The Quest For Quiet

by Esther J. Perne

Suspended gently over the rough earth in a constantly moving body of liquid, the air pushes and pulls your vessel smoothly forward, nothing but the essence of nature moving you along toward nowhere special. The trappings of your daily world slowly wash away in the small wake gurgling behind the transom, leaving you cleansed for the day ahead as you press forward into fresh air.

The rhythmic rise and fall of the bow through the small waves soothes the soul even further as you gaze out toward your destiny. Your speed increases as you gain the open waters. The sloop heels over a few more degrees stretching your sails into beautiful white curved wings. There is a feeling of power as you accelerate forward slicing through sunlit waves now flashing a million light beams of messages your way. What are they telling you?

— "Essence of the Sail," by John Gibbs

Canoes gliding along the shoreline, bikes coasting down country roads, hikers entering woods and gaining heights that are of another world, kayaks skimming across the open water, rowboats bobbing with the rhythm of the waves and sailboats … taking off like magic with the wind.

Whether for love or escape the quiet side of summer recreation ranks high among the lure of the region and is one of the most rewarding. Quiet pursuits, quiet power, quiet times that balance out the other lives that people have to live.

Quiet in recreation is not library, not museum quiet, although we have that, too. It is the quiet of undertones that soothe the soul. Hoof beats on hard pack, the whirl of a bicycle’s wheel, the dip and drip of a canoe or kayak paddle and the snapping line of a casting rod, the crunch-crunch of hiking through leaves, the songs of so many birds that none stands out.

Through the quietness of the outdoors and outdoor recreation, there can be great bonding, observations and conversation, families can share an activity in common and all ages can gain a new respect for healthy exercise.

This summer be a birder, a hiker, a biker. Cross a cove in a sailboat, a kayak or a canoe. Fish early, take a walk late, and listen. It’s all here … quietly.

Guns After School, Circa 1960

by Rod Johnson

First off, let me say this story is not some sort of political viewpoint concerning guns in our midst. I do memoirs as I recall them and this story struck me — as times have changed in so many ways in very few years. Perhaps that has always been the way of things, but in thinking about this gun story and looking back 56 years, the changes are dramatic.

Yes, we lived in Maine, so we were not exactly mainstream America but certainly on the fringes. We live in a less populated state than many in the USA, and we have a history of hunting, trapping, being independent, and so on. Even our state’s economy had some to do with the hunting seasons, which offered cabins to stay in along with promises of bagging a deer or some grouse during the months of October and November. This, coupled with spring and summer fishing seasons, helped bolster the shoulder seasons for Mom and Pop small business. All of this, along with the paper industries, gave the Maine folks a chance to make a living while continuing some of the ways of our forefathers.

At very young ages, the kids who were interested in going hunting with their fathers got to do so. This often happened at the ages of perhaps 8 or 10 years. The fathers saw it as a chance to teach and share, almost like on the job training. Most of the boys in my town of Belgrade were part of that scene, and to this day I think many still are. The dad’s first responsibility was to tell us that you never ever point a gun at anyone, only a target or wild game you intend to kill. Often, target shooting took place in a gravel pit, where those rules applied and were constantly reinforced.

By the time we were 12 or 14, many of us had been on real hunts and some of had shot deer, or at least shot at deer. Grouse (partridge), pheasant, or woodcock were also seasonal targets. Usually, young boys learned to shoot a 22 caliber first, then a light shotgun such as a 20 gauge, and eventually a powerful long reaching deer rifle such as a 30-30 Winchester. Some of our fathers still had old rifles used in earlier wars such as the 30-40 Krag, Carbines, British 303, 38-40, and more. That was the case at my house and the "trapping room" had at least a dozen guns of varying types for various uses, Grampa’s old 10 gauge scatter gun included. Use of these weapons was not only allowed, but condoned with proper caution, as well as the responsibility to care for them. A gun left uncleaned was an offense most fathers would not tolerate and we had to remedy that quickly.

A couple of stories that drive home the picture of kids using guns during this era come to mind and here they are. Let’s back up in time to the mid-1950’s when my older brother was a senior at Belgrade High School. The new young teacher that came to Belgrade that year was a young man from Portland named John Caminiti. Throughout his life, John loved to tell stories of his indoctrination into country living during his first few months at Belgrade High.

John had homeroom for the seniors and the room overlooked Depot Road and the ridge up behind Reggie and Phronie Hammond’s house. One of the boys in the room yelled "DEER!" and pointed to the ridge across the road. An uproar ensued and a half dozen or so of the boys got up and ran out the door. Some of the names remembered are Buster Hammond, Dick Johnson, Mel Pray and Tom Sawyer. They ran to their cars and got their rifles, then headed across the street to chase the deer. John was somewhat flabbergasted but ultimately came to love Belgrade, married Murner Pray and became a local character himself. He and Murner lived on Woodland Camp Road for many years until his recent passing. John is sadly missed by all.

The above true story illustrates that it was not abnormal at all for teenagers to bring their rifles with them to school during hunting season. Often, boys hunted early in the morning before school and again after school until dusk.

Back in the '60’s friends Rick, Howard and I would come home from school, get off the bus, run home to change clothes and get our guns. During the fall months we would often set a place to regroup with our 22 caliber rifles and head off to hunt squirrels over on Dry Point Drive, where my wife and I now live. The camps were all empty and the owners had returned home by late September. We had the place to ourselves. Mother’s only words when I went out the door were: be careful and be home by 5 o’clock. Father’s only words were: keep those guns pointed at the ground and no shooting insulators off the telephone poles.

Hearing gunshots in the fall was so commonplace that no one thought much about it. Most of the shots were guys shooting at targets, honing their skills, and certainly no one had thoughts that anything wrong was going on. How things have changed in 50 to 60 years, some for the better and some not!

When the Wind Blows, Hike!

by Pete Kallin

The weather this week has been very windy, which has cut into my fishing a bit. However, it has made for nearly perfect hiking weather — cool with a brisk wind to keep the bugs away. I hiked several of the BRCA hiking trails this week and ran into many others out doing the same.

At Mount Phillip, I ran into the Webelos Den of Boy Scout Pack 436 of Waterville. Webelos, derived from the words, "We'll Be Loyal Scouts") are 10and 11-year old boys who are transitioning from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. Several of the boys were earning their "hiking belt loop" on the trail, which is just challenging enough to give the boys the taste of climbing hills and earning a beautiful view at the top without being so difficult it discourages them. I managed to get a few of them to sit still for a photo (It was slightly easier to get the adult leaders to sit still).

The adult den leader had first hiked that trail almost 40 years ago when he was 6 or 7, well before BRCA purchased the property in partnership with Pine Island Camp in 2004. He said it is much nicer and better marked now and is a popular destination for the Waterville scouts. The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and Girls Scouts of America (GSA) are great programs for getting young people introduced to basic outdoor skills and learning other valuable life lessons.

Julie sitting on the Jean Anderberg bench on Mt Phillip.

Also at Mount Phillip this weekend was Julie, a young software consultant and sales representative from Cambridge, MA, who was up for the weekend. Julie grew up in Oakland and last hiked Mount Phillip with her parents when she was "a little girl." She said that while Cambridge is exciting and stimulating, she loves coming back to Maine in the summertime to hike in the woods near the lakes to relax and recharge her batteries.

Most of the fishing I’ve done this week has been targeted at catching small fish in the weedy shallow areas where small fish try to hide from the big fish that like to eat them. My purpose was to collect some specimens for the fish tanks at the Maine Lakes Resource Center* (MLRC). Normally transporting live fish in Maine is illegal and subject to fines up to $10,000 but we received a special, limited-time permit from IFW to stock our tanks, including a display permit for a mud puppy in a separate tank.

These tanks have become a huge attraction for visitors to the MLRC, especially the kids of all ages (including some collecting social security). During the farmers' market last weekend, one girl of about 9 spent an hour in front of the tanks writing down "discriptions" of the fish in a journal. Possibly a budding ichthyologist in the making. Stop in to the MLRC to check out our new displays.

Yellow perch and red-breasted sunfish in a fish tank at the Maine Lakes Resource Center.

During my collections I caught a 4 in. landlocked alewife, which I had never caught on rod and reel before. This fish is the primary forage fish in Long Pond that is eaten by our bass, trout, pike, and salmon. I also spent about 10 minutes playing a roughly 8 lb. pike near the Great Pond boat launch from the Maine Lakes Society’s 30-ft pontoon boat, the Melinda Ann. It finally wrapped my 2 lb. test line around a mooring and took off with the tiny jig I was using for yellow perch.

On Sunday, June 26, at 2 p.m., Mel Croft and I will be leading a hike on BRCA’s The Mountain property to show how the Belgrade Lakes region has changed over the past 200 million years. Mel will discuss how plate tectonics and various ice ages sculpted the basic landscape over the past 199.985 million years. I will then talk a bit about how the bare rocks and lakes containing lifeless, melted ice water evolved in the past 15,000 years or so since the last ice age to become the forested landscape and lakes teeming with life that we have today. In the meantime, take a kid fishing or on a hike, or paddling in a canoe.

*In December 2017, the Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance (BRCA) and the Maine Lakes Resource Center (MLRC) merged, forming the 7 Lakes Alliance. Now retired, Pete Kallin is a past director of the BRCA.

Stormwater Runoff: Avoid a Disaster

by Dale Finseth

This year we have been short of rain…. and we certainly have NOT had one of those massive rain storms. It is unlikely to remain that way all season. Other parts of the country have not been so lucky. So …, be prepared by addressing problems now.

We have talked about stormwater runoff before. "Stormwater" is just that — the rainfall or other precipitation that then runs across the landscape in liquid form. The ditch next to your driveway will have a lot of water in it during and soon after a rainstorm. The culvert beneath your driveway will run full. But, what’s the big deal? The pond level may rise a bit and waves might lap against the shoreline. Isn’t that just nature doing what nature does? Nature sometimes does more than usual, and that is the part we need to prepare for.

Like anything else in our life, if we anticipate it and make informed decisions, we can affect its impact. In the case of a rainstorm, we can design our landscape and manage our property in a manner so that the rainwater’s impact on water quality is moderated. Where we put our roadways, buildings, lawns, patios and other structures affects how the water runs across the landscape.

We have all seen how the stormwater flow can generate erosion and silt as it heads towards the nearby wetland, stream or pond. Designers and engineers as well as municipal officials, road managers and the Maine DEP refer to this as "stormwater control". It may be an overstatement to assume "control", but how we place and manage our structures on the landscape can mitigate their impact on water quality.

Let’s start with some numbers. We measure rainfall as so many "inches of rain." Given that most of us measure liquids in gallons or liters, it’s hard to translate what an inch of rain is.

One inch of rain on a single square foot of pavement, sidewalk or roof equals 0.6234 gallons of water. If you have a parking area or a building that is near the shoreline, all the rain falling on that surface is diverted to the lowest point and then leaves that surface into a concentrated runoff area.

How much water gets focused to that area? If you have a 25' X 40' building or parking area, you have 1,000 square feet of impervious area. A square foot is 144 square inches. One inch of rain on that surface translates into 625 gallons of water.

Now consider your property. How much impervious surface do you have? An impervious surface doesn’t soak up the rain but carries it off to another location. For every inch of rain that falls on those surfaces, your property needs to deal with tens of thousands of gallons of water.

And that is only one inch of rain. What happens when you get 6-8 inches of rain? Depending upon how your structures are designed, that additional water is all being directed towards a few specific points on your property. That concentration of water can do a lot of damage.

What can a property owner do in order to mitigate the damage? Plan for it! Direct runoff into vegetated areas or rain gardens. Design drip edge areas where the runoff leaves your roof. Maintain your driveway and parking so the water sheets off the edges and into areas that will not erode when the concentrated runoff occurs. Be prepared.

Take the opportunity now to use some of those Best Management Practices. Focus on how to manage your yard and property. Control the water runoff. Look for places that have been damaged in past storms. It will happen again unless you do something. A good buffer planting if well established, does a good job of intercepting water runoff and filtering it before it gets to the lake. The objective is to filter it so it doesn’t concentrate and transport soil, chemicals, or other toxics into the water.

Remember, there is a lot to do in order to protect water quality.

Now retired, Dale Finseth was executive director of the Kennebec County Soil & Water Conservation District from 2001 to 2024.