This past weekend we stepped back in time. My family and I boarded a float plane for a foray into Maine’s Great North Woods. Our destination was Second Debsconeag Lake in the Debsconeag Lakes Wilderness Area, a 500,000 acre plot of land that was saved from logging by purchase by The Nature Conservancy. We camped next to a waterfall on the lake’s shore, with our own sand beach and kayak that had been flow in for our use. The lake was teeming with fish, but there were some predatory species like Pumpkinseed in the main lake, although we caught many brook trout. From our site there was a game trail that led 0.6 miles to a small pond, Big Minister Pond. This pond holds a healthy population of brook trout, thanks to protection from the migration of predatory species due to innumerable waterfalls along the way. My son Andy caught his first brookie on a fly rod, the kids swam in inner tubes and we ate well for three days before Katahdin Air swooped us up and returned us to our car. Learning to fly, for Andy and the kids, was the mission. Complete.
