Winter has settled in after a stretch of very cold days the temperatures are what I would call seasonable. It is in the teens at night and twenties during the day. We have lots of sunshine and bright blue skies to contrast with the snow on the ground. The daylight is around for almost an hour more each day than it was a month ago so even with the cold the days do not feel as dreary. Argy and I both commented on the pleasant afternoon light this weekend. The sun rises a little farther to the north each day something that is really noticeable to an early riser who's house faces the southeast. In December the sun rises just south of Spruce and Pleasant Mountains. As it heads north it rises for a week or so between them and now comes up to the north. Soon it will be in the east and not visible as it comes up from the house.
If only we had a little more snow for some cross-country skiing or snowshoeing. I did take a walk out back to see where my neighbor's woodcutting is taking place. I had seen the skidder on the side of the road and once in a while could hear it running but did not know exactly where they were working. It has been a very difficult winter for the loggers as the ground did not freeze until very recently keeping them out of many woodlots that require the ground to be frozen to minimize the soil being disturbed. After last week I'm sure that the ground is frozen everywhere. All of the ponds are now buttoned up with ice as well so the ice fisherman are out in force after being kept on shore most of January. I wonder if the late arrival of winter means that it will stay longer in April and May.
I met this morning with the folks at the Samoset Resort and we have agreed to offer the same packages this coming season that we offered last year. I was delighted to learn that my packages were the most popular of all of their new package offerings and the most trouble free. I enjoyed the folks that fished and canoed with me last summer as a part of that package and look forward to working with the Samoset again.
I have started to work on a redesign of teh Maine Outdoors website and hope to have it completed by the end of April. This will be an effort to improve the look and feel of the site and add a few new features to make it more interesting and easy to use. I hope to have my blog made a part of the site so that you will not need to leave Maine Outdoors to read the latest news. I have been measuring the traffic on the web site for the last four years and the number of visitors has doubled each year. I think that speaks more to the increase in Internet users than anything I am doing but it is nice to know that there is more interest.
Reservations are beginning to come in for this summer and there are already some weeks that are nearly full. If you know when you will be in the area and are planning on a fishing or canoe trip please give me a call or drop me an e-mail so we can make the arrangements.
Best regards,
Don Kleiner
Master Maine Guide
