Tales From Misery Ridge

Paul Fournier

Description

Paul Fournier lived and breathed Maine's Great North Woods for decades, from his summers working at a boys' camp as a teenager, to his adventures as a registered Maine Guide, bush pilot, and sporting camp owner, to his career with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Now, with a fine eye for detail and appreciation of the North Woods' enduring wonders, Fournier recreates his experiences in Tales from Misery Ridge. Soar with him on his first solo flight in a Piper Cub, watch with awe as a master canoe-builder makes Fournier's dream canoe a reality, meet brave flying wardens on rescue calls, net some spectacularly large salmon, and take part in the historic mission to transplant caribou from Newfoundland to Maine. Tales from Misery Ridge is a collection of these and other stories from a special time-and place.

Sujets

• Sciences et techniques
• Natural history

Informations

• Publié par: Islandport Press
• Date de parution: 07 octobre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781934031537
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

Extrait

Tales from Misery Ridge

One man’s adventures in the great outdoors

by Paul J. Fournier

Also from Islandport Press

Where Cool Waters Flowby Randy Spencer My Life in the Maine Woodsby Annette Jackson

Nine Mile Bridgeby Helen Hamlin Old Maine Womanby Glenna Johnson Smith Abbott’s Reachby Ardeana Hamlin Shoutin’ into the Fogby Thomas Hanna Contentment CoveandYoungby Miriam Colwell Stealing HistoryandBreaking Groundby William D. Andrews Windswept,Mary Peters, andSilas Crockettby Mary Ellen Chase

In Maineby John N. Cole The Cows Are Out!by Trudy Chambers Price Hauling by Handby Dean Lawrence Lunt

A Moose and a Lobster Walk into a Barby John McDonald At One: In a Place Called Maineby Lynn Plourde and Leslie Mansmann

The Cat at Nightby Dahlov Ipcar My Wonderful Christmas Treeby Dahlov Ipcar Farmyard Alphabetby Dahlov Ipcar

These and other Maine books are available at: www.islandportpress.com

Tales from Misery Ridge

One man’s adventures in the great outdoors

by Paul J. Fournier

Islandport Press P.O. Box 10 Yarmouth, Maine 04096 www.islandportpress.com [e-mail]

Copyright © 2011 by Paul J. Fournier First Islandport Press edition published September 2011

All Rights Reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

ISBN: 978-1-934031-53-7 Library of Congress Card Number: 2011935471

Book jacket design by Karen F. Hoots / Hoots Design Book designed by Michelle A. Lunt / Islandport Press Publisher Dean L. Lunt Cover image by Paul J. Fournier courtesy of Maine State Museum

To my dear wife Lorraine, who daily supports me and tolerates my grumpy-old-man phase;

And to my dearly departed wife Anita, who shared years of adventures.

I am twice blessed.

Table of Contents

Introduction The Seductive Canoe Trophy Salmon Bush Flying Rampaging Black Bears Giant Wild Trout DIFW Days Flying Wardens Foster Eagle Trek to Allagash Moose Antics Crystal Harvest Return of the Caribou What Do They Do All Winter? About the Author

1 5 21 31 47 55 63 93 103 121 131 137 145 189 195

Introduction

isery Ridge, despite its sinister name, is a hand- M some, if modest, natural feature. Its highest point, Misery Knob, is but 2,128 feet above sea level. It is located in Misery Township, an unincorporated town located west of Moosehead Lake in Somerset County, Maine. It comprises 21,963 acres (some thirty-five square miles), pri- marily woodlands, with a number of ponds, streams, and bogs. It is home to from seventy to one hundred moose (two to three per square mile, biologists estimate), an unknown number of deer and bears, and zero humans. The name, Misery, is actually a modern-day corruption of a Native American name for the region. Father Sebastian Rale, a Jesuit missionary who lived with the Abenaki Indians for more than thirty years (and was killed in a massacre of an Indian vil- lage at Norridgewock in 1724), traveled with them throughout the region. He was famous for having written a dictionary of the Abenaki language. He wrote that to the Abenakis, Misery (earlier, Miseree) meant something like “many things,” and he thought it referred to the numerous small ponds—including the Misery Ponds at the source of Misery Stream—that are found there. He also noted that the mouth of Misery Stream,

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