Category: Outdoors

May is one of my favorite months. Weekends are filled with fly fishing, turkey hunting, and finding fiddleheads and morel mushrooms in the outdoors, and with all those adventures it also means ticks.

According to the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Tick Lab, May is peak season for deer ticks. Sitting in hardwoods turkey hunting means you’re going to get ticks on you, but that doesn’t mean you have to get bit. Since ticks are here to stay, we have to learn how to deal with them. The old saying, “the best defense is a good offense” couldn’t be truer when it comes to ticks.

Each season, in addition to my turkey hunting clothing and gear, I designate two pairs of jeans, socks, shoes/boots and t-shirts as my adventure gear that get treated with permethrin. Hang the garments outside and with plenty of ventilation to avoid inhalation, give them a good spray and leave to dry. Cover entire garment, but concentrate on the neckline and hem of the shirt, and the waistline and ankles of the pants. The treatment lasts for 6 weeks of sun exposure, or 6 washings. The manufacturer recommends storing out of sunlight to preserve the treatment. It’s important to know that you only treat clothing and gear with permethrin, and never spray it on your skin.

In addition to permethrin, a good deet or picaridin spray used on exposed skin is essential, not just for ticks, but all the other biting insects out there. According to Consumer Reports, “products containing 25 to 30 percent deet or 20 percent picaridin typically provide at least several hours of protection, and any more than that and you’re increasing your exposure without improving the repellency.” It’s recommended that you wash insect repellent off once indoors, or at least before bedtime.

I often find ticks at my ankles, my waist and my neck. To reduce chances of getting bitten, I do the following:

• Once dressed, wrap pant legs snuggly around ankles and pull socks over pants.
• Wear boots at least shin height so that pants stay tucked in socks.
• Layer clothing. I wear a tank top under my t-shirt. The tank is tucked in and the treated t-shirt untucked.
• Wear long hair in a braid or bun if possible. I have found that a pony-tail allows for hitchhikers more easily.

If you are in and out of your vehicle throughout the day, do a quick tick check before climbing back in. At the end of the day, a tick check is necessary. Just like muddy boots, leave your tick clothes at the door. Check clothing over before putting them into a gear bag for the next use, or place in the washing machine if it’s time for a wash.  Inspect for ticks, paying attention to hairline, arm pits, back of legs, and the groin area. For those with long hair, I recommend brushing your hair and really feeling over the scalp for hidden ticks. If possible, use the buddy system and have someone help you check since it’s easy to miss tiny ticks.

Remember to keep your pets treated and to check them before letting them onto furniture or onto your bed. On more than one occasion, I’ve found a tick on my dog’s face or I’ve awoke with a tick on me that wasn’t there before I went to bed.

If you do find a tick attached, remove it as soon as possible; the longer a tick stays attached, the greater the risk is for developing Lyme disease or one of a number conditions no one wants. If you develop a rash or ring around the bite area, or feel ill, call your doctor to see if you need treatment.

A regimen of prevention will reduce your chances of getting bitten, and will ease your concerns when it’s time to get out there. There are too many adventures to be had, and I’m not about to let ticks take away my time in the outdoors.  Just remember, it won’t be long before blackflies, midges, mosquitoes, horse flies, bees, hornets and brown-tail moths are here, so what’s a little tick?

Our youngest son isn’t much into hunting, but he sure loves fishing. As a kid, he couldn’t wait to head out every weekend into the wilderness to camp and fly fish the river, or the native brook trout pond. If the river was running high for rafting, we’d go fly fishing on the pond where we kept a canoe. That worked until it got too windy, or the fishing too slow. One thing I learned about keeping kids interested in the outdoors is to not to force it on them, so when he’d had enough fishing, we’d packed up and take rides on many of the logging roads.

An impromptu stop at a small gravel pit for a break and lunch led to finding fossils. From that day on, it became a game to find fossils at every place we stopped or camped. Hunting for fossils is like hunting for treasure, especially for kids, and our youngest son became particularly fond of our adventures. Each week, we’d add our best finds to our rock wall when we got home.

In Maine, we don’t find dinosaur fossils, but we do have plenty of shell and plant fossils to be found. Plant fossils can be more difficult to find, and they don’t always remain intact due to finding them in softer clay-like sedimentary rock that hasn’t completed the entire fossilization process, but they’re still fun to find because we’d find so many different kinds of shells and plants.

When the river is at fishing level, there are lots of rocks exposed and it’s perfect for fossil hunting. When I come prepared, I have a rock hammer on hand to inspect rocks, but most of the time I’m holding a fly rod, so I stuff the find into my gear bag or waders to bring it back to the campsite, or I find a bigger rock to try to smash it open. The latter isn’t the best way to do that without eye protection, but sometimes I just can’t help myself and most of the time it’s unsuccessful.

Over the years, we’ve learned you can stop just about anywhere, and with a bit of searching, find some type of fossil. We’ve done it so much; it’s become habit and to this day, sans the kids, no trip is complete without a fossil hunt. Some of our best finds are when we least expect it, such as in the middle of a clear-cut at the top of a mountain or on the side of road in a boulder!

The lasting effects of all of those fossil-hunting trips came to fruition this past fall. The youngest son, now an adult, works out-of-state and travels a lot through the mid-west. To my surprise, on one of his trips home, he brought me a bagful of fossils from Missouri and Iowa, which I keep in my fossil bowl on our dining room table.

I hope you’ll add fossil hunting to your list of must-dos with the kids and family. You don’t need to be an expert; you just need to be willing to search. I can attest that the more time you spend in the outdoors, the more you’ll connect each other, and just maybe they too will surprise you with mementos of the times spent together in the woods.  

Bowhunting is one of those things that I can say I’m not very experienced at. I had a crazy successful first season, which helped me get my Grand Slam in 2016. I even bought a new bow, but since then, I haven’t shot a deer with my bow. In fact, I haven’t shot anything with my new bow.

I like to bowhunt because there’s less pressure on the deer, and I feel like I have a better chance at least seeing a deer before everyone else heads into the woods. Once firearms season begins, there’s way more people in the woods and it’s that much harder hunting without human interference.

Last year, I had several unexpected encounters making for some exciting hunting, but most of them were when legal shooting hours were coming to a close and light was well past the ability to see pins through my sight even if I illuminated them. It doesn’t help that I’m basically blind as can be and even with contacts, I don’t see like I’d like. My eyes have been known to play tricks on me either seeing things that aren’t what I think, or missing them all together.

On one occasion, I got to hear a buck grunt so close to me that you’d think I could have reached out and touched him, but it was so dark, I couldn’t see anything. It seemed like every time I went out, I had a close encounter but couldn’t close the deal.

So this year, I’m once again bowhunting and trying to harvest something, but ultimately, I’d like to shoot a buck. A decent buck. Not a doe, not a spike, but a decent buck. I’ve never shot a big buck. My biggest buck was an eight pointer not worthy of being mounted…so yeah, I want a buck. A big one. Just once, I’d like a big buck.

Which leads me to my latest encounter. I sat in my tree stand and listened to a deer sniff so hard to see if it could figure me out. I sat there thinking that this deer has me busted. He knows I’m here. The same thing happened the year before. Busted. He’ll never come out of that treeline.

John suggested I sit in the “old stand” that’s off to the left of my stand in hopes of outsmarting the deer. The wooden stand ended up being too narrow and too deep so I couldn’t sit properly. If you can’t sit still, you don’t see deer.

So down I went to sit on the ground and hunt with the wind. Not too hard since the wind was blowing directly in my face. I made a big circle behind the stand checking out deer trails and sign. Not a lot of sign. As I made my way almost back to the stand, I spotted movement in the treeline. Two doe were eating and making their way down the same path I had just taken. I watched the deer until they disappeared into the dark woods.

Then out of nowhere, a big deer on my left made its way up to the opening. My mind was a buzz trying to process everything. A big doe. I could shoot it, but I’m not going to. I’m going to just watch it and see how close it will get before I’m busted. Maybe I won’t be busted. Maybe just maybe a buck will be following that big doe.

I stood still, watching the deer rub its orbital glands on the branch above a buck paw. I’m thinking, I didn’t know does do that. As I watched it make its way toward me, it had its head down smelling and looking for acorns. It looked much smaller as it approached. Its back wasn’t much taller than my chest. Ground shrinkage at work. As it got directly across from me, I notice how small it seemed. Just a yearling. Then, it picked its head up from the behind the boulder that had been blocking him. I was shocked.

That doe was a spike horn buck! Damn eyes couldn’t see those antlers. Standing there at less than 10 yards…maybe more like 5 yards, it stopped and froze. Then doing the “what to heck is that” look at me, it tried to make out what I was. I didn’t move a muscle. It tried hard moving left and right and in turn, I moved slightly to keep the couple of hanging leaves between us. It looked away, took two more steps and again tried to figure me out. The wind was blowing directly parallel to the deer and me, so it couldn’t smell me.

It finally stomped its hoof. I gently picked my foot up and did a quick stomp. That freaked him out. He made a large leap back from where he came and stood there, then began running back and forth frustrated that it couldn’t smell me.

As dark approached, I put my arrow in my quiver and made my way out quietly, with hopes that I’ll again get to see a deer, maybe a buck, Maybe a decent buck before firearms season opens. Or maybe I’ll just cash in my doe tag. I’ve got time.

My Spike returned later for a quick snapshot on my camera.

Well, here we are a year later and the pandemic is still part of our lives. Spring has sprung early so here are few things to do while we wait for better, warmer weather. The best thing is that many of these things can be done at home, but if all else fails, don’t be afraid to take a long slow ride in the car. Bring a camera and be ready for wildlife.

• Pack a bag filled with sunscreen, Chapstick, bug spray, bottled waters, granola bars or other non-perishable food for snacking, towels, and a change of clothes for every person in your household. Keep one bag in every vehicle. This way you’re always ready for an unexpected trip.
• Set up your fishing lines with new line and tackle. Don’t be afraid to try out some new lures. I’ve been avoiding plastic baits due to the recent findings on their impact on fish. If I’m not fly fishing, I’m usually in waters where I can use the real thing, and I’m okay with that.
• Get a Gazetteer Map and search out new places to fish, hike or hunt.

• Rearrange your tackle boxes so that everything is neat and easy to find. There’s nothing worse than trying to untangle lines with hooks on them when you’re reaching for a Mepps or realizing you’ve run out of the special green spinner on a #4 hook when a store isn’t nearby.
• Learn how to fly fish. I don’t mean hire someone to teach you. You-Tube has wonderful examples of how to cast. Get an inexpensive set-up that uses a dry fly. Making sure no power lines are around you, practice the hello-it’s for you method and try to cast so that you can lay a fly onto a target. Once you do that, you’re ready to either stand in water or cast from a boat or canoe. Don’t get discouraged, and persistence will pay off.
• Hang game cameras to watch the wildlife in your area. I have cell cameras so the pictures come right to my phone, but it is fun walking to the cameras and checking pictures too, so don’t let not having a cell camera deter you from seeing what’s out there. Some cameras are as inexpensive as $20.
• Move your tree stands, even as little as thirty feet… rumor has it that deer recognize stands that are in one spot year after year, and will avoid them.

• Try to find wild ramps. They are delicious and are a great way to start off the foraging season.
• For a rainy day project: Shellac your wooden snowshoes now so that they’ll be ready next winter.

• Start looking for ant hill dirt to gather for next season’s trapping. Mark your spots so that you can get it later.
• Get out your archery target and start flinging those arrows. It won’t be long before bow season will be here. Heck, expand your challenges and try to shoot a turkey with a bow!
• Speaking of turkey hunting. If you haven’t tried it, you don’t know what you’re missing. Turkey hunting is a great entry hunt for beginners.
• If you turkey hunt, learn how to use a mouth call and try hunting solo. Try locating and getting turkeys to answer back at roosting hour.
• Register your boat. Get out in it. Catch some sun, take someone fishing, and/or watch for wildlife.

• Look for deer or moose sheds. I’ve written about hunting for moose sheds in a previous blog.
• Learn how to use a map and compass. And practice, practice, practice! You never know when you’ll need it. Electronics are neither as reliable, nor any easier to use.
• Buy some permethrin and spray your outdoor/hunting clothes so that ticks won’t tag along once you start spending more time in the woods.
• Buy some deer fly patches to keep in the glovebox for when they hit. We put them on our hats, and make a contest on who can attract the most.
• Start watching for morel mushrooms. They’re one of the first to show up, and they’re gone before you know it.
• Fiddleheads are already sprouting so while you’re looking for ramps, keep your eyes open for fiddleheads…and remember, fiddleheads aren’t just found on the banks of rivers.
• Listen for peepers and croakers at dusk
• Learn the constellations in your sky: Orion, Cassiopeia, Northern Cross, Big and Little Dipper, and Pleiades, and spot them in the night sky.
• Sign up for email notifications for the International Space Station and watch for it in the night sky
• Build a campfire from scratch with wood, sticks and bark you collect…and for extra challenge, try to start it using flint and steel striker, or try building the camp fire with different tinder such as Old Man’s Beard, cattails, pine bark, birch bark, or Vaseline on a cotton ball. Kids love to do this.

I hope this gets you excited for the Maine outdoors. These are just some of the things we do every year. There is always something to look forward to when prepping for time in the Maine woods. Now get out there!

Trapping isn’t easy. It is both mentally and physically challenging. When I first started trapping, I soon learned that I was unable to set traps with my hands. Between the arthritis in my right hand and just being too weak, I struggled to set traps of any kind. I could barely set a No. 1 foothold, and a No. 2 or No. 3 was out of question. I was sorely annoyed that I had to rely on my husband to set my traps. After all, there is something very satisfying about completing the whole process and being successful at trapping. I wanted to do all of it, and not just spray the urine on the stump.

When I decided I was going to set my own traps, I learned that I could stand on the levers of the trap which allowed the jaws to open so that I could set the dog, the piece of metal that flips over the top of the jaw and under the pan notch. The dog made it more difficult to hold the trap down with my feet while trying to set the trap. I felt like a contortionist trying to get that trap set, and it usually took me more than a couple tries to get everything to fall into place.

I’d do this in my garage, and then I would put ties on my trap to keep it open until I made my set. I’d transport the traps to my spot, and then cut the ties before I covered my trap with dirt. Occasionally, my plan would fail and the trap would trigger, so I’d have to do the process all over again out in the woods, only using a rock or something hard enough to allow the trap to open fully. This method wasn’t particularly kind to my traps and sometimes bent them. I think I spent as much time fixing the dog and trying to get the pan flat as doing my whole set.

As my husband and I watched a Canadian trapping show, we learned about dogless traps, and the slickest foothold trap setters ever. Dogless traps are just what they imply–there’s no dog on the trap. The trap setters are called Maine Trap Setters. I’m still amused that it was Maine ingenuity that came up with these. If you don’t have them, get them. They’re about $30, and in my opinion, they’re worth every penny. They also work with my regular traps, which is nice since I will still use them.

Using my fancy Maine Trap Setters, I can literally set a No. 2 or No. 3 trap anywhere, and then hold the trap with one hand when I do it right.

The dogless traps work in such a way that once they’re open, you simply pull up on the pan to hold the jaws open. Then, making sure your fingers are in the right place and out of the jaws range, you simply press on the pan until you hear a click. You’re done. The trap is ready. The only time I’ve had issues is when I tried to set the trap after waxing them. The excess wax make the trap fire prematurely. I’ll scrape the pan where it meets the trap and then everything works as it should.

This year, I went all out and bought a dozen more dogless traps to go with the four we already had. As I become more proficient in setting my traps, I can focus more on the logistics and planning my sets.

If you’re considering trying trapping, don’t get overwhelmed. Do it for the challenge. Get creative and start small by focusing on ,one or two animals that you want to catch. Find out what works and what doesn’t, and be ready to make adjustments. Most of all, make it fun. There’s nothing more exciting than making your first catch.