Hunger pangs set in on my drive from the Portland, Maine, airport toward Lakewood Camps. While the navigation system showed the mileage was just at 100 miles, my drive time was closer to three hours than two. A lobster roll from Rocket Ron's food truck was an exciting find. A lobster roll that not only was fresh but housed in a bun full of decadence and butter, exotic to a Midwesterner, miles from the coast, cruising a two-lane somewhere near Oxford, Maine.
A stroll along the Carry Road near Lower Dam, I viewed a memorial to Carrie Stevens, obscurely hidden near the river, tucked away in the Maine woods, a tribute to the region's historical significance. Stevens, a historic fly dresser, called the Rangeley region and the Rapid River her home waters, its flows and trout the impetus for her classic streamer patterns including the Gray Ghost. Not to mention the boat ride up Lower Richardson Lake to arrive at Lakewood Camps, a Maine sporting camp since 1853. What I will remember most is the brightness of the stars in the night once the camp went dark, the colors of the autumn hardwoods throughout Maine's Rangeley district, but most of all, the color of the rivers we probed, and the fish we found. The Rapid, Magalloway and Kennebago were each distinct, and in two days, permanently etched in my mind.
Denne historien er fra Autumn 2024-utgaven av The Upland Almanac.
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Denne historien er fra Autumn 2024-utgaven av The Upland Almanac.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Tail feathers - STANDARDS AND PRACTICES
\"An armed society is a polite society,\" the NRA says in one of its dicta, cribbed from Robert A. Heinlein, a 20th-century American science fiction writer.
Day's End - IN PRAISE OF FENCEROWS
Driving north along the Hudson River, I gazed at a pastoral autumn scene: sere fields of faded yellow harvested corn, stubbly and broken amongst the clods of black earth, almost smooth from my vantage point. Spiky brown veins of wild growth marked barriers between plots. Occasionally, the gray bones of a mature oak rose among the brown shrubs to stand over the yellow fields. A sentry, keeping silent watch as white frost crystals slowly melted into invisibility.
That Time of Year Again
Without doubt. The most idyllic form of hunting in Ohio is seeking the woodcock. - Merrill Gilfallan, Moods of the Ohio Moons: An Outdoorsman's Almanac (1991)
I Don't Wanna'!
I'm an old hand at being retired, though - have been practicing for 25 years.
Hunting the Huns: Alberta's Big Sky Country
The prairies of southern Alberta are vast, beautiful and full of prime bird habitat. Crop fields are interspersed with abandoned farms, rolling hills are intersected by coulees and creek beds, and Hungarian partridge and sharptailed grouse occupy some of the best and most picturesque habitat on the continent.
Side Dish - End of Season
Sporting trips are not only about sport, as many other experiences are discovered alongside. And my trip to Lakewood Camps in Maine was certainly just that.
AN EXTENDED STAY
There is no reason to leave Michigan in the fall unless the opportunity of a cast and blast adventure at a historic sporting lodge in Maine comes calling.
KEEP IT HANDY
If you think shooting a ruffed grouse on the wing with a shotgun is tough, try shooting one in flight with a still camera.
A Longtime Love Affair
It's possible to hunt your favorite birds in a lot of different places, I suppose, but I don't do that.
Profile of an Artist: Harley Bartlett
Harley Bartlett was born in 1959 near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. However, having lived in Rhode Island for most of his life he considers himself a Rhode Islander.
