The carpenter who I helped rebuild my lakeside camp into a year-round house had a saying that he used whenever one of us made a mistake. When a nail wasn’t driven straight or a stud was cut too short, “Paul,” he would quip,” it’s only a mistake if you can’t fix it.” A rationalization maybe, […]
outdoors
Posted inLocal Sports
Comprehensive hunting licenses make sense
If you buy just a resident Maine hunting license, the cost is $25. If you buy all of the other optional licenses to go along with it — archery license, black-powder permit, turkey licenses and so forth — the cost, according to Bill Swan the director of licensing for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries […]
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Posted inLocal Sports
Outdoors in Maine: Baxter Park brookies
If all goes according to plan, Baxter State Park’s fabled brook trout waters will be stocked next fall with a different strain of brook trout one more native to the area. Let’s back up a minute. Over the years, Maine’s hatchery-raised brook trout have traditionally been the progeny of wild trout of two different […]
Posted inLocal Sports
More shooting ranges would be shot in arm for outdoorsmen
There was a day when any old gravel pit would do as a makeshift shooting range. Not so anymore. Today, most of those gravel pits are posted and gated off. These pit owners are concerned about somebody, an ATVer or recreational shooter, getting hurt and hiring an attorney to recover damages. For the recreational shooter […]
Posted inLocal Sports
Keeping a close eye on Maine’s moose population
With the word spreading about declining moose populations in Montana and Minnesota – and closer to home in New Hampshire — Mainers have begun expressing their concerns about the health of our statewide moose population. In Minnesota the state moose population reportedly has been dropping at an alarming rate — 25 percent per year! Moose […]
Posted inRiver Valley, sj-web
CC’s Outdoor Journal; Sledding is family fun
As much as many people dislike winter and shiver at the sound of snow, ice, and cold, me and my family are the ones who are shivering with excitement to embrace the fun that can be had. What a great start to the new year with so much snow and a bit of an ice […]
Posted inLocal Sports
When it comes to survival, deer are good listeners
If there is a wild animal more fascinating than a whitetail deer, I don’t know what it is. Should I decide to stop hunting them, I shall continue to feel this way. Certainly the act of hunting deer year after year for most of my adult life has helped generate this fascination and appreciation for […]
Posted inRiver Valley, sj-web
CC’s Outdoor Journal: Fishing in the new year
Living in Maine, many of us have been fortunate enough to have found our common bond with our favorite season. For anglers across the state, January 1 marks opening day for ice fishing. While some die hards were scoping out those bodies of water open for fishing before the new year, the majority of fishermen […]
Posted inLocal Sports
Backtracking and taking a hard look back at 2013
The New Year is almost always a welcome event, even if we are all a year older. The slate is clean. As we look ahead it’s a lot like a field of virgin snow. As we move on, the tracks we leave will take us to unseen ground. This is especially sweet for outdoor people […]
Posted inLocal Sports
When stepping onto ice, watch your step
Each year about this time, the Maine Warden Service urges us to use extreme caution before venturing out onto any ice that may be covering Maine’s waterways. This is timely advice. Last winter three night-time snowsledders all perished in one night on Rangeley Lake when they and their machines broke through thin ice. Many of […]