Outdoors

Published
November 6, 2011

Hiking: Hidden Valley Nature Center is a hidden gem

Tucked into the rural countryside east of Randolph and the Kennebec River, the Hidden Valley Nature Center surely lives up to its name. Only a nondescript dirt parking lot, a small sign and a gate mark the entrance to the property on quiet Egypt Road in Jefferson. Getting there, however, is just part of the […]
Published
November 6, 2011

Canoeing: It’s off to Windham, and a meeting of rivers

Despite the recent “one every century” late October snowstorm, there are still many fine paddling days to come this November. Frost and foliage have definitely replaced fiddleheads and ferns. One of the outstanding locales to enjoy a pleasurable mid-November paddle is the confluence of the Pleasant and Presumpscot rivers in Windham. We spent three hours […]
Published
October 30, 2011

John Christie: Across Maine, skiers’ losses are hikers’ gains

With the start of the 2011-2012 ski season now less than a month away, my thoughts have turned, as they always do this time of year, to the abundance of wonderful fall hikes on the mountains that once were active ski areas and have reverted to their original wooded state. On a few of them, […]
Published
October 30, 2011

Outdoors Calendar

Birches Path work day, 9 a.m. to noon today. Work will involve cutting saplings and small trees. There may be some earth work. Please bring loppers, small saw and/or spade. Meet at the Great Pond Mountain Wildlands South Gate on Route 1 at 9 a.m. For more info: contact Scott at 825-4709 or scottcome36@roadrunner.com. Nature […]
Published
October 30, 2011

Club’s deer food plots thicken

A Rangeley group tries to grow the herd with two 4-acre thickets of specially developed clover.

Published
October 30, 2011

Hunting: Got your deer? Now what do you do?

With opening day out of the way, the most popular greeting in Maine now changes from “How’s it going?” to “Git yer deer yet?” Once your reply becomes “yes,” the next question becomes what to do with your deer. You can take the easy route, to the local processor. Or you can save yourself some […]
Published
October 30, 2011

What’s Up in NovemberJupiter’s at its best, and we’ll get a little buzz from an asteroid

As the Northern Hemisphere prepares for winter, the nights are getting colder and longer, even as our terrestrial landscape is getting bleaker since most of our colorful leaves have fallen. There will be several interesting highlights this month, including Jupiter at its best for the year, Venus returning to our evening sky, a comet still […]
Published
October 30, 2011

Birding: Share your sightings easily at eBird

With the passing of Steve Jobs earlier this month, we have all been thinking about the way that computers and the Internet have transformed our lives. The information highway has had profound effects on the ease and speed with which birders can communicate. Nowadays, a birder can find a rare bird, send a post to a […]
Published
October 30, 2011

Allen Afield: Tracks tell you if quarry’s a doe, a buck or the Great Prince of the Forest

Associations of the mind lean toward deer hunting this time of year, and a perfect example follows: Not long ago, while dialing my cellphone outside the front door at Barnes and Noble in Augusta, I absent-mindedly watched an obese man with a pronounced sway plodding toward me in the parking lot, and like a duck, […]
Published
October 23, 2011

212 hunters have bagged moose in N.H.

CONCORD, N.H. – Three days remain in New Hampshire’s moose hunting season, and nearly half of hunters with coveted permits have not bagged their moose. Fish and Game officials say that by the end of Wednesday, 212 moose had been brought down. They say that leaves 48 percent of hunters with one of the 402 […]

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Outdoors