All that I dreamed it would be...

The Rangeley section (Map 8) of the NFCT certainly lived up to my expectations... 46 1/2 miles - 41 by water and 5 1/2 by land. For now, here are just a few highlights. More later, as I plan to post a daily journal when I get home. I started on the Magalloway River at the Umbagog Wildlife Refuge Headquarters. Crossing Umbagog Lake in a strong NW wind, my boat handled well, sliding over the waves and getting me to Cedar Stump, where I camped at the bottom of the Rapid River. It was rapid, with some serious rapids! I, however, was portaging upstream. My cart worked fine, with all but the first 1/2 mile wheelable. I had so been looking forward to Forest Lodge and arrived just in time for a wonderful home-cooked breakfast. Chuck Ward was fly-fishing there and gave me my first on-the-water donation.

The Richardson Lakes are connected by the Narrows, where I saw the first moose of the trip (a young one), and camped the second night. Then it was on to Mooselookmeguntic, where I enjoyed the hospitality of Paul and Janie Hartman, son Jeff and grandson Joshua, who rode in the the kayak on the Oquossic portage. Boy, did I love their hot outdoor shower with a view of the lake. Paul Hartman kept me company the next day all the way to Rangeley State Park, where Mom and Dad were waiting with the first resupply. Crossing the rest of Rangeley Lake was a combination challenge and a breeze. The weather, after several days of gorgeous sun, turned rainy the night before, but I made it into Rangeley and the end of Section 8, feeling blessed by the weather and good friends along the way.

The wilderness is calling

Planning, purchasing, and packing continue to fill my days.  Although my goal was to travel light (within the bounds of safety), it is hard to keep the pile from growing.  One fun purchase yesterday was a 4-piece pack spinning rod, which will fit easily in the boat.  I have gone back and forth about bringing fishing gear, but now the decision is made.  I'll add my license, of course, and a variety of lures, my favorite for trout being Rooster Tails.  To be honest, though, virtually all of my fishing success in Maine over the years has been with bass, rather than trout, which have rather eluded me.  Dad is bringing a pack fly rod on the Allagash and St. John.

Another publication, The Free Press in Rockland, this week published both our initial press release and an insert about the dog biscuit baking (see link below). http://www.freepressonline.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=13156&SectionID=57&SubSectionID=84&S=1

Halfway to the fundraising goal!!!  Our thermometer stands at $5,320, as of Wednesday's update, but the generous outpouring of support continues.  I am awed, humbled, inspired...and very ready to hit the water and get going.  Did I ever mention that the business cards arrived weeks ago?  Nice color combination, very professional looking, and I will no doubt leave a trail of them across the state in the coming weeks.  More news and pictures soon...

The best part of waking up...

Wow...long time, no blog post!  However, my trip planning is now at the do or die stage, both in the final organizing of gear and food and the challenging task of getting the rest of my life at a good stopping place to leave for a month.  These last few days have been a flurry of activity, including an amazing youth-led worship service to conclude our church school year.  I have also been dealing with a pulled muscle/muscle spasm in my shoulder and back, which just simply must go away soon.  Aleve seems to be helping, luckily.

Another highlight of the weekend was selling our dog biscuits in downtown Damariscotta.  Pam Gormley and the staff at Skidompha Library graciously allowed us to set up out front and even publicized the event in their weekly news bulletin.  Sales were steady throughout the morning...we brought home $118 and had much fun meeting both pirates and puppies.  The annual Pirate Rendezvous brings many visitors to our community to see pirates take over our town for a day, all for the great cause of raising money for Family Holiday Wishes.  The smiling pirate on the left is our school nurse, Sunny Kirkham.  Her costume and her ability to "talk pirate" were impressive.  The rest of our scrumptious Cheesy Bones and peanut butter treats will go on sale at school today.  Special thanks to Taylor Briggs, Heather Greene, and my mom, Joan Apgar, for baking with us and to Deb Walder and Rob Trial for helping on Saturday.  I have the best friends!

The food for the trip is just about ready, bagged and boxed by section.  My blog title today is a tribute to Folgers individual coffee bags, which made delicious coffee when I tried them this week.  What an easy way to have freshly brewed coffee.  Becoming familiar with my new gadgets is also an ongoing process.  SPOT is now set up to send an email to all and a text message to some of my SPOT Team members, when an updated location is transmitted.  Dad is programming some of the tricky and/or critical waypoints into the GPS and I have been practicing with some of the features on my camera, such as the self-timer and the macro feature.  It is always a shame to have a piece of equipment that can do many things, and you only understand how to do a few. 

The webpage thermometer stands at $4,205 and, with the contributions steadily arriving, we will officially hit the halfway point this week.  I will leave you with two pictures from my most recent paddle, which unfortunately was the only one over the weekend.  I am discovering that preparing for a long journey does not leave much time for short ones.  This is egg-laying season for Maine's turtles.  Here are a snapping turtle heading across the road from the cemetery into my woods and an Eastern painted turtle, at the edge of Webber Pond, both photographed on Friday.

Visit us at the Skidompha Library Saturday

This will be a quick one.  Look for our article in the Lincoln County News today, with Logan Kaler and our homemade dog biscuits.  Our GSB students have been busy baking homemade dog biscuits in two flavors, cheese and peanut butter, to benefit the Maine Children's Cancer Program and add to the Paddle for Hope thermometer, which stands at $3,755.  We are working hard to reach our halfway point for next week's news article.  That would be $5,000, thanks to the amazing generosity and hard work of many.  These delicious treats (already sampled and proclaimed excellent by some of our kids) will be available for sale inside the Skidompha Library in the weeks ahead.  And...this Saturday, June 11...you can be among the first to purchase some, from the bakers themselves, at our table outside Skidompha from 10 am to 1 pm.  See you there!

Paddling Monday in the evening sun

The sun bathed the water with a golden glow, an osprey twice broke from the shore to flap strongly away, and the impossibly deep croak of a bullfrog provided the background noise.  Putting energy into the paddle, my kayak traveled smoothly down the center of the pond, far from the bugs.  At the south end, I slowed and turned, exploring my way back along the eastern shore.  Not a sign of the beavers tonight...they must prefer the fog.  A patch of bunchberry caught my eye.  These tiny members of the dogwood family have always appealed to me.  Well, there is much to learn about this diminutive plant, which was widely used by native tribes, including the Abnaki, for food and medicinal purposes.  The bright red berries, which appear later in the summer, can be eaten raw or made into jelly.  As with the flowering dogwood tree that I so love in Virginia, what we think of as the "flower" is actually four large white bracts or modified leaves that surround a cluster of the tiny true flowers.  In bunchberry, those small flowers have developed a powerful method of pollination.  Each has four petals that begin life tightly closed.  When triggered by wind or the touch of an insect, the petals explode open, shooting pollen into the wind or showering the insect.  Look closely at my photo.  The flowers with the black dots have already opened; the white ones are still tightly shut, biding their time.  This pollen explosion make bunchberry the fastest plant on the planet.

During my summer of paddling, I am sure I will find many ways to amuse myself.  Tonight the setting sun sent its last rays against the east shore, creating a shadow that travelled along with me quite clearly, moving across the palette of rocks, ferns, and trees.  Can you see the shadow paddler on the rock? 

A weekend of celebrating family



Blue-bead lilies bloom profusely in my woods




Friendly garter snake that calls my window well home




My thoughts and time over the weekend turned to family, as we celebrated my mother's birthday on Saturday and my step-son's high school graduation on Sunday.  The idyllic Maine weather that we long for through the cold of winter provided the perfect background for plant shopping with Mom, a birthday dinner overlooking the harbor, and the gathering of family for Andrew's graduation from NYA.  I even managed to buy gas for the lawnmower and tidy up the front yard and garden.  Snapped the above photos and will add one of our gorgeous lady slippers soon.

Much food and more sunscreen and insect repellent were added to the growing pile of supplies, as I shopped my way home yesterday.  I was excited to find several additions to the "supper" category...angel hair and herb pasta mix, small pop-top cans of chicken and some new dehydrated black bean chipotle soup and risotto mixes in paper containers.  Found the last two right at Hannaford.  And my kayak is missing me...it is back on Webber Pond for the week, where I hope to squeeze in a couple of evening paddles.  Look for another article in the Lincoln County News this week, about a special project that my kids at school are doing to support Paddle for Hope.

It takes a village...

Ally, Phoebe, and Arielle having fun with Deb and her wonderful Mary Kay products

When Paddle for Hope contributions reach our $10,000 goal, children's lives will be changed, our message of caring will be heard, and there will be many, many generous people who will be responsible.  One of those is my good friend Deb Walder, who teaches with me in special education at Great Salt Bay School and is also a Mary Kay Director (go Deb!!!), an achievement she reached this week. 

Deb's Face Race in support of MCCP has been such a fun, creative way to involve a lot of women (and a few men) in Paddle for Hope.  Deb is collecting pledges, based on the number of new "faces" she can sign up for a Mary Kay consultation by the end of June.  Often she bustles energetically into our classroom in the morning, grinning and with another donation (or several) to add to our total.  Her goal was to raise at least $600, and I am delighted to report that, as of Friday, Face Race pledges total $605!

Six of the new "faces" belong to my daughter Megan and her friends, who gathered at my house to meet Deb and try lots of new Mary Kay skin care and makeup products.  The already-beautiful girls were certainly looking good and having fun and I thank them (and Phoebe's boyfriend Tyler who was a very good sport) for being part of the Face Race.  The thermometer climbed yesterday to $3,655...help us keep it going!

Plans emerging, unfolding, growing...

 

Early morning...new life





 

NFCT newsletter photo taken
at the Fish Pond bridge near Jackman

Spring brings the unfolding of new life, as the woods are transformed from a tapestry of subtle pinks and greens to the intense foliage of summer.  So, too, are plans unfolding around here.  The website thermometer took a jump to $2,980!  $7,000 more to the goal... 

The Northern Forest Canoe Trail mails its printed newsletter, Currents and Communities, to 1,900 readers twice a year.  My Spring-Summer 2011 issue arrived in my mailbox yesterday...with our article called "Paddling Against Childhood Cancer" inside.  A rewarding and sobering moment!  Don't think I mentioned, either, that the NFCT has a link to this blog under their Paddlers section, right in there with Team Black Cat and the Rough Water Gypsies, the two thru paddling teams so far for 2011.  The former have finished the NFCT and are now on the AT heading to Georgia and the latter just finished the Saranac River and are on the shores of Lake Champlain, at the beginning of Map 4 of the NFCT.  (There are 13 maps in all for the 13 sections...I will be paddling across the state of Maine on Sections 8 through 13).

Lookin' good Megan

Finally found the sun

Well, I will put in an order right now for one month of weather just like we had Monday and Tuesday...warm enough to swim, calm enough to paddle, breezy enough to keep the bugs away (mostly). This was my parents' first night of camping in their new trailer, so they were also experimenting with equipment. Here is my support team at our lakeside campsite at Colonial Mast Campground. Megan and Dad gave the thumbs up to the new camping chairs. And I'd like to put in a good word for the kind folks and clean grounds there.

After driving up Monday, Megan and I unloaded our kayaks at the Harrison public boat launch at the north end of Long Lake. (This is the Long Lake in Cumberland County...there are others, including a Long Lake we will paddle on the Allagash. I guess Maine has so many beautiful lakes that there aren't enough names to go around). My spray skirts cover most of my gear...the large bag in the stern and the rest of the small bags in the bow. Putting on the spray skirts quickly is a new-found skill. I struggled mightily with them last summer until a very helpful woman at Maine Sport showed me how to slide them on, rather than trying to snap them into place.

You probably have figured out that I have a very supportive family. Well, for my birthday in January they surprised me with a handheld GPS, which captured our route past Bridgton to the campground above Naples...nine and a half miles in almost four hours...average speed of 2.7 miles per hour...navigating accurately to the waypoint for the campground. This lake on Memorial Day was definitely not a wilderness experience, more of a test of our ability to weave among jet skis and power boats and safely cross their wakes. Late in the day, though, the waterfront was serene and beautiful...the perfect end to a lovely mother-daughter day of fun in the sun.