This summer: Hire a guide, visit a park, learn about wildlife

My time on the road this week far surpassed my time on the water. After touring the St. John Valley and central Aroostook County to visit with our news bureau reporters there and having to buy an oil well to do it, I think I should have spent more time on the water – it would have been a lot less expensive paddling than driving!

Brace yourself. I watched gasoline prices in Aroostook County go from $2.02 per gallon to $2.09 in the blink of an eye last Wednesday. I won’t be surprised if by the time this column hits the streets the price around the Queen City will be around the same price. What’s up with that?

I needed to fill my tank before I took off Tuesday morning and that took $30 to do it. By that evening, after the trip north and jump in prices, it took another $24 to fill it again (and that was for just over a half a tank!). I think it’s the first time in my life (except when I once rented a motor- home) that I put more than $50 worth of gasoline in a vehicle in one day. I can’t imagine what folks who blow by me going 80-plus in their mohonchous pickup trucks are shelling out.

Spring has sprung in The County, by the way – not quite like it has around these parts, but the potato fields are being plowed, trees are beginning to bud and wooded hillsides have taken on that tender green hue in anticipation of spring. Lawns are green and spuds are being planted. There’s a newness and exhilaration in the air.

If you’re a camper, I’m sure you’ve been looking forward to camping season for months. The time has come. Dig out the tent, unearth the camper from the garage and forage for that sleeping bag stuffed way back in the closet. It’s good time to set up your tent and unroll the sleeping bag and sleeping pad to be sure four-footed or six-legged friends haven’t made nests there. It might even be the year to give the sleeping bag a bath.

If you’re in the market for suggestions on summer fun, have I got some advice for you – straight from Matt Dunlap of Old Town, the House Chairman of the Joint Standing Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

A great starting place is the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s Web site, Dunlap said. Check out www.mefishwildlife.com and go to “links” for a list of family-oriented activities.

In a piece Dunlap prepared for a Maine Campground Owners Association newspaper insert, Dunlap offers the following suggestions:

. “Hire a guide. Never fished? Nervous about taking a family canoe trip? Interested in a nature tour along an unfamiliar river or woodland? Want to see a moose? A Registered Maine Guide can help. Maine guides do more than conduct duck hunting trips. The link to the Maine Professional Guides Web site can give you a list of guides in the area you’re visiting that specialize in the activity you want to try. Even seasoned outdoorsmen can learn a new trick.”

. “Visit a park. More than just picnic spots, Maine’s parks and recreation areas offer fantastic programs that can teach the history of Maine and provide a fun and enriching day. The Mane Wildlife Park in Gray is a great example – not a zoo, but a rehabilitation center, you can see a moose, be amazed at the number of different species of owl that Maine is home to, and visit a fish hatchery.

. “Learn about wildlife. Organizations like Maine Audubon and the University of Maine Cooperative Extension offer one-of-a-kind programs that can prepare you for a nature hike, and take that information home – how to situate and care for bird feeders to maximize their effectiveness and minimize the danger to the birds you’re trying to help… You can plan on a tour to see and identify the amazing variety of shorebirds along the coast, learn to enhance your backyard habitat for helpful wildlife (bats) or check out eagles fishing along a river.

. “Do it yourself .IF&W’s Web site also provides a great online store for great gifts, as well as hunting and fishing licenses you can buy online. If you’re registering your new boat, don’t forget your milfoil education sticker, which is required. Proceeds help prevent the spread of invasive aquatic plants in our lakes and ponds. If the ocean is your deal, go on a sea kayak tour or go deep sea fishing … or a whale watch.”

For a compact and handy reference to all of the state’s parks, public reserved lands, state historic sites, boat access sites, snowmobile and ATV trails and abandoned railroad corridor trails, stop by any tourist information booth and pick up the Bureau of Parks and lands brochure “Outdoors in Maine.”

Last weekend, after I’d spent Saturday power-blasting flaking paint off my garage, deck, front porch, foundation and anything else that would stand still long enough, I readily accepted an invitation from Dr. Robert Causey to go paddling on Sunday.

We headed to Toddy Pond in Orland to explore. There’s a public boat launch just off Route 1 on the northern end of the lake. We parked among the bass boat trailers, geared up and headed south, poking our kayaks into small coves and circling tiny islands.

It’s been more than 40 years since I last visited this pond. Back then we had family friends who had a camp on the western shore and I remember a ride or two in a speedboat. Nothing that I saw last Sunday was vaguely familiar, imagine that?

We’d wended our way about five miles down the lake (as the crow flies according to my GPS) when Causey asked me what time it was. It was around 4:30 p.m., I think, and he advised me he had to be at a Mother’s Day gathering in Hampden around 6 p.m. Right then I wished that speedboat of yore was under me.

Wind at our backs, we headed north. I watched the GPS as it told me our speed was 4-plus mph and the estimated time of arrival slowly counted down.

It was a workout, but we made it back to the car, packed and headed to Prospect to catch Route 1 to go to Hampden. We were not there at 6 p.m., but we made it before 6:15. Not too shabby. When we walked in the door, Causey learned he wasn’t expected until 6:30 p.m.!

Here’s your last reminder from me to attend the 4th Annual Paddle Smart from the Start Safety Symposium at the YMCA this Friday from 5 to 9:30 p.m. If you paddle, want to paddle, think you might want to paddle or are just plain curious about safety on the water, by all means come on down!

It’s free! What else did you have planned?

The topics that you could explore include: “What Really Causes the Tides?” with Neil Comins, professor of Physics at the University of Maine; “Kayak Navigation and Paddling Etiquette” with Jeff Strout, a sea kayak guide and NEWS columnist; “Choosing the right boat and equipment” with author Shelly Johnson;’ “Risk Assessment: Knowing when it’s safe to paddle” with sea kayak guide Mark Goff; “Communication through sight, sound and signal” presented by the U.S. Coast Guard; “What GPS can do for you” with Master Guide Dick Parker; and “Repairing your kayak” with Earl Baldwin the dean of kayaking in these parts.

There will be on-water rescue skills demonstrated by Master Sea Kayak Guide Karen Francoeur of Castine Kayak Adventures. And you will have a chance to try out kayaks from Epic Sports in the pool.

In addition to these atrractions there will be static displays of equipment and informational tables. The evening will conclude with the awarding of door and raffle prizes. The list of these goodies has always been impressive.

So why not check it out. There’ll be pizza and soda available.

Epic Sports, Castine Kayak Adventures, the Coast Guard, the YMCA, the department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the Department of Marine Resources Marine Patrol and Penobscot Bay Sail and Power Squadron are major supporters of the event.

Jeff Strout can be reached at 990-8202 or by e-mail at jstrout@bangordailynews.net.