Bardford Camps 2009 Newsletter

WOW! An “E” newsletter? Times they are a-changing, alright! I hope you all like and appreciate this format over the OLD process.

I’m tired just thinking of all that! That being said, anybody desiring a touchy-feely “literature-in-your-hands” experience, please call, write, or e-mail (ironic) and we will gladly send you a HARD COPY!! IN COLOR!!

Don’t get me wrong, paper is a good thing and we need it. We also need our foresters and landowners to make a decent living doing what they do. Without a healthy managed forest, and a need for same, this ecosystem we call the North Maine Woods would change drastically. Our hats are off to the people deriving a living out of the forest, and in so doing, supporting the forest for us to enjoy.

The camps are still in the firm clutch of Mother Nature, but it won’t be long. Karen and I look forward to another great year coming up. Chad and Leslie will be with us, and we also hope to have Dollie up from time to time to help out.

It has been a great winter for Karen and me. The highlight was a trip to Berkeley California , the land of terminally pleasant weather, fantastic eats, and “interesting people” at every compass heading. In retrospect it seems like we mostly walked and ate, two activities which are symbiotically related - perfect for us.

The Big Reed Pond working group met at the IF&W Sidney Headquarters on Tuesday, Dec. 16 to discuss IF&W efforts during 2008 to restore an Arctic charr ecosystem in northern Piscataquis County . The group consists of representatives from The Nature Conservancy, University of Maine , Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, and private individuals with charr management experience. Deputy Commissioner Paul F. Jacques attended the meeting and presented a Commissioner’s Print, a print of three brook trout by Maine artist Thomas K. Merriam, to Igor and Karen Sikorsky, owners of the The Bradford Camps at Munsungan Lake . The Sikorsky’s have provided significant support to IF&W and its partners in support of the project, including lodging and aircraft service to access the remote pond located on The Nature Conservancy’s Big Reed Pond forest reserve.

The restoration of native trout and blueback charr to their original habitat is moving along. It is not an easy project on many fronts. The work of catching and transporting fish has been a major ongoing effort. The “permitting paper-chase” has been handled by state biologist Frank Frost and is not yet completed. After two years of intense effort there are seven charr now held in captivity; quite possibly there are none left in Reed Pond. Hours, days, weekends were spent fishing last year on the pond with the only success being huge numbers of non-native suckers and an occasional brook trout. Through major efforts of Maine biologist Frank Frost and Dave Baseley, along with Gary Picard of Mountain Springs Trout Farm, we have caught what we think may be the last of the char, and are holding them for spawning during the next few years. Brook trout from Reed are also being held; their spawn will be reintroduced after the Char reintroduction has taken hold.

Double rainbow over old-growth forest by halmorgan.

The physical reclamation will occur this fall, pending permit approval. We are looking for numerous volunteers. All volunteers will be given free room and board at camp or room at the Reed Pond cabin, depending on the final plan. We promise you the work will be physically demanding, and really fun for people who like that sort of thing. Raise your virtual hands if interested….

My expectation is that after another four years we will actually be able to catch a wild char again in Reed Pond. The pond should remain free of invasives for two reasons: remoteness, and no-live-fish-as-bait. Most likely it was originally contaminated with invasives back when bait fish were allowed.

Perhaps it is time to consider no-live-fish-as-bait in all waters where wild trout and salmon are at risk from invasive species?

Translations from a thousand years ago…

ALLEGASH Hemlock Bark

CAUCOMGAMOC Big Gull Lake

CHESUNCOOK Place where many streams enter in, or “goose place”

KENDUSKEAG Little eel river

MADUNKCHUNK Height of land pond, today known as Webster Lake

MILLINOCKET Place of many islands

NERLUMSKEECHHTICOOK A twin peaked mountain, today known as Double-Top Mountain

PAWAYWECOMGOMOC Burned-over ground, today known as Telos Lake

PENOBSCOT Rocky river

PISCATAQUIS Branch of another river

PONGOBOWAHEAN Heron, today known as Heron Lake

POMGOKWAHWEMOOK Eagle, today known as Eagle Lake

QUEBEC Place too narrow for ship

WASSATAQUWOIK Mountain river

MUNSUNGUN Deep water lake

KTAADN (Katahdin) Highest Land, Greatest Mountain

David Gathman, Sr. returned to Bradford Camps this year for a final visit. His sons and grandsons accompanied him to Munsungan, and he was “escorted” up to the peak of Katahdin , the place he loved more than any other spot on earth. David climbed Katahdin on his own two feet eight times between 1938 and 1988. His final “climb” was September 18^th 2008, seventy years after his first climb.

Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife

As always we will have licenses at camp. But you are also welcome to purchase them online, which saves our Department a fair bit of money. Every time you buy from us the information has to be hand fed to the computer, after first deciphering my penmanship. I feel sorry for that person. So click on the left and go get a license!

This story from ages ago really touched my heart, and is an incredible story. I had the great privilege of hearing it firsthand from Al Averill, who visited with us a few years ago, some 53 years after his first visit to Bradford Camps.

Al worked as a flight instructor for Houlton Flying Service in the late 40s and fifties, and transported fishermen and hunters into the woods. This was a long time before roads; the only way in here was plane, canoe, or foot. One day in February, 1948 he flew a guide and a fisherman into Allagash Lake for the night. The next day dawned cold, one of those that make the national news. The afternoon temps dropped to minus 25 by the time he arrived at Allagash to pick up the fishermen. Al loaded the plane and took off, feeling a tail wind of 40 knots, anticipating a quick flight back to Presque-Isle. A few minutes later, however, he noticed an unfamiliar movement on the panel. The oil pressure needle quivered, then dropped, came up, then dropped and came up again. With his attention fully focused on his oil pressure now, he saw the needle drop to zero and stay down.

It was not a good feeling, considering his options 4000 feet above a very cold and darkening landscape. Al idled back the power and turned around to ask the guide if he knew of a place nearby that might provide shelter. The guide pointed towards Munsungan Lake in the distance, “Can you make that?” The trip now had a new destination.

Al: “Fortunately I was flying a Piper Super Cruiser which was the best gliding airplane around. I believe it was the prettiest sight I ever saw when we passed over the ridge with about 300 feet to spare and there below us was the main camp and several smaller camps around it. We touched down right in front of the main camps and promptly made ourselves at home. Upon landing I saw what oil problem was. When landing at Allagash the oil breather had frozen. When taking off at full power the crankcase pressure pushed oil seal (back of prop) out and let all the oil blow out. It went down inside the cowling and out along the belly of the plane. Not a drop came up on windshield so I had no warning that we were losing oil.”

Of course the camps were empty in February, but they got a fire going, found a bit of food, and they even found some “unfrozen liquid” to calm everyone’s nerves. They were all reassured that they would not be spending a night out in the deathly cold of 50 below zero, and also that the search planes would easily see their plane on Munsungun Lake the next day when they searched the obvious places along the route.

For a little amusement, Al picked up the crank phone hanging on the wall and gave it a twist, certain that the other end of the line was ringing on a deserted fire tower somewhere, or the line was probably downed by a tree. What a surprise to hear the other end pick up!

“Well I know right where you are young man, because that’s the only other end of this phone!”

As it turned out, the woman on the phone was the dam-keeper’s wife on nearby Millinocket Lake ; she had a supply plane coming in the next day and could convey the situation. Things just kept getting better and better….

The next day two wardens flew in to make sure all was well, and planned on staying with Al until the parts could be delivered. When the parts “arrived” a few days later, they were in a wheel plane which could not land. The parts and tools were tied up in a box with a streamer and tossed out of the plane. Problems arose when instead of falling to the ground the streamer became hung up in the tail of the flying plane! The plane circled with its attached cargo, and finally after a bit of jostling and uncoordinated maneuvers, the box came free and the parts landed, barely missing Al’s plane.

Al spent a number of days on Munsungun with the wardens, one of whom happened to be in helicopter training. He convinced Al to pursue schooling in helicopter work, in 1948 still in its infancy. Al got his helicopter license and eventually careered at Bell Helicopter in the experimental groupt for fifteen years! This career introduced him to many of my grandfather’s colleagues and friends. It was an honor to have known Al Averill myself; he passed away last year. He was truly one of the great Early Aviators.

So you don’t know what “FSS” stands for? Tried to google it and still nothing? What is this, your first Munsungan Muse? We are the FREE SHOVELING SOCIETY, founded circa 1997 when we ice cutters found ourselves ridiculously shoveling a 1500 acre lake in the middle of the North Maine Woods. Foolish thoughts of continuing on to Chase Lake , Reed Pond, and even Tundra Shoveling have been discussed. (Perhaps the rarefied oxygen at 25 below zero put such ideas in our heads…)

2009 was no different… Highlight was the LOW TEMP: 38 below zero on Friday (that’s not wind chill temp, that’s the thermometer talking). We were not deterred from our job, scared about the weather, or smart enough to think of something else to do. So to the ice we went!