin everyday!

Carla...........their waving to you.....