Outdoors enthusiasts go to sporting shows for a variety of reasons. Some like to look at expensive boats and dream of owning one. Others talk turkey with turkey experts or book trips to exotic lodges.

In Aroostook County, many attend the yearly Presque Isle Fish & Game Club Sportsman’s Show with something different in mind.

They want to pretend they’re a moose … or (if they’re shy) they just want to watch others pretend to be moose. Either way, it’s a pretty entertaining way to spend an hour.

This year’s show kicks off today, with the doors opening at 9 a.m. and closing at 5 p.m. Sunday’s hours are 9 a.m. until 4. The show is staged in the Gentile Building at the University of Maine-Presque Isle.

The show will feature plenty of traditional sporting show exhibits, including wild animals and exhibitors from across New England and Canada.

If you’re planning a visit, you might want to stick around this afternoon as some of the area’s best moose callers compete for $500 in prize money beginning at 4 p.m.

This year I’ll be joining the panel of judges that will hand out the cash, and I’m ready … I think.

Last year, you may recall, I headed into the woods on my own moose hunt and learned quite a bit about calling.

OK. I cheated and used a digital call. But I did listen carefully to those dulcet digital tones as my push-button offerings wafted through the forest.

And I did listen carefully when real, live moose answered my mechanical moans, bellows, and grunts.

That (apparently) makes me an expert. Either that or the good folks in Presque Isle were just looking for somebody to blame if one our moose impressionists disputes our final decision and starts trampling the crowd.

Either way, I’m in, and I’m looking forward to it.

If you’re wondering how it all turns out, you can check out the weekly “Going Outdoors” segment on ABC-7 and FOX-22 in Bangor on Monday evening’s news broadcasts.

And if you’re going to be at the show, I hope to run into you and share a few hunting and fishing tales before the contest.

Passy organizers ready

Dale Cross has seen a lot of things as the director of a pair of canoe races in the Belfast area.

Abnormally mild – or harsh – April weather is not unexpected, and Cross has learned to deal with either.

That’s not saying that unique situations don’t continue to crop up, as Cross learned this week during preparations for today’s Passagassawakeag Stream Canoe Race. The race will go on, and paddling conditions will be fine.

Getting the put-in and take-out areas prepared for the race took a bit of work, however.

“We got about 18 inches of snow down here, so we have a crew shoveling and snowblowing and have cleared out a place at the finish line and at the start so people can get in and get out,” Cross said on Friday afternoon, just after returning from a river work detail.

“My son is sitting across from me – he’s my paddling partner – and he’s all blistered up,” Cross said with a chuckle.

Blisters aren’t necessarily unfamiliar maladies for avid paddlers, but this is probably not the way Aaron Cross imagined acquiring them.

The work, Dale Cross said, was far from easy.

“You ever tried shoveling a field?” he asked.

Registration for today’s race runs from 8:30 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. The race begins at 11 on the Savage Road in Waldo and finishes on the Shepard Road in Belfast.

Dale Cross said paddlers can expect average conditions during the race.

“It’s gonna be fine,” he said. “It’s not high by any means. The snow is melting right now and will give us a little favor, but not that much.”

Cross said the water level will be on the low side of average.

The longtime race director said spectators looking for some wet-and-wild action ought to head to Rollerson’s Rapids on the Kendall Corner Road near the Belfast/Morrill town line.

The Passy is an 8-mile test that requires paddlers to take the best lines through a very windy stretch of water.

“Navigating it is going to be part of the challenge,” Cross said.

And while the recent snow won’t lead to much of an increase in flow for the Passy, Cross said having that much snow on the ground could help upcoming races as the snow slowly melts.

“The Souadabscook and the Kenduskeag can really use this runoff,” he said. “And it’s definitely not hurting us [on the Passagassawakeag] at all.”

Moose permit auction productive

While most of us will have to wait until June to find out if we’re going moose hunting this fall, a select group recently assured themselves of the privilege during the state’s annual moose permit auction.

According to the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, five hunters bid a total of $55,976 for the permits.

The money raised during the auction is applied to partial scholarships that will help send Maine youths to conservation camps at Bryant Pond and Princeton.

“While the hunters get to participate in the hunt of a lifetime, their winning bids also ensure that Maine children will get a chance to learn outdoor skills that will start them on a lifetime appreciation of the Maine outdoors,” DIF&W Commissioner Roland D. Martin said in a press release.

The moose permit auction was created by the Maine Legislature and began in 1995. Funds are specifically directed toward youth conservation education programs.

This year’s winning bidders were Phillip Shugart of Eagle Point, Ore., Carl Propst of Oriental, N.C., Robert Roach of Bellefontaine, Ohio, Christopher Azur of Pesto, Pa., and Louis Ogden of Terrell, N.C.

For more information on the Greenland Point Center and Maine Conservation School in Bryant Pond, visit their Web sites at www.greenlandpoint.com or www. Maineconservationschool.org.

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