Roughing it on an island, with cocktails

Students Island in western Maine offers campsites without water or power. (Marty Basch for the Boston globe)

OQUOSSOC, Maine - How would you spend two nights alone with your sweetheart on an island? Stroll the sandy beaches hand-in-hand? Laze on a hammock with umbrella drinks? Watch the sun set?

Not us. We battled gusts that made setting up the tent a long, exhausting fight. We cooked over a campfire in the rain, thankful the wind kept the black flies away. We couldn't see the full moon through the clouds and wore fleece hats and gloves to stay warm.

It was a blast.

Western Maine's Students Island is a rustic summer find where friends and families return, often making campsite reservations a year in advance. Once here they relax and drop in a fishing line for salmon or trout, shout for joy as they jump from a large rock into the water, wonder at the rippling mountains hugging the Mooselookmeguntic Lake horizon, and watch the campfire turn to embers as another evening slips into night.

The mile-long island south of the village of Oquossoc in the Rangeley Lakes region is part of the Stephen Phillips Memorial Preserve, a collection of more than 40 wilderness campsites along one of the largest lakes in the state. Some sites are on the mainland, a short walk from the dirt road where you park. For other sites, you'll need a boat.

A few caveats. The sites have no electricity or water. You do your business in a one-holer. Trash is carry in, carry out. If you need it, you lug it.

Weather does what it wants, when it wants. My partner, Jan Duprey, and I had booked a spot in mid-May on the island's northern grassy tip. The site had a roof shelter over a picnic table in case it rained. And although the forecast called for showers, gusty winds, and high temps in the 50s, we challenged ourselves to cook at least three meals over the campfire.

A short paddle in our loaded canoe with everything from two buckets of firewood to a one-stove burner (just in case) found us facing stiff wind, white caps, and huge swells. We arrived at a wooden step ladder with a steep incline. Off-loading was tough as we tried to toss gear up on shore amid the bluster.

We set up camp during this squall. Then we chose some adult beverages and a quick meal of nearly thawed shrimp before retiring. Our campfire challenge would have to wait.

Jan's a chef who earned the nickname One Pan Jan during a 1998 long-distance bicycle trip. She can wrap something in foil, put it over a fire, and, voila, it's al fresco comfort food. The key, as any good chef knows, is mise en place. Essentially, have your ingredients out and ready before cooking.

For campsite cooking, organize and store everything in an insulated bag. Put spices - salt, pepper, hot sauce - in one plastic bag, and hot drinks - coffee, tea, hot chocolate, sweeteners, creamers - in another.

A ladle and tongs are necessities. Certain tools assume multiple roles. Newspapers get read, used as place mats, and finally as fire starters. Freeze orange juice, which first serves as a backcountry refrigerator, then is consumed as it thaws. Double-bagged ice can last for nearly 36 hours in certain weather conditions.

The next day dry kindling made starting fires easy, even in the wind. Breakfast was thinly sliced potatoes, precut onions from home, and country sausage wrapped in foil with some homemade cinnamon buns, blackened because I slouched on my watch.

To burn off our meal we hiked the island on a 2-mile loop trail, discovering stands of white birches with their tender limbs and campsites with even more breathtaking vistas. We also discovered that we were not alone.

We came upon a man with a leaf blower on the island's southern tip. He was the maintenance man, a former teacher, preparing the sites for summer. During a pleasant chat, we learned of the occasional moose and deer sightings on the island, and that The Birches hotel on the island burned in 1925.

It is said Mooselookmeguntic is an Abenaki word meaning "moose feeding among the trees" or "portage to the moose feeding place."

The hike made us hungry so we returned to leftover shrimp. At first we tried it in foil, but it tasted too smoky, even with cocktail sauce. So, I threw it on the grate and grilled it. Better. That served as the appetizer to ham and cheese on toasted pita bread.

Another hiking loop of about a mile headed inland to muted Mooselookmeguntic views and plenty of blow-downs, odd-shaped trees, ledges, and black flies, since the forest provided wind protection.

Happy hour came with gin and tonics. For entertainment, I broke out the saxophone (canoes can carry lots of things). We noshed on rolled ham slices with mustard and relish, and spread cream cheese and chives on pretzels. We warmed salmon in foil over the fire before combining it with egg product and onions in Jan's one pan for a light scrambled omelet, completing our three-meal, campfire challenge.

On the last day, the weather broke with clear skies and sun. Before our paddle back to the mainland we cooked potatoes and bacon while contemplating which site to choose for our return visit.

Marty Basch can be reached at marty@martybasch.com.