For years, the outdoors enthusiasts have ranked a trip on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway as one of their lifelong goals … and after taking the trip, most vow to return.

But over the past few years, access issues have divided many who are passionate about the Allagash. Those concerns – with some wanting more access points to the waterway, and others wanting to protect its wilderness quality at all costs – have created more than a few disagreements and resulted in a 2003 compromise called the “River Drivers Agreement.”

The Allagash will again be the topic of discussion today, as a group called Citizens to Protect the Allagash are staging a conference at the University of Maine.

But earlier this week, Department of Conservation spokesman Jim Crocker unveiled a survey that illustrates an important point: Even though there is room for constructive debate on the Allagash, visitors to Maine’s wilderness waterway still feel their trips are special.

In the survey conducted by John J. Daigle, 97 percent of respondents questioned in 2003 graded their Allagash experience either “good” or “very good.”

“That’s an overwhelming number,” Crocker said. “It’s hard to find 97 out of a hundred people who agree that the Red Sox winning the World Series was a good thing, or that having an Atlantic salmon run [on the Penobscot River] like it was when I was 10 years old would be a good thing.”

The survey itemizes nearly every topic an Allagash Wilderness Waterway vet could possibly want. It points out which access points and campsites are most popular and tells how many days campers spent on the waterway.

If you’re interested in perusing the 95-page report, you can find it at the Department of Conservation’s Web site (www.maine.gov/doc).

A couple of offbeat statistics gleaned from the survey:

. 91 percent of the respondents saw a moose on their Allagash journey. Also, 76 percent saw a bald eagle, and 72 percent saw deer.

. 97 percent of the Allagash visitors traveled the waterway on their own, without a guide.

. 73 percent of respondents were making their first trip to the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.

Finally, the most interesting piece of the survey may have been this: Visitors who didn’t enjoy their Allagash trip were asked what “key experiences” led to their negative evaluation.

As it turns out, many of these folks wouldn’t have been happy no matter where they were.

The No. 1 reason visitors didn’t enjoy their trip: Bad weather. No. 2: Bad fishing.

As this week’s rain proves, you don’t have to go to the Allagash Wilderness Waterway to find people who are miserable because of bad weather.

And the bad fishing? Well, let’s just say that I’ve seen plenty of good fishermen catching plenty of fish when I was convinced the fishing was bad.

Sometimes, I find, it’s merely the fisherman who’s not too good … though I doubt the survey had a spot for that kind of admission.

Use care on remote roads

One of these days, the rain will stop, the sun will shine, and we’ll be tempted to head afield in search of outdoor activities.

A message I received on Friday reminded me that, sometimes, barging out the door and tooling down a remote woods road might not be the best idea.

According to Jim Carter, the owner of Munsungan Hunting and Fishing Club, traveling can be tough in Maine’s woods at this time of year.

Carter’s camps are located north of Baxter State Park, southwest of Ashland, and are accessible by dirt roads.

“You might want to mention that currently many roads in the area have washouts or serious mud holes, and some are impassable,” Carter wrote. “The rain we had last Sunday coupled with a heavy snowmelt did quite a job on them.”

Carter’s words of wisdom apply on many other roads as well.

A point to remember: The continued unencumbered access of sportsmen to many of these roads is dependent on the relationships we build with landowners.

We may never meet these landowners in person, nor speak to them on the phone. But rest assured, every time one of us four-wheels our way through a mud hole, leaving deep ruts that need costly repairs, we are destroying more than the road.

We’re destroying our relationship with an otherwise benevolent landowner who would rather grant access than forbid it, but who can’t afford to keep cleaning up after others, either.

As Maine’s mud season stretches on, that’s something that we might want to think about.

Just because your new four-wheel-drive truck can get through a muddy section of road, it doesn’t mean that it should.

Think about the landowner. Think about how much you’d regret it if future access was denied to you and others.

And then realize that the actions you take today really may affect all of us at some point down the road.

Any-deer permits may decrease

The Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife is proposing a reduction of any-deer permits for this fall’s hunting season, but hunters in some areas may not notice.

The DIF&W wants to reduce the number of permits from 76,150 to 70,150, but those permits wouldn’t be decreased uniformly across the state.

Instead, the department would leave the number of permits untouched in seven Wildlife Management Districts, increase the number of permits in five WMDs, and decrease the number of available permits in 18 other WMDs.

According to a DIF&W press release, the goal is to stabilize the deer population in northern, central, and parts of southern Maine, increase the population Down East and in the western part of the state, and decrease deer numbers in coastal sections of Cumberland and York counties.

“While we would like to see the deer population increase in northern and eastern sections of the state, population recovery is still limited by the amount of wintering habitat in these areas,” said Mark Stadler, the director of the DIF&W’s wildlife division. “We are currently working with large landowners to ensure enough winter habitat is available to sustain long-term population recovery goals.”

The number of any-deer permits that were available to hunters over the past five years: 2004: 76,150; 2003: 72,600; 2002: 57,349; 2001: 54,000; 2000: 75,525.

The proposed number of any-deer permits is considered an “agency rulemaking” proposal, and those wishing to comment on the proposal may do so until May 21.

To make comments on the matter, contact Andrea Erskine at the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, 41 State House Station, Augusta, 04333-0041, or e-mail her at andrea.erskine@maine.gov.

Youths kick off turkey season

The rest of us will have to wait a day (or eight), but the state’s youngest permit-carrying turkey hunters will head into the woods today for the state’s Youth Turkey Day.

The state’s season is separated into two sessions, with half of the hunters eligible to hunt during the first and fourth weeks of May, and the other half hunting the second and third weeks.

All unsuccessful hunters are allowed to hunt from May 30-June 4.

If you end up with an interesting turkey tale, I hope you consider sending it along. Space will be limited, but each year I try to pass along several interesting stories.

For the record, the younger you are or the bigger your turkey, the more interesting your story will likely be to readers. Other unexpected turns could also make your tale a hit with readers. If you’re in doubt, send it along, and I’ll try to get a good representative sample in this space in the coming days.

Good luck out there … and I look forward to hearing from you.

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.