We were headed generally towards the town of Rangeley for their Logging festival on the weekend. We could not find a campsite close to town, so we opted for a little fishing campground on Aziscohos Lake. We shoehorned ourselves into a small site. This was a fisherman’s campground, and the fishing was apparently good. The Kayaking was good as well, and we worked that in. Needless to say there, were loons, and other wildlife.
Jet had a great time, suddenly deciding that the little wavelets that were coming in deserved a good barking. She jumped and splashed and played, and barked, and generally had a great time.
Friday night we went over to the logging festival, where we learned a lot about the logging techniques used in the early days, and to some extent still practiced today. Today Maine produces primarily White Spruce for pulp, and structural lumber. There is a growing industry taking ~20 year old birch and using a trailerable, self contained, machine, producing firewood for the pre packed fireplace market. Imagine a machine taking raw logs in one end, and spitting out tightly wrapped packages of wood with Stop and Shop labels on them coming out he other.
Saturday we went to the Logging Parade, and what a parade of LARGE equipment it was. I would love to show you all the lovely picture I took of this parade, but alas they were lost to the computer gods.
Unfortunately, we had absolutely no internet nor cell phone connection in our Campground. I was told that there was a spot I could travel to, approx 3 miles away, and If I stood in the right place, and the moon and the sun were properly aligned, I could get a connection. There is very little hope of getting a data connection on cell service up here. I did occasionally use the library. I had been putting off doing a “very important upgrade” in my computer during this whole period. My computer crashed while I was working on the blog and the pictures, and I had to do a restart. When I did, the everything on the picture card directory was lost.
Sooo all of my pictures of the parade, and the loggers competition went into the ether. I will tell you that the small community of Rangeley goes all out for this. The people were great, the parade had a great sense of humor about it, and they gave out tons of candy!
The competition was fun too. Having never been to one, it was very educational, and interesting. There is a real science to wielding an axe with the maximum efficiency, and cutting wood with a chain saw. Just observing these guys, I learned enough to save myself some time in the woods.
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