Another Trip To Maine
I have logged over 2,500 miles running all over Maine in the past month. I love it up here! The North Maine Woods remind me of growing up on the tail-end of a rural, coastal farming community in Massachusetts that has been overtaken by “progress.” My hometown is a lovely suburb on the bay, but it is no longer the town where my grandfather made his living as a farmer and where I grew up smelling fresh haying, hearing the cows bellow out in the pasture, and roosters crowing in the barn. For new people moving to town from far away, they cannot relate to what it once was, but they can enjoy it for what it is now. It is still lovely here.
So, I have been going to Maine. Central and Northern Maine, mostly. I have spent miles and hours on logging roads and remote backwoods lakes, ponds and rivers where there are no people, just moose, deer, bear, turkey, grouse, woodcock and eagles among other critters. And lots of loggers – that group of people that are single-handedly responsible for keeping vast millions of acres of forests wild and free. They make our lives in the suburbs possible, through wise, renewable forest management practices. Without them, most of America, and surely most of New England, would be one massive suburb sprawl.
The Maine I like is rural, deep backwoods, wild and natural. Parts of it are very poor and parts of it are just the way Maine people live off the beaten path. Coming from a wealthy suburb on the MA coast, some of the things I come across do have some shock value! But the people are down to earth wonderful people if you take the time to sit with them and talk with them. At their pure core, they are no different than my friends that work in Boston or New York.
So, just a few quick pics from this last trip. I will go again and again to see what I can see. A friend of mine said to me recently, “I fear, one of these days, we are going to lose you to the Maine woods.” He might be right.
Capt. David Bitters, BAYMEN, www.baymenlife.com 30 Years Guiding The Bay. Fly Fishing & Light Tackle Striped Bass On The Massachusetts Coast. Booking 2023, 2024, 2025 Seasons. Dates go quickly. Don’t wait. Book way ahead.