Ice Skating and Snow Shoeing One of the great perks about living on a lake is that in the winter you can take out the ol' shovel and start shoveling away. So this winter, Jake and Nicole Bouchard and Mike Fabio came over to join Lisa and I in some ice skating and winter fun. After skating for awhile we did quite a number on carving up the ice and Mike made a home-made hand pushed Zamboni. Didn't work to bad at all. It involved a metal snow shovel, a heating coil from a water heater, a plastic reservoir and a [View Full Entry]

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Enter the Pumpkin Chucker Here was a learning opportunity if there ever was one. At Poland Regional High School we had a half day and decided to combine many different learning areas (Math, Physics, History) in one fun filled event of Pumpkin' Chunkin' glory. Jonathan Doughty, a very energetic and awesome science teacher at PRHS has a good friend who constructed a large trebuchet and was willing to transport it out to the school! Through out the whole day we had students measuring projectile [View Full Entry]

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As fall is fast approaching I wanted to take some snap shots to send out to the folks "from away" as we say here in Maine (also known as the 207 according to a fairly popular radio station in the state). I haven't had a New England fall in a long time and do to the large quantities of water received this sumer, the foliage was rather super duper. So over this last weekend I took a nice drive through New Gloucester and up into Readfield and took some snap shots of the spring foliage and of Sabbath Day Lake and [View Full Entry]

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Not even hurricane Kyle could stop the free flowing Brew at point Sebago! So before I get on to telling this story, I would like to precede it with some helpful hints at attending ANY Brew Festival. 1. Always have a designated driver. 2. If you don't have one, make sure you have at least an hour per drink to sober up before heading back to your desitnation (Tons to do at Point Sebago, so that shouldn't be a problem). 3. Talk with people, see the vendors, chat it up with folks and share their Brew. 4. Make sure you have [View Full Entry]

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I didn't want to make my first hike back east too easy... So my friend, Tom had this hike out in the White Mountains that he had been planning for twenty years or so. He pitched the idea of doing this hike before I started my new job as a public educator and suffering from a little mountain withdrawal, I said "sure, let's see what the White Mountains look like". I wasn't sure exactly what to expect as I have never played out in the White Mountains before. If you aren't familiar with the White Mountains let me inform you of [View Full Entry]

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So before I begin this post it is only fair that it contains a precursor. This is a long post as it contains the remaining portion of our journey from Rangeley to Fort Kent, so make yourself comfortable, go make a nice sandwich and cold glass of your beverage of choice...I'll wait. OK, you back? Did you get a pickle (they compliment sandwiches very well)? No, well, go ahead, I'm not going anywhere (granted the power doesn't go out) as this is just photons bouncing off from your screen to your retinas. Alright, you settled? Ready for the long haul? Here [View Full Entry]

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Well the last couple of days have truly been adventurous. After finishing the floating down the Nulhegan we hoped into the Connecticut river. There is a sweet class two wave during high water if you take the left off from where the river "forks" in three different directions. When I say forks I mean you can either go left, right, or straight. I've never seen a river do that before in my life. We took the left and got to run a nice class II wave. By the end of the day we had made it up a good chunk of [View Full Entry]

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So it has been a long and arduous journey UP the clyde river which is very labryinthine and swampy and beaverish and slow moving. You definitely get to see a lot of river birds (we saw some hawks, ospreys, and a bald eagle) and it is kind of easy to get turned around, but after a long day of oxbows, reeds, blowdowns (lots of trees in front of the river), lillypads and rain we made it twenty miles up the Clyde to Island Pond! It was late and Brett and I decided to grab an all you can eat Seafood platter [View Full Entry]

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This may be another quick post here as we are enjoying a day off and a resupply in Glover, VT (home of the Bread and Puppet festivals) with Uncle Bob Townsend (Brett's Uncle). The day of rest in Plattsburgh went well and we actually missed some very nasty weather on the lake that sadly claimed the life of a young canoeist celebrating his 21st birthday. The following day we took the ferry across from Plattsburgh to Grand Island and started paddling north up to the top of North Hero Island. We stayed at the North Hero State Park (mosquito headquarters of [View Full Entry]

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It has been an arduous three days. We've switched from DEET to sunscreen as the intense heat has kept the bugs down (plus we're further north and the bugs don't seem that bad). The Saranac River is what we have been traveling since Saranac Lake Village and it has many different facets. It's very snakey and slow moving coming out of Saranac Village as it meanders through town and out into the marsh lands and forests of the Adirondacks. We ended up not being able to find the exact location of a campsite marked on the map, so we ended up [View Full Entry]

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