I would be interested to see how other states are doing with their non residential sales I suspect they are down. A task force will just be flushing $ down the toilet which government is pretty good at. While Maine holds a special place in my heart I’m not sure it is a true premier hunting destination anymore.

While recent moose permit lotteries have been staged on Thursday evenings, Cabela’s lobbied the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, which conducts the lottery, for a Saturday event that would be more easily targeted toward families and those who would travel to the event. Activities will begin at 10 a.m. this year and continue throughout the day. The actual drawing will begin at 4 p.m.

BDN

So once again I miss the draw…. I’m sitting in NC waiting for the results to get posted tonight like many other hopeful hunters. Maybe my luck will hold after all I have been drawn twice before…..but one of these days I’m going to make the lottery in person.

Loading my first moose in 1995

Maine Moose Lottery deadline is this Friday the 13th so if you plan to get your chance to hunt you better get cracking. I just submitted my info on line hoping that I get drawn for the 3rd time. I lived in Maine for a number of years and never got drawn but move out of the state and I’ve been struck by lighting twice.

Moose meat is some of the best table fare you’ll ever find so the opportunity to fill my freezer is part of the reason I keep applying. The other and really the more important thing is the hunt itself in some of the prettiest places you’ll ever see. Fall in Maine means spectacular foliage with the woods coming alive with absolutely spectacular colors. A moose hunt just gives you a reason to be out in the woods at this special time.

Well I hope Friday the 13th turns out to be a lucky day for me. The drawing happens in June and I’ll have links to the results as soon as they are available.

Maine Game Warden's Badge

For the 15th time in the 130 year history of the Maine Game Wardens an officer has made the ultimate sacrifice. Warden Pilot Daryl Gordon failed to return home Thursday evening after a day of patrol and an extensive search was launched. His last call was an “officer needs assistance” when a fellow game warden got his snow sled stuck in thick slush on Eagle Lake.

Pilot Gordon was flying general patrol north of Moosehead Lake, which consists of providing support and information to wardens on the ground and surveying the area for deer. During the patrol he received information that Warden Andrew Smart was stuck with his snowmobile in deep slush on Eagle Lake (T8 R13 WELS in Piscataquis County) along the Allagash Waterway.
Pilot Gordon located Warden Smart and landed to provide necessary assistance. Both flew to another location where they retrieved a come-along in order to free the mired snowmobile. Upon freeing the snowmobile, Warden Smart and Pilot Gordon parted ways. Pilot Gordon was last seen by Warden Smart as he flew up the lake in the direction of his home base.
Warden Smart described the area as experiencing snow squalls as Gordon flew away.
Pilot Gordon was flying a red 1981 185 Cessna on skis, which allowed him to land on frozen surfaces. The plane was equipped with two locating devices. The first was a web-base satellite tracking device that is present on all State of Maine planes, which permits Public Safety Dispatchers to monitor their location for emergency calls. The second locating device was an Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT), which transmits a radio signal in the event of a crash.
The last information provided by the satellite tracking device confirmed Pilot Gordon was in the area of Eagle Lake, where he assisted Smart. There had been no signal detected from the ELT.

After an extensive search Thursday night utilizing multiple agencies authorities located the crash site Friday morning on Clear Lake.

Pilot Gordon was reported as missing at approximately 8 p.m. Thursday by his wife, Rita, when he did not return to their Eagle Lake home from his day of patrol. His plane was located at 8:50 a.m. today on Clear Lake in T10 R11 WELS (Piscataquis County) when a ping from an aircraft emergency locator transmitter was picked up. A Maine Forest Service helicopter and a Civil Air Patrol plane located Pilot Gordon.

AP | Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Daryl Gordon stands next to a plane (not the one in which he crashed) on a frozen lake in 2007. Gordon, one of the agency's game wardens, was killed in the crash of a small plane on Clear Lake in a remote northern part of Piscataquis County Thursday night.

Investigators from the NSTB and FAA will go to the crash site and try to determine what caused this tragic accident.

“We lost a devoted pilot whose service to the state of Maine has been extraordinary,” he said. “So many people have had loved ones returned to them through the aerial search and rescue efforts of this gentleman. Without him, a lot of lives would not have been saved.”
Col . Joel Wilkinson Maine Warden Service

Pilot Gordon was a veteran of the Maine Warden Service, serving as a Maine Game Warden for 25 years and as a Warden Pilot for approximately 7 years. He has more than 12 years experience as a pilot.
He joined the Maine Warden Service in February 1986, and was first assigned to Calais. Throughout his career, he was assigned to Lincoln, Skowhegan and Bingham before being promoted to pilot in June 2004.
Pilot Gordon graduated from Hartland Academy in 1968. In 1969, he served 18 months of active duty in the United States Marine Corps, with 12 of those months in Vietnam where he was promoted to corporal and platoon commander and in charge of 12 Marines and 25 Vietnamese troops.
His Maine Warden Service accomplishments include an Exemplary Service Award in 2009. The northern division awards board, in its nomination report, said “Warden Pilot Gordon shows his dedication throughout the year, whether it is in helping with routine patrol or specific details. He is always thinking of the wardens on the ground and how he can help them. His ability to be a team player, his initiative, quick thinking and training, reflects upon the inherent quality, dedication and support of the Maine Warden Service and the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

The job of a game warden is a dangerous one battling often both the furies of nature as well as the problems of man. These are the people we call on for help when we get in trouble in the wilderness or to protect our land and natural resources. Like fireman that run into burning buildings we call on game wardens to do the same type of thing in the wilderness. Warden Gordon is survived by his wife and two sons, our thoughts and prayers are with them and the Maine Warden Service at this difficult time.

MIF&W
Bangor Daily News

Photo by Moose

A hunter was mauled by a bear on the opening day of the bear hunting season with hounds in Township 5 Range 7 of Northern Maine. Ryan Shepard of Shin Pond Maine was hunting with 3 friends when their dogs bayed the 300+ lb bear. The bear was able to break past the dogs charging Shepard he was able to get off a fatal shot on the bear but was mauled before the bear succumbed to the fatal shot.

Maine Game Warden Kevin Pelkey told the BDN

The primary investigator of the incident, Pelkey said he couldn’t really determine whether Shepard had done anything that might have spurred the attack. Shepard is an experienced hunter, Pelkey said.
“While this is a rare occurrence, hunters are reminded that wild animals are always unpredictable,” Pelkey said in a statement.

Would not a pack of hounds be enough provocation for any bear to spur an attack? I don’t know when I read this story this morning it struck me as a funny statement by a game warden.

We are glad to hear that Mr Shepards injuries were not life threatening and sounds like he’ll make a full recovery. He certainly will have a story to tell around the campfire for sure.

Loading my first Maine Moose

Today is the day for the annual Maine Moose Lottery that many of us wait for like a kid waits for Santa on Christmas Eve. This year Maine Inland Fisheries is holding the event at LL Bean in Freeport Maine and for those in the area it is probably worth checking out. The moose lottery has been going on for a number of years in the early days they actually had a barrel with all the applications and the winners were hand drawn at the event. Technology has caught up with them and the names are now drawn by a computer.
In the past those who couldn’t attend the event could listen to a live radio broadcast as politicians and local celebrities read off the names of the lucky ones that got drawn. When I lived in Maine we would spend the evening listening to the radio broadcast but never heard my name read. Once I moved from Maine to North Carolina I couldn’t get the show but I was excited the first time I got drawn because my brother called me after hearing my name broadcasted over the radio.
The last couple of years technology caught up and the radio broadcast was carried over the net by Skinny Moose Media making it possible to listen again. Unfortunately the airways will be silent tonight when the draw happens and here is why….

This year’s event, as I said, will be at L.L. Bean. I contacted MDIFW to ask them if they would consider holding off posting the names of the winners until the end of the show, or at least later. The answer was “no”!
It seems a shame that private business was called upon to save the show and no effort is being exerted on the part of MDIFW to make sure people have a reason to attend the show rather than wait until 6:30 the night of the show and go online and see if they won or not. This reasoning makes little sense to me. I’m pretty small potatoes compared to other businesses and enterprises that lay out considerable expenses, time and effort to put on a show.

Tom Remington Black Bear Blog
This is really a shame and cuts into the nostalgia of the event. So I guess I’ll have a quiet evening at home and just log into the results once they are posted. Technology is good but sometimes it’s also the enemy. I hope in future years that Maine considers holding off the names until they are read at the event.

Check back here for a link to the winners once they are posted this evening. Good Luck to everyone.

Photos by Paul Cyr

Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife monitor the health of the states bear population which includes biologists climbing into some bear dens to study the bears. How one signs up for a job like that has to be an interesting conversation. One day last month photographer Paul Cyr tagged along as the team monitored bears at Spectacle Pond near Ashland Maine.
The photos are spectacular of biologists doing a job that is often not witnessed by many people. We often forget the field work many of our wildlife biologists do to keep our animals healthy.
The bear in this particular den they say is a 19 year old sow with 2 new cubs.

This is mother bear # 1847, she is 19 years old and was brought into the program 9 years ago, her 2 cubs today will be numbered 2796M (male) and 2797F (female), the old collar is being removed and the physical begins.

Paul Cyr has numerous photos from the day he spent with the bear biologists and proceeds from the sales of the photos will help purchase equipment for biologists to continue their work.

That’s what a few people said when they heard about my plans to head north for a few days to get away and relax. From some of the conversations I had it would seem a lot of folks would see a few days where it is warm and sunny as a place to relax. A trip to Northern Maine in February doesn’t fit that bill usually. I love cold weather and find large amounts of snow to be rather pleasant. I love the feel of icy daggers in your lungs when you breathe in deep on a cold icy morning a feeling that tells you are still alive.
The trip north proved more daring in the southern and mid Atlantic region where excessive amounts of snow made traveling a bit more of an adventure than usual. On the other hand most of Maine has far less snow then the Washington DC area with only the farthest parts of the state having ample amounts for snowmobiling ( snow sledding).
This is a solo journey for me but I will be seeing lots of family and friends on the way. I won’t be hunting on this trip or at least not in the traditional sense; I have my camera and will be looking for some things to photograph along the way.
Hopefully I can post a number of stories from the road but internet access may prevent me from posting regularly so you may get these stories in batches but we’ll see. I’m already a few days in having made it all the way to Aroostook County and I can see posting stories will be difficult. I suspect that Daytona may have better net coverage then Northern Maine but it doesn’t have the beauty of a New England winter and that is what I need to recharge my batteries. So I guess if that means I’m crazy so be it but I just love winter.