Monday, April 24, 2006

Dorr Mountain - Great Views, Challenging Hike in Acadia

We hiked Dorr Mountain on a beautiful early spring day - before the black fly season. The sun was warm but the breezes were still brisk. It is not the first time I hiked up this mountain but the first time I've made it to the top with my six year old. The incredible stone steps makes for a tough hike but the views are incredible all the way along this hike which often criss crosses across cliff faces. We saw a lot of wildlife - falcons, bald eagles and even a snake but no other people except when we looked up at the top of Cadillac Mountain and saw all of the tourist looking down at us. -- ed



From http://www.acadiavisitor.com/autumn_05/1_10-05.shtml
Dorr Mountain is Perfect Foliage Hike

By Grace Olson

One of the most notable wonders of Acadia National Park are the mountains and trees tumbling down to meet the sea. Its woods are thick, lush, teeming with life and unlike most temperate forests on the East Coast are sharply cut off by a rugged, granite coastline. Each accents the other’s beauty.


From Dorr Mountain, you also look up to Cadillac Mountain.


The views from Dorr Mountain are always spectacular.

staff photos by grace olson

Yet sometimes this accent is difficult to see. Roads rarely are cut directly along the coast and many trails and carriage roads meander through a curtain of foliage that makes it difficult to see the sky, let alone anything below it.

This is why the Dorr Mountain-Tarn Loop Trail, rising up from Sieur de Monts spring to summit the 1,270-foot peak, retains a uniqueness out of all the park’s hikes. The views, from nearly the first step, show Acadia in all its sweeping glory.

Be prepared to work for it.

The trail begins with an innocent little bridge next to the Nature Center in the Sieur de Monts area. Leave your car in the parking lot and follow the winding dirt path through the woods — but don’t be fooled. Just out of sight beyond a gentle curve begin flight after flight of granite steps, switch-backing up the mountain like some kind of cruel joke.

Yet unlike hours of grueling effort on a stuffy piece of exercise equipment, this workout rewards you around nearly every corner. First the Porcupine Islands come into view, sometimes shrouded in a creeping fog, or sometimes clear as day upon the giant blue surface of Frenchman Bay. As you climb, Great Meadow appears below, a stream running through the middle of it like a “dangerous curves ahead” arrow pointing (vaguely) toward Bar Harbor.

Continue following signs to Dorr Mountain. After a little over one mile, the conifers open up to sheer slabs of granite, stretching up toward the summit. Keep a close eye on the cairns (piles of rocks that mark the trail) and blue blazes as some are difficult to spot. This section is steep. When wet it would be difficult to pass without clinging to an unlucky Pitch Pine for support.

Hiking to the summit should take between one and two hours, depending on whether you are in it to play tourist or train for your next 10-miler. But once there, reasons don’t even matter. To one side, on a clear day, you can see across Frenchman Bay to the Schoodic Peninsula. Turn around and Cadillac Mountain dominates the western view.

“It’s beautiful,” said Denise Schubert, on vacation from Tucson, Ariz. “This is just as beautiful as anywhere in Yosemite or Yellowstone.”

She and her partner, Randy Miller, though living in the hiking Mecca that is the Southwest, have been coming to Acadia National Park for years, staying with family just outside of Bar Harbor. On a recent hike they lingered on the top of Dorr in full appreciation of its views.

“This is a treasure for Maine,” said Miller, lifting his shades for a less-obstructed view. “The coastline is just fabulous.”

Before they left the summit, Miller and Schubert turned toward nearby Cadillac Mountain and amused themselves for a few minutes, watching the crowds.

The highest mountain in Acadia National Park, looming 460 feet above Dorr Mountain, boasts a parking lot and gift shop, routinely drawing more tourists than any other feature in the national park. From Dorr, 10 of these camera-toting people can fit in a fingernail’s space on an outstretched hand, bringing home the scale of Acadia’s mountains.

The two then decided to make their descent via the Tarn Loop Trail (or Dorr Mountain South Ridge Trail). The southerly route takes hikers through similar Pitch Pine and granite as the ascent, with views of the town of Otter Creek ahead. And again, keep an eye on those cairns and blue blazes. They’re sneaky.

Continue following the trail to loop back around the base of Dorr Mountain through a path shaded by deciduous forest. This eventually opens up on the Tarn, a swampy stretch of water with fallen granite from Dorr Mountain on one side and Route 3 on the other. Cross the boulders to find the Sieur De Monts parking lot on the other side.

Dorr Mountain is appropriately named after the founder of Acadia, George B. Dorr. Its trails let hikers sample everything that inspired the rusticator, from sweeping views of Frenchman Bay and the Porcupine Islands to the towering bulk of Cadillac Mountain, keeping vigil over the island.

As Miller put it, the views from Dorr Mountain are certainly “a treasure for Maine.”

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Rich A-hole Attacks Family Campground on MDI

Before moving to MDI we used to stay at the beautiful Mount Desert Campground. It caters to tent campers with its low impact tent platforms. Down at the simple canoe dock, kids have fun catching crabs and enjoying the waters edge. You can kayak into Sommes Sound from this incredible spot. Now some jerk who made his money putting doctors out of work and making our health insurance rates skyrocket is attacking the campground with lawsuits just because he can. I guess to some money entitles one to be a-hole.
--ed

Legal costs, taxes imperil campground
By Earl Brechlin

MOUNT DESERT — The family that owns the Mount Desert Campground here worries that when it comes to running a successful family business, they may be able to win every battle but may ultimately end up losing the war. With a property tax valuation poised to soar and mounting legal costs due to protracted legal proceedings brought by a well-heeled neighbor, Owen Craighead wonders if the business that has been in his family for two generations will be around long enough to be passed onto the third.

“Some days it feels like we’re in a trash compactor.”
– Owen Craighead




“Essentially, it’s like trying to tip-toe through a minefield,” explained Mr. Craighead.

Located near the north end of Somes Sound, the Mount Desert Campground was established in 1958 by Marie and Arnold Allen. It was purchased by Mr. Craighead’s parents in 1984.

Set on the edge of a tranquil cove behind a sheltering island, the 60-acre forested property boasts approximately 130 campsites, mostly for campers looking to tent. There are a limited number of recreational vehicle sites. It is one of only a handful of campgrounds in the area that have sites directly on salt water.

The Craigheads have wrestled with the routine day-to-day challenges faced by any small, seasonal business owner – rising costs, finding employees, maintaining a customer base and taking care to preserve the establishment’s winning formula.

By all accounts, the campground has been successful. The Craigheads have been able to reinvest in the infrastructure, build homes for themselves and make a nice living. Things began to get more difficult, however, not long after Midwest attorney Michael Becker purchased the house and 5.5 acres of land next door in 1997. Mr. Becker is considered one of the top medical malpractice litigators in the country and is on a list of Ohio “Super Lawyers.”

It wasn’t long before the Craigheads got a letter from Mr. Becker complaining about having to look at campers using the dock to fish for crabs or preparing to go canoeing and kayaking. Motor boats aren’t allowed at the dock.

When the Craigheads applied to the state to obtain a submerged lands lease for the pier in 2000, Mr. Becker intervened. Through a series of attorneys, he opposed them at the local planning board, and lost. He opposed the lease with state regulators and lost. He appealed to Superior Court in Kennebec County and lost and then appeal to the Maine Supreme Court. Again, he lost.

At issue is the campground’s long dock that is necessary to provide access over extensive mudflats at low tide. Mr. Becker has argued it “impedes” access to his own dock and floats because there is only 25-30 feet between the campground dock and ledge for passage. During the permitting process, the Craigheads agreed to a slight realignment of the end float to broaden the passage. Court documents indicate that Mr. Becker has successfully navigated past the campground dock in his yacht.

In one legal brief after another, the fact that the campground’s pier was there and had been in use for decades before Mr. Becker purchased his house is repeated continuously. One observer likened the flap over the pier to someone moving next door to an established farm and then filing complaints about the smells.

Contacted at his Cleveland office, Mr. Becker declined to comment at length. “It’s still pending, that’s all I can say. It would not be prudent to comment. That’s what I tell my clients.”

Meanwhile, the legal cost meter for the Craigheads continues to run. “We spent $50,000 in 2005; some $70,000 total so far,” Mr. Craighead said. He explained the family holds no ill will against Mr. Becker – they even allowed his contractor onto their land to build the seasonal resident a fence. “I never even met the man until we started taking depositions,” Mr. Craighead explained.

What worries the family most is that the pier lawsuit now is entering another phase. While the state may have successfully defended itself from Mr. Becker, a related personal complaint against the Craigheads has yet to go to trial. The family’s lawyers filed a motion for summary judgement based on the state’s victory but that was denied. They are now awaiting the date for the civil trial. That process alone could cost an additional $50,000 to $100,000. The family worries that the protracted nature of the proceedings may mean that final victory could depend not on who is right or wrong but rather who has the deeper pockets. “That would not be us,” Mr. Craighead said.

On top of all that, the Town of Mount Desert is in the midst of a property tax revaluation. The campground’s current assessment of around $1.2 million is likely to increase by a factor of four or five, experts have told Mr. Craighead. State law requires most property to be valued at its highest and best use, not its current use. Even were the mill rate to drop, as is usually the case in a revaluation, the campground’s annual property tax bill of more than $15,000 could triple.

It doesn’t take long for mushrooming tax bills and sky-high legal bills to ruin a small business, he noted. “It’s scary. There’s only so much you can charge for a campsite.”

Over the years the family has become fast friends with hundreds of people who stay at the campground each season. “This place means a lot to a lot of people,” Mr. Craighead said. Several loyal customers have participated in a letters to the editor campaign to focus attention to the Craighead’s situation.

The family had considered putting some of the campground land into a conservation easement but recognizes much of their nest egg is tied up in the property. “I guess you could say we’re land rich but don’t necessarily have a lot of cash,” Mr. Craighead said. “It’s not something we could give away.”

With the civil trial not likely to begin until fall and the new valuations not due to take effect until 2007, the Craigheads have some breathing room.

Still, if running the campground becomes untenable, the family would have no choice but to sell as a last resort. Most likely, Mr. Craighead theorizes, the property would be carved up into several large lots for private multimillion summer homes.

“People say it’s crazy that this land is used for a campground,” Mr. Craighead said. “This place was the very best part of my childhood. People love it here. Some days it feels like we’re in a trash compactor.”

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

What to do with leftover ham?

We had this great ham for Easter and enjoyed many days of leftovers but by Weds enough was enough. What to do with the leftovers? How could they be used up in a grand finale? How about a ham sandwich spread?

Here is what I did. I put the left over ham in a food processor along with some pickles, onions, a squirt of mustard, and a big spoonful of mayo. Blended it all up and put it in the fridge for the morning. Then at lunchtime we spread it between two layers of a nice crusty bread. Delish! You could also add a scoop of this ham spread to a salad.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Cut PETA Up For Chum

PETA hooks the wrong fish
By Eric Heyl
TRIBUNE-REVIEW


I was in a custom auto shop yesterday, and as you might imagine, the topic of whether fish are capable of experiencing pain was broached.

I know, I know. Seems like you can't take a car in to be turbo-charged these days without having a discussion on the sensory capabilities of cold-blooded aquatic vertebrates.

"I never really thought too much about it before," said Meagan Barker, co-owner of Strict Fab Automotive Solutions on Route 51 in Jefferson Hills. "But no, I don't think a fish can actually feel a hook in its mouth."

Barker is thinking about such things with greater frequency since her exposure to the latest outlandish publicity stunt by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

PETA is protesting the sadistic animal cruelty it believes will occur in town this weekend at the CITGO Bassmaster Classic. The radical animal rights group is using as its tool an ad on a huge billboard directly above Strict Fab.

The ad features a computer-altered picture of a dog with a fish hook through its bloody lip and poses the question," If you wouldn't do this to a dog, why do it to a fish?"

Possibly because dogs and fish aren't really comparable creatures.

You can't walk, pet or groom a fish.

Try asking a bass to fetch a stick.

Or submerging a dog -- of any breed -- under water for a prolonged period. A few initial yelps of protest are liable to be followed by uninterrupted silence.

When it comes to animal blood sport, fishing never has ranked up there with pit bull fighting. Scientists and zoologists can't even agree on whether fish are intelligent enough to be cognizant of pain.

Given those facts, it's no wonder Barker, 23, of Smock, Fayette County, was surprised to find the grotesque imagery objecting to the fishing tournament rising above the auto shop.

"I mean, when I left here Tuesday, there was an ad for Dollar Bank up there," she said.

"It probably didn't have a picture of a loan officer being impaled," I said.

"You're right," Barker said. "It didn't."

Strict Fab co-owner Matt Yanecko said he found the billboard "pretty sickening. ... I just think it's wrong, and I'd rather (the ad) not be there."

Yanecko, 23, of Dawson, Fayette County, often fishes and has hunted deer with a bow and arrow. He believes the region's large number of sportsmen might not take kindly to PETA's position.

"It's getting so you can't do anything recreational without someone objecting," he said. "There's nothing wrong with fishing. It's a sport, just like soccer, baseball or basketball."

I feel bad for the young entrepreneurs, especially Yanecko.

Strict Fab has been open for only three weeks. It could use some customers.

For the past few days, Yanecko has had to endure a growing number of motorists slowing down and even stopping in front of Strict Fab. Not to get any work done there, but to gawk at and absorb a message that the outdoorsman vehemently opposes.

Fish might not be able to feel pain, but people certainly can. For Yanecko, that has to hurt.

Man, dog rescued; fish gets caught

ANCHORAGE — A Ketchikan, Alaska, fisherman and his dog fell overboard after landing a flopping 35-pound halibut but were pulled to safety without losing the fish.
Charles "Murphy" James, 68, was fishing for the first time Thursday since he suffered a heart attack four years ago. He was with his wife, Debra, and their pregnant Shih Tzu-Maltese dog, Pepper.

They borrowed a 16-foot aluminum skiff and rowed for about 10 minutes near a buoy about 100 yards offshore in Tongass Narrows, Debra James said.

There were early signs the trip was not going to go smoothly. After anchoring up, they discovered they'd forgotten their bait, some 2-year-old hooligan.

"We cleaned out our freezer," James said.

They rowed in, drove back to their apartment in a senior housing complex and grabbed the bait.

They rowed out again, anchored up and discovered they'd left a rod and reel on shore.

"I said to him, 'Maybe we shouldn't be out here,' " Debra James recalled yesterday.

After rowing out a third time, they hooked a halibut. It broke Murphy James' line.

He rigged up again, hooked another halibut and got it close to the boat. He reached for his .22-caliber rifle to kill it. The gun would not fire.

James used his gaff hook and got the fish in the boat. But the 35-pound halibut flopped and the boat rocked. He tried to bash it with the gaff and the boat tilted.




"His feet got tangled up, and over the edge he goes," said Debra James, 51.

Water flowed over the edge and the boat filled halfway with water. She spotted Pepper swimming — outside the boat.

Debra James threw herself to the left side of the boat to keep it from flipping. She grabbed the dog and the rifle, and despite a bad back, she pulled her husband back into the boat.

"Adrenaline makes you very strong," she said.

For revenge on the halibut for causing so much trouble, Murphy James said he and his wife plan "to eat every bit of him."

PETA BS Rejected

ADVERTISEMENT



CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - Another animal rights campaign has hit a roadblock in Wyoming.


People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says two outdoor advertising companies have refused to post billboards in Cheyenne showing a digitally manipulated image of a dog caught on a fish hook.

Karen Robertson is a spokeswoman for PETA. She says Young Electric Sign Company of Salt Lake City and Next Media of Fort Collins, Colorado, rejected PETA's attempts to rent billboard space for the ads.

PETA contends fishing is cruel, and wants to promote that argument through the billboards.

Neither company returned calls Friday from the Star-Tribune of Casper.

Robertson says PETA has successfully posted identical billboards in Alabama, Florida and Missouri, but that the billboards have been rejected in other areas.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Cool Fishing Decals!



Did you know? Fishboy has an awesome collection of fishing stickers for sale! Large, die cut stickers for inside or outside. See them all at Fishboy.com

''Quit Staring at My Bass''



Another awesome funny fishing t-shirt from Fishboy!

As Bass Pro Shops says:

"Add a little humor to your wardrobe with this comfortable novelty tee. It boasts a fun full-back image of a cartoon bass and the expression ''Quit Staring at My Bass.'' Small bass design on front left chest. Give others a chuckle with this novelty shirt -- it makes a great gift for fishermen with a good sense of humor! 100% cotton. Machine wash. Imported."

Croc Fishing

Travelling by boat to Vam Sat Ecological Tourist Area in the Can Gio Mangrove Forest in Ho Chi Minh City to go crocodile fishing is what Saigontourist Travel Service Co. offers. But fishing for these animals is not the only excitement on the trip.

In downtown Ho Chi Minh City, tour-takers board the Dong Duong, a modern boat that used to be a restaurant, docking at Bach Dang Wharf.

The two-floor boat still has a nice restaurant on the first floor with good food and service.

Its clear, big glass windows provide a fine view and can be opened to let in some fresh air once the boat leaves the polluted inner city.

The boat, going at 20 kilometres an hour, is slower than the high-speed boats so that tourists can take their time to admire the beautiful scenery, enjoy the dishes, chat and even sing fun songs.

When the boat arrives at the Can Gio ecotourism area, tourists can see first-hand the rich vegetation to understand why the area is referred to as the green lungs of the city.

Unesco recognized Can Gio Mangrove Forest as a biosphere reserve in 2001. Two years later the World Tourism Organization recognized the Vam Sat ecotourism site in the forest as one of the world’s 65 sustainable sites.

The tour’s first destination is Tang Bong Tower. You can climb up to the top of the 50-metre-high tower to get a great view over river and mangrove forest.

Then tourists visit the crocodile farm. A plastic boat surrounded by a metal net takes tourists around the farm so that they can try fishing for crocodiles, which would be a dangerous sport if not for the net around you.

You can also fish for smaller animals, namely crabs, or explore the fauna and flora in the surrounding forest.

Dam Doi is an area in the forest, famous for bats. Tourists take a small wooden boat to go through tranquil and green Dam Doi.

From afar, the roots of the old big mangrove trees look like miniature rock mountains. In Dam Doi, tourists can see huge bats, whose wingspan can be as much as one metre.

And for those who haven’t gone swimming, or better said, floating in the salty Dead Sea between Jordan, Israel and the West Bank as yet, here is their chance to have a similar experience.

Vam sat has pools with water so salty that people, no matter how heavy they are, will float on the surface. So don’t forget to take a newspaper so that you can read while swimming like in the famous image of the original Dead Sea.

In the afternoon, tourists return to Ho Chi Minh City with all their new impressions of the outlying district. (SGT)

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Fish: Sex Change At Will?

DURHAM, NH, United States (UPI) -- A University of New Hampshire scientist is trying to determine what causes sex reversals among black sea bass and how to prevent it.

Associate Professor of zoology David Berlinsky says the sought-after fish is a good candidate for aquaculture, except for its unpredictable tendency to change gender while in captivity.

'In the wild, black sea bass are born as females and turn into males at around 2 to 5 years old,' Berlinsky said, but the sex change occurs more quickly in captivity.

George Nardi, vice president and director of a commercial fish farm in Newington, N.H., says the problem makes breeding the fish a tricky proposition.

'We invest in our brood stocks, the parents of the young fish, much as a thoroughbred horse farm invests in mares and stallions,' said Nardi. 'It doesn`t do us much good if we always have to go out and get new females.'

Berlinsky and his colleagues so far have discovered the fish are more likely to become males if raised at constant temperatures or when kept in crowded tanks.

Berlinsky is also collaborating with Canadian researchers to determine the biochemical mechanisms causing the gender changes.

Friday, April 07, 2006

Life Imitates Art - Fish Starts Blaze

was just reading my son a Richard Scary story about an inept firefighter who burns down his own fire station, now this story of a fish fry burning down a fire station:

Pine Bluff (AP) - Firefighters at a Pine Bluff station left fish frying on a stove when they rushed out to answer a call. The result is that the kitchen at Fire Station Number Seven was gutted by the fire that resulted Wednesday evening.

A resident noticed smoke coming from the firehouse and tried to put out the blaze with a fire extinguisher. But the flames were too great and the man called 911. The firefighters returned to their own station to fight the fire. Pine Bluff Fire Chief David Parsley says the blaze will be investigated.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Silly Seagull Jokes

Q: Why do seagulls live by the sea?

A: Because if they lived by the bay they would be called bay-gulls.

---------------------------
Kid's Instructions on Life...
"Wear a hat when feeding seagulls."

----------------------------
blonde, a brunette and a redhead were walking along the beach. A seagull flies over and craps all over the blonde.

The brunette says in a disgusted voice, "Hang on the bathroom is just up the hill, I'll go get some toilet paper."

After she leaves the blonde begins to laugh.

The redhead says, "What's so funny?"

The blonde says, "Well, blondes are supposed to be so dumb and look at her. By the time she gets back with that toilet paper that seagull will be miles away!"

---------------------------


A father was at the beach with his children
when the four-year-old son ran up to him,
grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore
where a seagull lay dead in the sand.

"Daddy, what happened to him?" the son asked.

"He died and went to Heaven," the Dad replied.

The boy thought a moment and then said,
"Did God throw him back down?"

----------------------------------

What do you call a man with seagulls on his head ?
Cliff !



-----------------------------------

An able-bodied seaman meets a pirate in a bar . . .
. . . and they take turns recounting their adventures at sea.

Noting the pirate's peg-leg, hook, and eye patch the seaman asks, "So, how did you end up with the peg-leg?"

The pirate replies, "We was caught in a monster storm off the cape and a giant wave swept me overboard. Just as they were pullin' me out, a school of sharks appeared and one of 'em bit me leg off."

"Blimey!" said the seaman. "What about the hook?"

"Ahhhh...," mused the pirate, "we were boardin' a trader ship, pistols blastin' and swords swingin' this way and that. In the fracas me hand got chopped off."

"Zounds!" remarked the seaman. "And how came ye by the eye patch?"

"A seagull droppin' fell into me eye," answered the pirate.

"You lost your eye to a seagull dropping?" the sailor asked incredulously.

"Well," said the pirate, "it was me first day with the hook..."