Blue Goose ~ Day 73

August 12, 2014 ~ Berlin, NH to Bangor, ME

There is often morning mist as there was today swirling around the mountain tops, but that soon cleared to one more bright and sunny day, not too hot, not too cool; in fact, as perfect as summer weather can be.

Near Lake Umbagog - NH

I drove north to Lake Umbagog (um BAY gog) NWR past quiet lakes, through woods and the town of Errol, NH.

On the way to Umbagog NWR - NH

Often the refuge offices have more information than in the kiosks, and visitors are welcome to free posters, pamphlets, one-page maps of hiking trails, recent wildlife sightings, and one can usually round up an employee to answer questions. The reception areas usually don't have a dedicated "desk" person, but I can always hear voices in back offices. In addition to the general water / habitat management, there is often a specific mission or interest on a refuge, like frogs or bats or woodcock lately. I hiked in a mostly silent and relatively mosquito-free, spruce-fir-hardwood forest - the boreal forest. There were a few spots with a flurry of birds (lots of BC Chickadees) and a couple other species flitting in and out of sight, likely juveniles. I never did see a moose although there were fresh tracks along the trail and two Indian pipes poking through the leaf litter.

Indian Pipe at Umbagog NWR - NH

The rest of the day I traveled east across NH and into Maine, passing through the spectacular Grafton Notch SP. There is a different vocabulary in these parts: ponds (what we in the Midwest would call lakes), heaths, flowages, notches, chasms....

There is definitely a North Woods feeling hereabouts, similar to the northern Lake Superior  region / Eunice's property in Ontario. I read a long article about bear hunting - big business up here, except the hunting is usually waiting near a baited area, which local guides have prepared for weeks leading up to the "hunt."

I read that Maine produces 99% of blueberries in the US and 90% of our lobster are caught off the coast of Maine. The blueberries are raked rather than picked and look like huckleberries to me. I saw signs: "Rakers Wanted." Logging is also an important industry with speeding logging trucks on the back gravel roads and messy litter where they have cut. Some of the refuges use old logging roads as trails and obviously were once logged also. Perhaps they still are....While the refuges are a good thing and necessary and provide a sanctuary for wildlife and protect flora, they also allow extraction of some of their resources. Up the spectrum of wild lands are the designated Wilderness areas about which I am learning. Congress passed the Wilderness Act in 1964 authored by Howard Zahniser, another very interesting man and someone else I need to research (along with Lee Metcalf). Who has heard of him before reading this? Surely not me. Some of the NWRs include acreage that is designated Wilderness. I was surprised to learn there are 791 Wilderness areas in the US, managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (who also manages the NWRs), the Bureau of Land Management, the US Forest Services or the National Park Service. There is a list by state in Wikipedia.

WWW.WILDERNESS.NET

Freedom is an essential quality of wilderness and this quality was eloquently captured by Howard Zahniser, author of the Wilderness Act, in selection of the relatively obscure word "untrammeled" to define wilderness. Many people read the word "untrammeled" as "untrampled," as in not stepped on. Yet the word "untrammeled" means something much different. A "trammel" is a net used for catching fish, or a device used to keep horses from walking. To trammel something is to catch, shackle or restrain it. Untrammeled means something is free or unrestrained. So, wilderness areas are to be unconstrained by humans. Zahniser defined "untrammeled" in the Wilderness Act as "not being subject to human controls and manipulations that hamper the free play of natural forces."Unfortunately, this primary author and lead proponent of wilderness legislation died just four months before his bill was signed into law as the Wilderness Act. 

I stayed in Bangor, Maine, spending time in a Starbucks as there aren't many to be found in "down east" Maine. And stayed nearby, after eating dinner at Applebee's.