bangordailynews.com/outdoors ENJOY A COPY IT’S FREE! OutdoorsWinter 2015/2016 Coyotes Maine’s Keystone Catch Carnivore Time Together From trapping to skiing, Maine families are spending time together outdoors this winter Cold Weather Birding baxter in the winter Winter 2015/2016 ● bangordailynews.com ● BDN OUTDOORS 3 IN THIS ISSUE 20 KING OF THE MOUNTAIN WinterKids offers discounts for family fun 05 CATCHING FAMILY TIME 22 HIT THE SLOPES Trapping pays dividends for youngsters A guide to family friendly ski mountains 08 COLD WEATHER BIRDING 23 APRÈS SKI Enjoy the sights and flights from the comfort of your car Delicious nosh for weary skiers abounds 10 BAXTER IN THE WINTER 25 FLY FISHING IN WINTER? Experience winter camping at our iconic state park Why not? Tips for staying warm and making a catch 16 COYOTES 27 SKI LESSONS Maine’s ‘Keystone Carnivore’ has its day They don’t teach that in school Photo courtesy of BAXTER STATE PARK Last winter was my family’s first in Maine. I expected it to be different – and by different, I mean harsher and more unrelenting – than the ones I’d experienced in New York and Connecticut, but nothing can quite prepare you for the sheer amount of snow that continues to pile up through the season, how grey everything looks after awhile or the days when it’s so cold, your face really, truly hurts. Heck, for that matter, nothing could prepare me for how quickly we ended up acclimating to the changes. In the end, we learned so much. How to stay warm when the temperatures plummet. The value of warming the car before driving. What layering your clothes really means. Meanwhile, my kids embraced the great Maine outdoors through skating, snowshoeing and playing outside often. This season? I am hoping to hit the slopes with them. I started downhill skiing when I was age 5 or 6, and much like John Holyoke shares in his essay (page 27) in this issue, I fell in love with the speed and thrill of going down the mountain. I’m hoping that with some lessons my kids will love it too. Reporter Shelby Hartin shares some great money-saving resources in her story on page 20 for families looking to try skiing. I expect that we’ll also love sampling the new breed of slope-side dining cropping up around Maine, which reporter Kathleen Pierce explores in her story on page 23. And perhaps this season, we’ll make it to the Camden Snow Bowl for the World Toboggan Championships. Of course, we aren’t quite ready for the wintery excitement of snowshoeing and camping at Baxter State Park that Aislinn Sarnacki explores in her story on page 10. But maybe next year. How about you? What adventures are you planning for this Maine winter? I hope this issue of the BDN’s Outdoors Magazine inspires you to get out there and explore. SARAH WALKER CARON EDITOR, BDN OUTDOORS THIS PUBLICATION WAS PRODUCED BY Bangor Daily News EDITOR Sarah Walker Caron ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Brian Cotlar ADVERTISING SALES [email protected] CREATIVE SERVICES Amy Allen ABOUT THE COVER Junior trapper, Micah Shamlian, 11, enjoys the great outdoors and learning how to trap muskrats and beavers. Photo by Linda Coan O’Kresik | BDN © 2015 Bangor Daily News. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited without express written consent. Requests for permission to copy, reprint, or duplicate any content should be directed to [email protected] Winter 2015/2016 ● bangordailynews.com ● BDN OUTDOORS 5 Trapping’s hard work, but pays Catching dividends for young outdoors Family Time enthusiasts. BY JOHN HOLYOKE, OUTDOORS STAFF WRITER owadays, Matt Dunlap has a pretty important job in state politics: He’s Maine’s Secretary of NState, after all. But when he was a kid growing up in Town Hill on Mount Desert Island, he had a bit of a reputation … one that his father was more than happy to tell anyone who’d listen. “I was not an energetic kid. My father would explain to people that I was the only person that he’d ever seen with no shame,” Dunlap said. “[He said] that I was the laziest per- son in the world, and that I would do nothing for days.” Then, about the time he turned 9 years old, something changed: Dunlap, who had gravitated to the adventure stories of Kit Carson during weekly trips to the Somes- ville Public Library, got the chance to live out some adven- tures of his own. Mentored by an older man, he took up trapping. “When I took up trapping, [my father] was absolutely astounded that I was so committed to it, and would do everything by the num- bers, every single day,” Dunlap said. “He was amazed at the trans- formation of responsibility that came over me.” Not many Maine youths are ac- tive trappers. According to the Maine Department of Inland Fisher- ies and Wildlife, in 2013 just 236 of the 3,141 licensed trappers were younger than 16. But Dunlap said the lessons he learned over a six- or seven-year Micah Shamlian, 11, and his stepfather Kevin Smith trek across span were immensely valuable. In a frozen field back to their vehicle after a morning of checking muskrat and beaver traps in Newburgh. Micah, who is fact, he says taking up trapping homeschooled by his mother in Carmel, learned about muskrats changed his life. several years ago before going out trapping with Kevin. The two “It set a course for me that I real- enjoy their time together in the outdoors and tend 27 traps. ly didn’t see at the time,” he said. Photographer LINDA COAN O’KRESIK | BDN 6 BDN OUTDOORS ● bangordailynews.com ● Winter 2015/2016 Dunlap hasn’t trapped for years – real life got in the way, and the activity is very time-consuming – and admits that an odd convergence of circumstances led to him being allowed to trap in the beginning. “There was a fella in the area whose name was Skip Leach,” he said. “He was a bit of a legend in trapping circles, which I didn’t real- ize. And he would talk to my father and was always looking for places to run a trapline.” Dunlap’s dad wasn’t interested, explaining that with young children and pets running around the family farm – one of those pets a victim of an irresponsible trapper’s trap years earlier – he wasn’t interested. But his young son was interested. And then the chickens got involved. “My mother spent a lot of money on Hubbard’s golden comets,” Dunlap explained. “They’re beautiful, big, fat, slow, egg-laying hens. They can produce like a half-dozen eggs a day. But they’re also very tasty, and foxes and raccoons really like ‘em. So we were losing a boatload of chickens to predators.” The solution: Allow young Matt to learn the trapping trade from Leach, in hopes of providing a safer environment for the hens. “It was just the greatest learning experience in the world,” Dunlap said. “I learned more about the outdoors in those six, seven years that I trapped than I probably ever have at any other time since.” Among Leach’s most valuable lessons, according to Dunlap: Ethics. “He would take me to other guys’ traplines that he knew were breaking the law and he would say, ‘This is what gets us in trouble. Don’t ever do this. This is how trapping gets banned in other states.” And while he never got rich, Dunlap did find a bit of financial security in trapping, especially for a young boy. “It was my Christmas money,” he said. Up in Presque Isle, Corey Graham took up trapping because of his son’s interest in the activity. Graham’s son, Ben, is now 13. And after learning to trap from his grandfather, retired game warden Charlie Merrill, Ben decided that he and his dad ought to trap together. Ben Graham of Presque Isle enjoys trapping with his dad, Corey Graham. Photo courtesy of COREY GRAHAM Kevin Smith lends a helping foot as his stepson, Micah Shamlian, 11, chips at the ice around a muskrat trap in Newburgh last winter. The duo began trapping together when Micah started looking for a way to earn spending money. Though they didn’t catch any muskrats on this day, Micah said he always enjoys being outdoors, learning about animal habitat and behavior. Photographer LINDA COAN O’KRESIK | BDN “Two summers ago, he and I took our trapping [education] course together, and got our trapping licenses,” Corey Graham said. Ben is also an avid hunter and fisherman, and has shown that he’s willing to endure the harsh conditions that trapping requires. “He loves the outdoors. [One day] it was pouring rain outdoors and he still wanted to go trapping,” Corey Graham said. “That’s one thing that’s going to draw him [to an activity]: Being outdoors and wading around in some bog.” Corey Graham said he tries to teach Ben something new every time they go out, but the simple act of spending time together is beneficial. “He’s got a sister who has been a very successful basketball player, and that was kind of her thing. I’d take her to tournaments and AAU,” he said. “This is kind of our thing that we do together: We hunt and fish and trap together. It’s just a good family time.” Corey Graham said his son earned a bit of money last winter, but quickly learned that his ultimate goal – buying a high-priced bird dog with his earnings – wasn’t within reach.