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IF YOU GO . . .
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This list of events in Maine is just a sampler of the many activities on
tap throughout the late-spring and summer months. More information on events
listed can be obtained by calling the listed telephone number. For a complete
schedule of summer events, write the Maine Publicity Bureau, P.O. Box 2300,
Hallowell, ME 04347-2300 or call (800) 533-9595.
ROCKHOUND ROUNDUP, June 1-2, USM Gym, Portland. State's largest gem and
mineral show. (207) 284-6206.
GREAT FALLS CANOE RACE, June 8, Lewiston. Professional, amateur and
recreational canoe race courses. (207) 783-2249.
WINDJAMMER DAYS: June 26-27, Boothbay Harbor. Windjammer and antique boat
parade, concerts and exhibits. (207) 633-2533.
HERITAGE DAYS: June 28-30, Norlands Living History Center, Livermore Falls.
Celebrating Maine farm life in the in the 1970s. (207) 897-4366.
WHATEVER FESTIVAL: July 4-7, Augusta and Kennebec Valley area. River race
features zany, people-powered crafts. (207) 623-4559.
LE FESTIVAL de la BASTILLE: July 12-14, Augusta. Dancing, food, entertainment
notes Franco-American heritage. (207) 622-1539.
NATIVE AMERICAN FESTIVAL: July 14, Bar Harbor. Crafts, dancing, food in honor
of Maine's native Americans. (207) 288-3519.
QUILT SHOW: July 20-21, Limington. Exhibits, demonstrations, raffles and food.
(207) 637-2422.
BEAN-HOLE BEAN FESTIVAL: July 27, Oxford. Beans slow-cooked in the ground,
served with traditional side dishes. (207) 743-6001.
FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS: Aug. 1-4, Brunswick. Large, diverse art and cultural
event. (800) 639-4212.
LOBSTER FESTIVAL: Aug. 1-4, Rockland. Meals, maritime events, parade,
displays, entertainment. (800) 562-2529.
HIGHLAND GAMES: Aug. 17, Thomas Point Beach.Brunswick. Scottish atheletic
events, pipe bands, competitions. (207) 364-3063.
SIDEWALK ART SHOW: Aug. 24, Winthrop. Judged show featuring more than 70
artists. (207) 759-1283.
For more information about Baxter State Park call (207) 723-5140.
``Seasonal Guide to the Natural Year, New England and New York,'' by Scott
Weidensaul (Fulcrum Publishing, Golden, Colo., 1993) suggests these Baxter
locations for likely moose sightings: Sandy Stream Pond, near Roaring Brook
Campground; Daicey Pond at the Daicey Campground; Tracey and Elbow ponds on
Katahdin Stream.
For information about Acadia National Park call (207) 288-3338 or write
Acadia National Park, PO Box 177, Bar Harbor, ME 04609-0177. A sampling of
summer programs includes Acadia's Birds, 3-hour program to identify and
discuss birds and their natural history; Great Meadow Walk, 1.5-hour, 2-mile
stroll through rich woodlands and wetlands; Mountain Mysteries, 1.5-hour,
1-mile hike for children 5-12.
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BAXTER STATE PARK, Maine -- Here, in the Maine woods, where Henry David
Thoreau once searched for moose and the truth in nature, we came between a
moose and her calf one summer and quickly learned the meaning of wildlife.
Up on the ridge behind our campsite, the 700-pound moose, gangly legged and
long-snouted, lumbered through the woods, on the way to a favorite feeding
ground on the shores of Long Pond. We climbed up to take a photo of the
creature in the distance as she wound her way through the pine and oak trees.
Behind us, we heard a noise. Left behind to feed in a swampy area was her
calf. We turned our camera that way, but the calf became frightened and
bolted. Within seconds, her mother came crashing back through the woods, right
toward us.
We ran down the ridge, not sure if jumping into either our tent or the pond
would save us from our charging predator. But then, she slowed,
apparently worried only about calling to her calf, she let out a deep,
guttural sound. My husband started imitating the moose call, but I had learned
my lesson and urged him to stop.
For us, the best summer vacations are those that take us outside our
routine, workaday concerns, and put us in our place in nature. This close
encounter did just that, reminding us to respect nature, and to be always
in awe of it.
Many a New Englander in search of meaning in nature might well spend time
looking for moose, as Thoreau did, and as we have done. The wilds of Maine
offer prime moose-watching grounds, as well as other opportunities to commune
with the environment. Baxter State Park, in the north-central part of the
state, and Acadia National Park, on the Down East coast, offer many chances to
be one with nature.
In Baxter, such experiences can come from rigorous backpacking along the
portion of the Appalachian Trail that runs through the park, ending atop the
mile-high Katahdin, Maine's highest mountain, or from easy strolls through
moose country.
In Acadia National Park, the opportunities can come from ranger-led walks
to look for birds and see the only fjord on the eastern US seaboard, or from a
park-sponsored boat cruise around the Cranberry Isles to look for wildlife and
history.
Nature in all its variety abounds in Maine, and so do moose.
The biggest member of the deer family, the moose so fills the mind of a New
Englander in search of nature that the creature seems to be hiding in every
dark and piney woods. As it seemed for Thoreau in this passage from ``The
Maine Woods,'' which he wrote in 1864:
We saw, many times, what to our imaginations looked like a gigantic
moose, with his horns peering from out the forest edge; but we saw the forest
only, and not its inhabitants, that night.
But as Thoreau discovered on that unsuccessful night expedition to hunt
moose, finding the animal is not the important thing; discovering nature, and
man's place in it, is.
Once, when Joe had called again, and we were listening for moose, we heard,
come faintly echoing, or creeping from far, through the moss-clad aisles, a
dull, dry, rushing sound, with a solid core to it, yet as if half smothered
under the grasp of the luxuriant and fungus-like forest, like the shutting of
a door in some distant entry of the damp and shaggy wilderness. If we had not
been there, no mortal had heard it. When we asked Joe in a whisper what it
was, he answered, ``Tree fall.''
Some of the very same woods Thoreau traveled are within the boundaries of
Baxter State Park. He climbed Katahdin and picked raspberries and lunched at
the outlet of Webster Lake.
On my first trip to Maine, I was so intent on searching for moose, I
peered into the woods while driving one evening along Route 1 near East
Machias, close to the state's eastern border with Canada. One night at
midnight, I drove up Cadillac Mountain in Acadia, thinking I would find moose
there. On a trip to the Rangeley Lakes area, I cried out ``Moose!'' as we
were driving along forest-lined Route 16. But I was imagining things.
While several visits to Maine produced no moose sightings for me, I did
experience the mystical wonder of seeing my first great blue heron. As I drove
by the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge near Wells, the bluish-gray,
awkwardly graceful bird with a 6-foot wingspan and gangly legs, flew a few
feet above my car. Growing up in Brooklyn, I never knew nature could produce a
bird of such appearance, color and size.
Another time, as I did a day hike alone in conservation land near Camden, I
momentarily lost sight of the trail markers. Rising panic turned to growing
wonder as I spotted ahead of me a nearly 2-foot-long pileated woodpecker with
a huge red crest, black body and white stripe down its side.
I finally saw my first moose on my first trip to Baxter, while my husband
and I were sitting by a waterfall. We weren't looking for the animal, but the
leggy juvenile had come up behind us and walked right into view. We later
discovered to our amazement that moose can swim. We saw one making its way
across Sandy Stream Pond as we walked along an easy trail near the Roaring
Brook Campground.
Sometimes, the best way to find moose is not to search for them. Just go
into the woods of Maine and be open to nature, and you will find your place in
it.
Published 05/05/96 in the Boston Suday Globe's Travel Section
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