Picnic at Fogg Island
It’s hard to believe this is the penultimate edition of Summertime! The summer is flying by and the papers are full of back-to-school specials. Last weekend, my wife and I packed a picnic lunch, got in the boat, and headed to 7 Lakes Alliance’s Fogg Island Preserve on the Mount Vernon side of Lower Long Pond, a bit south of Ingham Stream.
After a roughly 7 mile trip from Tracy Cove, we landed at “the beach” at the north end of the trail between two cedar trees that lean out over the water. The Beach easily holds 2 or 3 kayaks, but my fishing boat filled it right up. We had a nice lunch at the picnic table built by Long Pond summer resident, Evan Salhanick, as part of his Eagle Scout Project last summer.
After lunch, we packed the leftovers into our cooler and headed to the boardwalk portion of the trail, which spans an approximately 250 ft. wide wetland, which includes a lot of high bush blueberry bushes, which can be picked from the boardwalk. As we approached the boardwalk, I spotted a small porcupine in the blueberry bushes next to the trail. The porcupette quickly hid under the boardwalk, while Linda and I picked berries. After we finished picking and headed back towards the boat, the young porcupine left its hiding place and climbed a small cedar tree until we left. We cruised back up the lake and spotted numerous loons and an eagle. After returning to our dock, I went for a nice swim and we finished our dinner with fresh-picked blueberries on vanilla ice cream.
Recently, my neighbors, Joel and Kathi King, had their daughter Modjulie Moore and her family up from North Carolina for a week-long visit. Modjulie was a charter member of the Belgrade Lakes Conservation Corps (now 7 Lakes Alliance Youth Conservation Corps) in 1996 and 1997. With the hot, humid weather this week, the family spent a lot of time on the King’s pontoon boat, fishing and swimming. They caught quite a few fish, including a nice 4 lb. smallmouth caught by son-in-law Dr. Ricky Moore.
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. Or a parent or grandparent. You will be creating memories that will last. The 7 Lakes Alliance is hosting many interesting events, which are in the Community Calendar elsewhere in this paper and on the 7LA website. The 3 p.m. Tuesday afternoon live animal talks from Chewonki are especially popular with kids.
Pick up a map of the local trails from the 7 Lakes Alliance at the Maine Lakes Resource Center. Individual trail maps for most of the trails can be downloaded from their website. Try a new trail for a new adventure. Fogg Island can be accessed by water from Long Pond and by land from the parking lot off Spring Hill Rd in Mt Vernon. It’s over 500 acres of really interesting, mostly wetland, habitat.
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