Swensons' Adventures: Men, Moose, and Mountains

The Men's outing this year was a little later in June, but we continued to head to one of our favorite get-away locations...Little Lyford Pond Camp in the 100 Mile Wilderness of Maine. The coordination of departure times was only enhanced by having several of our wives meeting at our house and leaving at the same time as the men, for an outing of their own...at least that was the plan.

Cheri, Suzanne Cimochowski, and Lisa Nowak met at our house right on time and loaded up the car for a trip to The Cottage in NH...

You can't see her, but Lisa is in the back seat. When I asked Suzanne why John didn't ride with her, she said he had too many last things to do (pack...cool the beer) plus Jim had offered in an E-mail earlier to pick him up.

Lisa also said Jim had some last minute things to do (something to do with the goats and / or packing), but he was on his way. Charlie showed up at the appointed time so we were only waiting for the other two when the wives headed out. Then it turn out that Jim never read John's positive response to the offer of picking him up, so Jim was almost to my house when John called and asked where was he...and was he running late. Needless to say (but I will anyway) we didn't leave until about 45 minutes after the original plan.

Our first stop was in Northborough, MA to pick up my friend from work, George Brenckle. George has done quite a bit of hiking in the past with his sons and Boy Scouts and is planning to do the Appalachian Trail next year with one of his sons, so he certainly exceeded any of us in ability.

The next stop was a rest room break at the NH Liquor Store...and since we were already stopped...

Then it was on to the Moosehead Lake region of Maine.

Dan Manz had driven over from Uderhill, VT and arrived ahead of us. He and I were in the Trapper Cabin (ideally located near the rest room / shower and community fire pit), Charlie and George were next to us in the White Wolf cabin, and Jim and John were banished to the Trails End cabin at the far end of the camp...coincidence...?

We settled into our cabins, had a small libation to counter the dust of the road, and then it was off to another great supper put on by the AMC staff at Little Lyford. After all you could eat grilled salmon, quinoa salad, locally grown snap peas (as in the garden right behind the lodge), brownies and ice cream (this is 'roughing it' our style) it was back to the cabins for some story-telling...and maybe another libation.

Saturday morning we were up early (being so far north the sun seems to come up about 4 am...plus this was the summer solstice) so we were all enjoying coffee on the porch of the lodge well before breakfast.

Charlie and George are to the right with Dan on the left, next to Dan is a fellow camper named Jim...who just happened to join us for coffee.

Similar to previous years following breakfast the group split up with three (Charlie, Jim, George) heading out to hike the Gulf Hagas and three (Dan, John, myself) heading out to do some fly fishing. Charlie posted the following picture from their hike and you can look back through the archives in June of the last few years to see some other photos of the gulf.

I have typically done the hiking but a combination of a little strain on the MCL of my right knee and a growing interest in fly fishing had me heading out to some remote ponds. AMC offered a program that took us in a van (along with four other fisherman) plus two Maine Guides out to some more remote ponds in the area to fish for wild brook trout.

We dropped off three other fishermen with their guide, Rance at Mountain Brook Pond while Dan, John and I along with another fisherman, Rich and Casey our guide drove to the trail to Horseshoe Pond. We carried paddles and flotation devices into the pond. Once there Casey pointed out the typically good fishing sites and we got into three canoes and headed out.

After about two hours at one pond we met up with the other group, enjoyed our pack lunches together and then switched ponds. Between the two ponds Dan and I caught and released about twenty fish and Dan kept one to have with breakfast the next day. Rich and John in the other canoe seemed to have similar luck.

Then it was back to LLPC to meet up with our hiking buddies and enjoy a great turkey dinner (did I mention again how well they feed us at LLPC?). After dinner some of us attended a very good presentation made by Casey about the Maine Wilderness Initiative and the preservation of these tracts of land for outdoor use. Then it was back to the cabin for some fish stories (I really did have a big one that broke the line as I was trying to get him into the canoe) and maybe a libation.

It was a beautiful evening and there was general interest in using the fire pit near our cabin. So we had a fire and more stories with our fellow campers and staff for a while into the evening.

Early Sunday morning, Dan and I headed out to the Pleasant River to see what was biting before breakfast. This time I was fortunate enough to land one worth keeping. We brought him back to the lodge (Dan cleaned him stream side) and the cook prepared him to go with the vegetable frittata, cherry scones and sausage already planned for breakfast (she did the same for Dan's catch from the previous day which had been kept on ice overnight).

After breakfast the hikers headed out to climb Indian Mountain nearby (about a 2,500 foot climb with good views back over the ponds) while Dan, John and I took out a canoe and kayak on First Roach Pond. Dan and I had several good strikes but didn't land anything while John caught the fish of the weekend (a little over 11 inches). He put it on ice to bring back home.

Before heading back home and to our spouses, we managed to get a group shot...

Speaking of our spouses...

On their way up to The Cottage Cheri, Suzanne and Lisa stopped at the La Belle Vineyard in Bedford, NH. While we were roughing it in the 100 Mile Wilderness they were sampling wines with nibbles.

Liz Manz met them at The Cottage for the day on Saturday. They spent the time with a little swimming (Cheri and Liz only), some kayaking (Lisa, Liz and Cheri), and some general relaxing...resting