These archival articles are presented “as is.” Except for minor corrections or clarifications, most have not been updated since they appeared in print. Thus, some details may be out of date, and some hyperlinks may no longer work.
More Sightings of the Guide Ghosts of Great Pond
by Rod Johnson
Remember several nights ago when that hellacious fog set in? Well, since that soupy evening there have been three different reports of some strange goings on out there on Great Pond. Remember three years ago, when we told of how Phil Cobb nearly nailed the guide ghosts red handed as they partied on Oak Island. The same night Rod and Doris Johnson, while idling home from a Jamaica Shores cocktail party, almost smashed into an old guide boat as it slithered through the murky night. Since then the trail had gone cold and we all assumed the ghosts would not be so bold again. It appears that we were wrong and here are the reports that make us very suspicious.
Report #1 report came from a camper on the south end of Crooked Island. The man had been caught in the fog and slid his Rangeley boat up onto Whale Rock to wait for the soup to lift. As he sat quietly in the stern of his old green lapstrake craft, the silence nearly overbearing, a muted squeaky noise not far off kept repeating with regular cadence. Actually, the noise was more like the creaking of grandma’s rocking chair, but tainted with a bit of splashing water. The combined effect was more eerie than anything the fisherman had ever encountered.
The man’s report to Rome police went on to say that within seconds, a long white lapstrake boat slipped out of the fog and one of the oar tips actually touched the side of his own boat’s stern. With the one revealing glance that he was afforded, the man swore that a ghost like version of an old man wearing a felt crusher hat and shoulder length white wispy hair was rowing the classic old guide boat. The man’s report went on to say that he had also noted a definite whiff of old varnish, and something that reminded him of beer and fish innards as the craft swept by. As of this time, both the police and the Maine Game Warden Service have left the case open, but have little idea of what went on there.
Report #2 came just an hour later, but from half a mile or so south of the first alert. This one was called into the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Department (KCSD), and at first was not taken seriously. The dispatcher’s report said a young female voice, name not given but quite frantic, said that she and her three friends had made a pact to swim from their camp on Stony Point to the south end of Chute’s Island. They had departed on the venture about 7:45 in the evening when boat traffic was minimal and their parents were visiting neighbors for cocktails and dinner. During their epic swim, the fog had come in quickly and left them with no choice but to keep swimming and hopefully hit their destination or at least some shoreline.
Within minutes the girls began hearing voices as they struggled along. Soon the voices became clear as a bell. They all later agreed there were at least four people, all of whom sounded like old men with scratchy voices, as though they had laryngitis or some other affliction. Two of the girls reported smelling cigarette smoke or maybe it was pipe tobacco.
At that point, one of the girls felt a large rock with her feet, then another cheerily announced she was standing on a flat rock only three feet underwater. Relief was apparent now that they were near shore.
As they worked their way up over the slippery rocks, the voices they had been hearing suddenly stopped. The steamy smell of a doused campfire overtook them and they realized that a campsite with live embers in the fire pit was evident, but not a soul was seen.
Soon thereafter, a breeze stirred lifting the fog, and within minutes the stars shown. The lucky girls quickly reentered the water and swam back to camp where they called in the incident to the KCSD in Augusta.
Last but not least, a young honeymooning couple from New York City told Chester Thwing at Woodland Camps about their scare. Here’s their story:
They had been paddling a rented Old Town canoe over by Abena Point when the fog engulfed them in less than a minute. During the half hour or so that it lasted, they had "bumped" directly into the pointed stern of what appeared to be a long canoe, only with an engine in the middle. Chester listened just to be polite, but was quite sure that lust and perhaps some strong liquor might have skewed their thinking.
They said no one appeared to be with the boat, but it had been loosely tied to an overhanging branch. They decided to wait out the fog while holding on to the old classic lapstrake boat, soon realizing that the 4 cylinder Gray Marine engine was still emitting heat from recently running. They also noted that the craft was well equipped with seatbacks, long oars and also a picnic basket with some tall bottles in it. One bottle had a Narragansett label and the other said Kruger Ale, neither of which they had ever heard of.
Out of the blue, a rustling of the trees along the shoreline preceded the fog’s sudden lifting. They made a beeline from Abena Shore across the cove to tell their story to Chester. Reluctantly Chet called Harold Tukey, the Game Warden, and forwarded the report. Both men agreed that they had better things to do than chase a figment of some flat lander’s imagination.
The following morning, the couple paddled back across the cove and found no such guide boat. By noon, they were on their way down the Maine Turnpike to New York City.
These latest reports help give credence to what some of us already know — the Guide Ghosts of Great Pond are indeed in our midst!
Note: Don’t run away, we gut sum more gud ones for ya!
Look for the hemlock woolly adelgid’s "woolly" collections on the underside of hemlock branches.
by Dale Finseth
Last week I spoke of invasive forest pests or "bugs." I wasn’t able to cover all of the problem insects so will briefly explain a couple of the other culprits be aware of. The objective remains to help people identify invasive forest pests.
Maine’s Soil & Water Conservation Districts continue their work with the Maine Forest Service to help people identify invasive forest pests. That work includes hosting presentations at which we discuss what bogs to look for, how to identify evidence that they are in the area, and what to do if you happen to come upon what you think is an invasive forest pest. Later this summer and fall we will be doing a couple of these presentations in the Belgrade area.
Compare the Asian longhorned beetle (top) with the native whitespotted pine sawyer. The Asian longhorned beetle tends to be shiny with maybe a bluish tint but they can look very similar. For larger photos and more detailed descriptions, go to the University of Vermont’s Asian Longhorned Beetle page.
I mentioned hemlock woolly adelgid in the earlier article. Look for its "woolly" collections on the underside of hemlock branches and along the stems where needles occur. See photo. Be careful of spreading it either on your cloths, your pets, camping equipment or even your vehicles.
A particularly scary bug is the Asian longhorned beetle. For those of you familiar with Worcester, MA, this is the forest pest that wiped out whole streets of fine old mature trees to this insect. It had gotten established and not been reported. Unfortunately the Asian longhorned beetle looks a lot like a Maine native, the pine sawyer. As of yet, the Asian longhorned beetle have not been sighted in Maine. However, the Maine Forest Service would much rather have someone call if they believe they have spotted one.
Learn how to identify these nasty forest pests. The Maine Forest Service of the Maine Dept. of Ag., Conservation and Forestry has an excellent website for all invasives including these forest pests.
If you think you have identified one of these critters, do not hesitate to call the Maine Forest Service at 287‑3891. They would rather help you learn it is not an invasive than have you fail to report the real deal. Take a picture or collect the bug in a bag or bottle and keep it in the freezer. Help out in this effort to protect Maine from these invasives.
Remember, protecting the woods is one way to protect water quality. Do your part!
Nine More Days of Free Classical Concerts at Colby
by Gregor Smith
Although the Maine International Film Festival is winding down, the Atlantic Music Festival is still gearing up. The latter has nine more days to go, with concerts with concerts nearly every evening and on some afternoons too. All concerts will be held on the Colby College and will have free admission.
The mainstay of the festival is its Chamber Music series. Three of these concerts have gone by, but four remain, on Friday, July 21, Saturday, July 22, Wednesday, July 26, and Friday, July 28. These chamber concerts, which will all take place in Lorimer Chapel and start at 7:00 p.m., will offer a musical potpourri of works from the 17th to the 21st centuries by soloists, duets, and small ensembles.
For a much less formal affair, come to the Salon @ the Bar at the Marchese Blue Light Pub on Sunday, July 23. Starting at 7:00, a succession of soloists and small groups will play and sing anything they like, from baroque to folk, including works they have composed themselves. The program will not be announced in advance, but is guaranteed to be eclectic. Patrons may come and go as they please and may order food and drink to enjoy while they listen.
For piano lovers, the AMF’s Piano Institute will give recitals on Saturday, July 22 at 3:00 in Given Auditorium and Monday, July 24 at 7:00 in Lorimer Chapel. The first recital will feature various students of the institute, while the second will be a solo performance by the yet-to-be-determined winner of the festival’s annual piano competition.
Wednesday at 4:00, it will be all about violins, violas, and cellos, as students of the AMF’s String Seminar present ageless masterworks in Given Auditorium. Twenty-four hours later in Diamond Auditorium, composer and violinist Mari Kimura and the scholars in the AMF’s Future Music Lab will offer, what the AMF website calls "the newest insights into new music performance, the use of interactive computer technology, extended technique, improvisation, and composition for an exciting new world of sound and technology."
Thursday at 7:00 in the Chapel, singers in the AMF’s Opera Workshop will give a soirée of art songs, which are stand-alone songs, not part of an opera or other larger work, which are meant to be performed by a solo singer with piano accompaniment.
Finally, on Saturday, July 29 at 7:00 in the Chapel, the AMF Orchestra will offer the festival’s final concert: Gioacchino Rossini’s overture to his opera La gazza ladra ("The Thieving Magpie"), AMF founder and artistic director Solbong Kim’s Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, and Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 6.
To reduce paper waste, AMF does not print concert programs. Rather, the festival encourages audience members to follow along by viewing the program on the AMF website using their smartphones. (Please turn the ringer off and do not make or take any calls during the performance!) AMF staff will print paper copies on request for those who lack smartphones, or you can print one yourself before leaving home.
The schedule is subject to change, and more performances may be added. For the latest information, go to www.atlanticmusicfestival.org or call the AMF office at (888) 704‑1311.
Lacey, Bode, and Bailey Markham with Stephanie, Carley, and Levi Austin on The Mountain.
by Pete Kallin
It’s hard to believe this is already the seventh column of the summer. I couldn’t believe it when my morning paper had a "Back to School" flyer in it already! I don’t think the kids are reading the paper, though. They are too busy having fun in and around the water.
As the water has warmed into the mid 70s, the trout fishing is slowing down, but the bass and pike are continuing to feed on schools of alewives. The bass are also hitting big Hex mayflies that are hatching in the evening and early morning. I have had good luck with spotting feeding fish on the surface early in the morning and casting big flies or poppers to them. A three-pound smallie on a 6-wt flyrod is a lot of fun.
I got cheated the other day though as I was doing my water quality sampling on Lower Long Pond, east of Green Island. I spotted a flock of great blue herons that landed on top of the trees on the island. I headed toward them to try to get a better picture when I spotted a school of fish feeding on mayflies about 30 yards away. As I pointed the boat that way, a shadow passed over my boat as a big eagle flew right over my head and grabbed a nice bass right off the water just before I got ready to cast. The rest of the fish went deep and I never got one to come up to my fly. But I had an awesome memory I will never forget.
Black Trumpet mushrooms in the Kennebec Highlands.
There are a lot of kids on the lake from all over. Half the cars in the village have out-of-state plates and there are lines at Lakeside Scoops behind Day’s Store. My neighbors, the Landrys, who winter in Virginia are up for a while with their friends the Lowrys. They are getting a lot of use out of Grandfather Lincoln Nye’s swim float.
I’ve been getting a few hikes in and doing some mushroom foraging in the Kennebec Highlands. With the recent rains I am seeing pretty good numbers of some of my favorite mushrooms. I am also seeing a lot of kids out hiking with friends and family. This morning I met Lacey Markham from Vienna and Stephanie Austin from New Sharon getting ready to head up BRCA’s trails on The Mountain with their kids. The older kids had hiked the trail in June on a school field trip and had so much fun that they talked their moms into taking them back. The kids were poring over their maps trying to figure out which trail to try first. It was fun watching them apply their map reading skills.
Warren Balgooyen in his "new" motor boat on North Pond with nice white perch.
Another fun event this week was helping my friend, Warren Balgooyen, learn how to use his new (??) motor boat. Warren is really a big kid in an old man’s body. He is always looking for adventure and after nearly eight decades of paddling and rowing all over lakes and streams in Maine has finally decided it is time to get a boat with a motor. Although, as you can see in the picture, he continues to keep an oar close by just in case.
We launched his boat at North Pond and did a little fishing while he learned how to start, shift, run navigation lights, horns, etc. His motor is an Evinrude 18 HP Golden Jubilee Edition, presumably manufactured to celebrate Evinrude’s 50th anniversary, which would have been 1959. The motor was a bit louder and smokier than my Honda four-stroke but ran pretty well for an old motor.
Take advantage of the rest of the summer and get out on the lakes or hike or bike in the hills. And take a kid along. You will be creating memories that will last.
Still More to See at the Maine International Film Festival
"Bobby and Sonny," is on of the Maine Shorts at this year’s MIFF.
by Gregor Smith
Although there are only three days to go, there is still a lot to see at this year’s 20th annual Maine International Film Festival. The final weekend will bring the visit of a leading independent film director, screenings of several worthy but neglected vintage films, a competition for Maine’s youngest filmmakers, a compilation of shorts by older Mainers, an interactive audiovisual exhibit, and a closing night documentary about the influence of American Indians on American popular music. All screenings will take place either at the Waterville Opera House or at Railroad Square Cinema.
This year, the festival salutes indie director Tom DiCillo. DiCillo soared into the cinematic stratosphere with his directorial debut in Johnny Suede in 1991 and rose even higher with his next outing, Living in Oblivion (1995), which was shown at MIFF earlier this week. Two of his later films will be shown this weekend: Box of Moonlight, his 1997 comedy about an anal retentive electrical engineer who learns to unwind when he gets stuck in a small town that time has passed by, and Down in Shadowland, his newest oeuvre, a 71-minute meditation on New York City’s literal underworld, its subway system, and the denizens thereof.
Tom DiCillo
The festival’s last three days will also give you a first (or second) chance to see many of MIFF’s "re-discoveries." Each year the festival presents at least half a dozen undeservedly overlooked masterworks, many of which have been newly restored. This year’s selection includes Dekalog (Poland & West Germany, 1989), a series of ten, one-hour films by Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski. Set in the same housing complex and each focusing on one of the Ten Commandments, the segments are inter-related, but each stands on its own. The segments are being shown throughout the festival, two at a time. Screenings remain for Parts 7 & 8 and Parts 9 & 10.
The other "re-discoveries" with screenings yet to come are Trouble in Paradise (1932), Ernst Lubitsch’s romantic comedy about Gaston and Lily, partners in crime and in life, whose plot to rob a female perfume company executive unravels when Gaston falls for the intended victim; Stalker (USSR, 1979), Andrei Tarkovsky’s fable about The Zone, a forbidden area that was created by the impact of a object from outer space and that can be entered only with the aid of a "stalker," but where wishes come true; Le Cercle Rouge ("The Red Circle") (France & Italy, 1970), a diamond heist thriller from director Jean-Pierre Melville; He Walked by Night (1949), a film noir where Los Angeles police track an electronics expert who has killed a cop, and Deep Waters (1948), the Maine-shot drama about a lobsterman, his fiancée, and an orphan boy.
Miriam Hopkins and Herbert Marshall in Trouble in Paradise
Saturday is Making It In Maine Day, the centerpiece of which is the 40th Annual Maine Student Film and Video Festival at 12:30 in the Opera House. This student competition accepts short films, 10 minutes or less, in three age divisions (Grades K-6, Grades 7-8, and Grades 9-12) and in three categories: Narrative, 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.
At 3:30 on both Saturday and Sunday, one can also view shorts by older Maine filmmakers in Railroad Square’s Cinema 1. Lasting just over an hour, Maine Shorts comprises five films, lasting from 4 to 37 minutes each. They are "What My Friends Do on a Saturday Night," where complications ensue after a young man invites his ex-girlfriend to a party; "Bobby and Sonny," which introduces us to two lobstermen on Vinalhaven; "Gleaners," which follows the Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program as it picks, or "gleans," fruits and vegetables left in the field after the harvest; "Road Kill," in which a boy on his bike "gleans" and then buries road kill; and "Are You Really My Friend?," in which the filmmaker visits all 626 of her worldwide Facebook friends to photograph them.
An example of direct animation: The flower is drawn directly onto the film. Each drawing differs slightly from the one the in the previous frame.
At some point during the festival, be sure to check out the fifth annual MIFFONEDGE at Common Street Arts, just around the corner from the Opera House. According to the MIFF website, MIFFONEDGE presents "audiovisual works that challenge how we look at, listen to, and think about film…. to rethink our experience of the moving image."
This year’s exhibit honors Harry Smith, a filmmaker, painter, and ethnomusicologist. In his Early Abstractions film series, Smith experimented with direct animation, in which the artist draws or paints directly on the celluloid, with each successive image slightly different from the previous one. Exhibit visitors can then try direct animation for themselves, as part of the Community Cameraless Film Project.
Steven Van Zandt in Rumble
All good things must come to an end, and this year’s festival will end with a bang, or rather with loud guitar chords, as MIFF presents Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World. This new documentary about the hidden history of American Indian performers and their role in the development of blues, jazz, folk, rock, and heavy metal features archival footage of and new interviews with many icons, Indian and non-Indian alike, of American popular music of the late 20th century, including Jimi Hendrix, Quincy Jones, George Clinton, Tony Bennett, Taj Mahal, Slash, Jackson Browne, Iggy Pop, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and many more. Rumble will screen Sunday at 7:00 in the Waterville Opera House.
For fuller descriptions of any of the films, visit the MIFF website, www.miff.org, or pick up a copy of MIFF’s free, 64-page program guide at Railroad Square Cinema or the Waterville Opera House. Tickets cost $10 per person, except for the Closing Night Ceremony ($12) and the Maine Student Film & Video Festival (free). As screenings can sell out, especially those that are held in either of Railroad Square’s smaller theaters, Cinema 2 (90 seats) and Cinema 3 (50 seats), it’s best to arrive at least 15 minutes early.
