Dining Near Water: What Could Be Better?

by Esther J. Perne

Beautiful lakes, big rivers, scenic drives, good food! Add vacationers, visitors, and residents in the summer celebration mode, and the mix is awesome.

Start at the heart! Belgrade Lakes Village combines an aura of the café society to complement its historic inns and local grills. Along Main — the one street in town — picnic tables with colorful umbrellas invite the walkers, the families with children, the dogs with owners in tow.

Here, the breezes blow in off Long Pond and the Great Pond stream, visitors are never far from a glimpse of water and the call of the loon can be heard during a quiet moment. Here, there are parks on the water and docks and marinas where lake dwellers come and go by boat. Here, there are decisions to be made about type of fare (there’s quite a range from one edge of town to the other) and plans to be laid to return sans children and dogs for an adult meal out.

At rough count there are a dozen (on market day a baker’s dozen) inviting stops in or near the Village, on or near the water, where food beckons. From the inviting smells of baked goods to the cooling feel of an ice cream treat one eating stop can lead to another … and beyond.

Beyond the Village, water is still the great denominator for an awesome dining experience. There are other villages, and towns, on the lakes and rivers, and other eating options with water in their names.

Beautiful lakes, big rivers, scenic drives, good food. The mix is awesome!

Learnin’ To Sail

by Rod Johnson

Remember when you were a kid going to the sea shore — or perhaps a friend’s camp on the lake? Remember the great fun jumping off the dock with your best buds, seeing people water skiing, fishing, and perhaps seeing a sailboat in the cove or out on the horizon? At that age and during the 1950s, we paid little or no attention to the strange craft with the white cloth hung all over the rigging. Our fun was focused on water play and dreams were of riding in a fast boat.

A couple or three years later when back at the lake again, a neighbor or your older cousin came by with what you were told was a "Sunfish" sailboat. You and the other kids got a chance to ride in or on it. Back at the dock the comments were mixed from "That was kind of neat" to "Weird, we tipped over when the wind gusted."

As the years passed into adulthood and life may have become more than full, we also began to realize that some of life’s mysteries still needed solving. For some of us it may have been what makes a plane fly, and for others it could have been how can a sailboat move forward into the wind. For the latter, some may have purchased an instructional manual on how to sail, or perhaps taken some beginner lessons. For others, and speaking for my wife Doris and me, we took what might be known as the "country bumpkin method," which was essentially to get a sailboat, put up the sails and figure it out based on what happens.

In or about 1987, we purchased an old 21-foot Luger sloop with a swing keel. Just to complicate the matter, the boat was moored on the Intracoastal Waterway in Boca Raton, Florida. The bottom was loaded with barnacles and the gulls and cormorants had been using it as a refuge for what might have been years.

After much ado, in April we hauled the boat to Maine behind an underpowered Mazda pickup, with no brakes on the trailer. This was after moving the axle on the trailer somewhat forward in my Aunt Lydia and Uncle Al’s backyard in Boca. (They were my surrogate parents and very patient and understanding.) After some miracles during the drive up Interstate 95, the boat arrived in Belgrade.

Spring weather permitting, the project started. After a couple of months of scraping barnacles, bottom painting, buffing and waxing the topsides and hull, our dream boat was shaping up. Sometime in mid-June the perfect day came and we launched the newly named Boca Belle into Great Pond. We had scrounged up a "goodnnuff" 7.5 horsepower Force engine to act as a kicker when no wind was present, which actually is quite often.

The next sort-of perfect day finally arrived, and with light to moderate winds, Doris, son John, and I motored out into the cove. We had no clue how to sail. The first attempt was a complete failure, as we just raised the sails and all hell broke loose. The sails filled, we lost grip on the tiller (steering handle), the boat lurched in circles and the boom came across the boat and nearly hit us in the head. I yelled to drop the sails and both sails soon dropped onto the deck with us underneath. We effectively were inside a collapsed tent. Young John muttered something to the effect that as usual we had no idea what we were doing and he wanted off the boat.

As the summer wore on, we gained a little knowledge from our sailing adventures. One typical calamity was the first attempt to sail across the lake from Pine Beach in North Belgrade and into the Lakes village. Doris was game to join me and as I captained the vessel towards The White Ledges on the way to town. I explained to Doris that I would aim upwind of the ledges and sail right on by. Well, that didn’t happen. The boat was mysteriously sailing somewhat sideways and ahead at the same time. We went directly into the ledges, and the swing keel rode up over a rock. The boat stopped and fell back with the keel hooked on a large boulder.

I told Doris not to worry and that I had read about "kedging off" when grounded. I began to get the anchor out of the locker to swim it out and set it. At that point she looked up from her book and said, "Why don’t you just start the engine and move the boat ahead a little." I did so, the boat released itself from the rock, we blew off the ledges, reset the sails and went on our way. Who’s to know!

As the years went by we got a fair handle on sailing on Great Pond and in Florida as well. Our last boat was a 41-foot Morgan sloop which gave us a winter home for 10 years and many chapters of sailing experiences.

For all that, here’s a little advice if you intend to become a sailor: Murphy is always lurking, ready to strike and foil your plans. The wind is always on your nose, or at least it seems that way. What boats like to do best is sink, so never trust a boat that is unattended. Last but not least, an old sailing cruiser in the Bahamas informed us that the two most important items on a sailboat are a good engine and good anchor — and he was right.

Enjoy your sailing experiences, it is all worth the effort and we wouldn’t trade ours for anything. Of course, when you are 70 years old you also get to tell stories like this. THE END

Author’s Note: Doris and I now have a 15-foot sailboat on Great Pond. The big boats are gone and we live in a small condo in Dunedin, Florida during the winters — looking out at lots of sailboats!

Flies Hatch as Summer Flies By

by Pete Kallin

The week began with sunny, windy weather. I hiked several local trails, including BRCA’s* Mountain Trail off Mountain Drive in Rome.

There I met Ken Louis hiking with his sister from CA, his daughter from MA and assorted grandkids, nephews, nieces, and dogs. All were enjoying the beautiful weather and magnificent scenery on the Long Pond Loop. It was just a few short months ago I last ran into Ken and his wife while skiing in the Kennebec Highlands near McIntire Pond.

I also met the Hall family from Manchester enjoying the view of Great Pond on the Outer Loop. It was their first time hiking this trail. When I asked them how they found out about it, young Olivia (roughly 8) said that when she got up, she told her parents she wanted to spend the day hiking. Her dad then went online looking for hiking trails and somehow ended up on the website for the Wings Hill Inn in Belgrade Lakes. They have a page called "Local Attractions" that includes links to local hiking trails, including The Mountain. It looked attractive so they decided to try it. (Editor’s Note: The inn and its website are no longer operating.)

I was also pleasantly surprised to meet my friend, David Richards, who runs the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan. Two years ago on 4^th of July weekend, David had a near death experience near Greenville involving himself, his car, and a moose. The moose and the car were totaled but David survived. It is good to see him out hiking again and good to see so many families with kids out on the local trails.

This was also the week the hex mayfly (Hexagenia limbata) began hatching at dusk on the lake. These are very large (body about 1.5" and tails another 3") mayflies that tend to hatch in early July and if you spot the hatch it is a great time to catch a lot of nice fish on big dry flies or nymph patters fished just under the surface. You will see fish swirling everywhere the flies are emerging. I have often caught some nice brown trout during this hatch but this year I only caught some nice smallies. The next morning, the lake was covered with the larval exoskeletons and it looked almost as if someone had had a massive shrimp peel for Fourth of July and dumped the shells in the lake.

As the surface water has warmed into the mid to upper 70s, the trout and salmon have started to go deep and are harder to find. If you want to catch a lot of fish, the bass and pike are pretty active, especially early in the morning and in the evening. I like to go after pike with my 9-wt. flyrod and big red and white streamers fished deep (15-20 ft.) near structures or along the edge of weedbeds in about 10 feet of water. I use a special leader made by Rio called, "For toothy critters," which has about a foot of very fine nylon coated wire at the tip. I use the same rig in saltwater when I go after bluefish. Good pike waters include lower Long Pond, southern Messalonskee Lake, and North Bay and Hoyt Island in Great Pond. Big pike are fun to catch on flies and they are quite tasty when properly cleaned and cooked.

This is a perfect time to enjoy the outdoors in this area. Now that school’s out, it’s easy to take a kid fishing or on a hike, or paddling in a canoe. You won’t be sorry.

*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.

Mad About Movies? There’s Still Lots to See in MIFF’s Closing Days

by Gregor Smith

On Friday, July 19, the Maine International Film Festival will present its Mid-Life Achievement Award to Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, 66. Other highlights of the festival’s final weekend include the Maine Student Film and Video Awards, screenings of four Maine-connected films (two of the world premieres introduced by the filmmakers, and the Closing Night Film, Little Men.

Each year, MIFF honors a mid-career actor, director, screenwriter, or other professional filmmaker. Some of the past honorees are Michael Murphy, Glenn Close, Keith Carradine, Malcolm McDowell, John Turturro , Ed Harris, Peter Fonda, Sissy Spacek, and Jonathan Demme.

This year’s winner has acted in over ninety feature films and television series during his four-decade career, including the movies Excalibur (1981), Miller’s Crossing (1990), The Usual Suspects (1995), and Stigmata (1999). In addition, he co-wrote The Last of the High Kings (1996) and produced seven films, most notably In the Name of the Father (1994), which was nominated for seven Oscars. He may be best known as Dr. Paul Weston from the HBO drama In Treatment, having won a Golden Globe Award in 2009 for that role. Earlier this year, he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in the Broadway revival of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night.

Byrne will receive his custom-designed, handcrafted, papier-mâché moose trophy at the Waterville Opera House, following a 6:30 screening of The Usual Suspects. In this thriller, Byrne plays one of five career criminals rounded up for a crime none of them committed. In the holding cell, the five new allies plot a $3 million jewel theft, which brings them to the attention of an almost mythical uber-criminal who hires them to take on an even more dangerous job.

Three other Byrne films will also be shown during MIFF: Jindabyne (2006), Louder Than Bombs (2016), and Miller’s Crossing (1990). These three screenings, on Thursday at 3:30, Thursday at 6:30, and Friday at 9:30, respectively, will take place at Railroad Square Cinema.

Saturday’s events begin at 12:30 at the Opera House with the awards ceremony for the 39^th Annual Maine Student Film and Video Festival. Organized by the Maine Film Center, which also organizes MIFF, the student competition accepts short films, not longer than 10 minutes, in three age divisions (Grades K-6, Grades 7-8, and Grades 9-12) and in three categories: fiction, documentary, and "creative." This last category includes music videos, art films, stop-motion animation, and experimental works. At each year’s MIFF, the top submissions are shown, the winners announced, and the prizes awarded. This year’s prizes include $500 cash awards, a one-year subscription to an online suite of video editing software, and full passes to next year’s MIFF.

For those interested in short subjects by older Maine filmmakers, MIFF has two collections of Maine shorts being screened later in the day. Each 90-minute collection comprises five or six comedies, dramas, and documentaries, ranging from 3 to 30 minutes in length. Maine Shorts I will be shown at 3:30 at the Opera House and Maine Shorts II at 9:30 at Railroad Square Cinema.

The festival’s final days will also offer a first (or second) look at four Maine-connected feature films. Three were set and shot in Maine, but the first is a Maine director’s exploration of a different part of the United States. In Everything in the Song is True, we meet three men and one woman who personify the American West. Collectively, their skills include singing, writing poetry and songs, doing rope tricks, training horses, quilting, and sculpting in iron. The director, Winslow-raised Doug Morrione, and one of the film’s subjects, cowboy singer Gary McMahan, will introduce these world premiere screenings, Thursday at 6:30 and Friday at 3:30, both at the Waterville Opera House.

The second film is another world premiere. Maine native Raymond Luc Levasseur made the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list in 1977 for taking part in bombings by the United Freedom Front. He was arrested in 1984, wrote an essay from prison describing his French-Canadian heritage and the roots of his rebellion, and was released in 2004. An American, Portrait of Raymond Luc Levasseur will be shown on Friday at 9:15 and Saturday at 6:15. Levasseur and the film’s director Pierre Marier will introduce both screenings.

Michael Barbieri and Theo Taplitz in Little Men

The third film, I Know A Man … Ashley Bryan, is a portrait of a nonagenarian, African-American children’s book author and puppet-maker who lives in a small community on a Maine coastal island. According to the MIFF website, Bryan "has been using art his entire life to celebrate joy, mediate the darkness of war and racism, explore the mysteries of faith, and create loving community." The screening is on Saturday at 3:30 at Railroad Square.

Finally, Five Nights in Maine is "a quiet film about volcanic emotions" set and shot on the Maine coast. In the story, young African-American (David Oyelowo of Selma and Nightingale) goes to meet his white mother-in-law (Dianne Wiest of Edward Scissorhands and Hannah and Her Sisters) after his wife dies in a car crash after visiting her mother after a long estrangement. The film screens Saturday at 6:30 at the Opera House and Sunday at 12:30 at Railroad Square.

While you’re downtown, be sure to check out MIFFONEDGE. Held during the each of the past three MIFFs, this exhibit "features audio visual works that undermine common sense assumptions about the nature of film." The new edition features the work of Robert Breer (1926‑2011), a painter and sculptor who experimented with animation, and includes complementary works by living artists. The exhibit runs from Saturday, July 9 to Saturday, July 16, from 2:00 to 9:00 p.m. each day, in Common Street Arts' new space in The Center, diagonally across Castonguay Square from its former location.

The festival ends with the 7:00 p.m. Sunday showing in the Opera House of Little Men, a coming-of-age drama that opens nationwide on August 5. The story begins when Jake moves into his late grandfather’s house and meets Nate, the son of the of renter of the dress shop on the first floor. The two 13-year-old boys become friends as they discover shared interests navigate the challenges of adolescence and rent dispute between their parents.

For fuller descriptions of any of the films mentioned in this article, go to www.miff.org or pick up a copy of the festival’s free, 68-page program guide at either venue. Admission to any of these screenings costs $10, except to The Usual Suspects ($14) and Little Men ($12). Admission to MIFFONEDGE and the Maine Student Film and Video Festival Awards Ceremony is free.

MIFF