Stalzer/Obele Family Blog

We are back home.

Business live has taken me again into its grip. Tonight, I am flying back to Zürich.

Everything went well on the flight back. Everything,… well… Here is a sight you normally don’t want to see

I have to write some more details about the 7.5 hrs delay…

Going through the photos, I found a couple really beautiful night pictures. These are my favorites

Today, after going to the Pitcher plant pond, we decided to stay here at the lake.

The boys were fishing from the dock with small hooks and bread. In the past days, they caught 20…30 fish each day. The fish are rather small and the boys let them always go. They have and had lots of fun (Of course I could sneak away for a couple minutes to write into the blog)

Here are some photos

Grandpa watched over them

They caught something every couple minutes

Sometimes the fish would go below the deck and grandpa needs to help

Yesterday we learned how to make “Smores”. “Smores” are a bottom cracker, a piece of chocolate, a grilled marshmellow and a second cracker on top. When you eat one and the gooey marshmellow holds your teeth together and you are trying to say “Some More” – you’ll get a “Smore”

First of all, we had to start a fire to be able to grill marshmellows. Of cource we didn’t use matches but our outdoor fire starters.

Then we had to prepare the ingredients for the “Smores”

To get the fire really started, the boys were blowing into the flames

Rachel was preparing the sticks to grill the marshmellows

Then we all had  smores and I fogot to take photos on how yummy they are.

Instead of another “gone fishing” report, I am going to write a little bit about the plant and animal life we encountered at the lake

First of all – No, we haven’t seen any moose or bear (yet)

Let’s begin with the pitcher plant. The pitcher plant is a meat-eating plant, which has several tubes on its bottom where insects fall in, can’t get out and are digested. The plant itself reminds a little bit of an orchid. If you are very silent, you can hear it munching (just kidding)

Some pictures of our “house-rabbit”

A little toad on the side of the tracks

Squirrels were always looking for food

Also all sorts of fish like a sunfish

And last but not least – “Buck, the singing dear” He knows the tunes to the theme song of “Rawhide”

Of course, we saw a lot more animals like butterflies, fireflies, squirrels, rabbits, etc. However, not all of the were sitting still so I could take a photo.

After our scenic ride with Katahdin air, we grabbed two canoes and went fishing.

Just some impressions from the trip… (btw – it was raining some time)

Mount Katahdin in the clouds

We got a packed lunch in a cooler and enjoyed it on "Painter’s beach"

Two loons were watching our fishing efforts. Every now and then, they would come real close, look at what we are doing and dipping their heads into the lake. As if they wanted to say - "You have to look first, where the fish are…" Also two eagles were watching out efforts

We caught a few white fish, which are not really tasteful and one (1!) brook trout - Delicous.

Some more pictures of the professional fishermen.

Yesterday evening, the boys found a little snake below our cabin…

Don’t worry, I took the image with a 300mm Zoom

Today in the morning we booked a scenic flight with Katahdin Air. Katahdin Air operates a Cessna 206 on floats is the only connection from the wilderness camp to Millinocket. Except you want to hike, of course

Jim flew in this morning to pick us up. Although the weather wasn’t looking too good, we started on the ride. We were not disappointed.

Let me just add some impressions of the flight around Mount Katahdin. Jim explained all the places and lakes and mountains. However, I don’t remember them all.

When we came back, Mike, who has been working here for 4 years, is returning "to the real world and getting a real job" (Just kidding, he is a very nice guy who will be a Latin teacher from now on). He had his things being flown out of the camp. One of his possesions is a canoe which definetely would not fit into one of the luggage lockers of the plane. So - the easy way to do it, is to strap it on the side of the Cessna.

Yesterday evening, we got invited to have a look at Holly’s kitchen. Holly is our host at the Katahdin wilderness camp and serves extremely well prepared meals. We are getting spoiled every day.

The Wilderness Camp has (almost) no electricity, so cooking is with gas or wood. Her oven is a “current” model of the wood-burining type and serves as an oven and as a heater at the same time

The stove has a water deposit on the right side, so even warm water is available all day long in winter time…

Her second major appliance is a gas oven (a little more modern).

Even toast can be prepared on this special toaster for the ovens

Her husband Bryce uses part of the kitchen as his office.

He has his computer at the solar panel outlet. This is the only place in the house with electricity, however only if the sun was out for the day.

Here are some images of the dinner tonight. As a starter we had our “catch of the day” – A single roasted trout (I have to question our fishing skills..) Unfortunately, I forgot to take some images.

The main course was beef stuffed with mushrooms cooked in red wine with herbs (I think) with Squash and Zuccini and Potatoes. As desert, we had an apple cake with whipped cream.

Thank you Holly for all the cooking during the time we are here. It was (and is) wonderful.

Today in the morning, the lake was like a mirror. I shot about 3GB worth of pictures… (approx. 300 pictures  in raw Format)

I am still looking through the photos. This is my current favorite (HDR processed and optimized) (I need a new computer – the HDR processing takes about 20 minutes per photo)

Update to the report from yesterday – Felix wrote his name in stones

The boys and my dad are playing Monopoly on the IPad and I am taking a few minutes to tell you a little bit about our trip.

Yesterday, we left the civilization. One of the last views were a squirrel behind the railroad tracks behind our hotel. We stayed at the Hilton in Freeport (200m from L.L.Bean and the shopping paradises). We had running water, yacuzzi, electric light, TV, Telephone, etc. all of the things, that will not be available in the next week.

Fortunately, we have a SUV to pack all of our stuff

On the way to the Baxter Park, we stopped at some lakes to get a view and a feeling of the lakes in Maine.

Finally, we reached the Avalanche field and packed up to go to the Wilderness Camp at the lake.

We passed some amazing places and it was a nice hike (except the backpack, which felt like 200kg after the first hundred meters)

Finally we reached the lake. I didn’t take any more pictures inbetween because I was just exhausted.

We reached the camp in perfect sunshine

After getting settled in, the boys had to check out the dock and the fish below. The are some Perch, which nibbled their fingers

Dad and I used the time to relax

We checked out the other cabins and found that we are living close to the wildlife…

Some more impressions from the camp

Today we started real early. The boys woke up at shortly after 6am. This is however explainable as we went to bed at around 9pm yesterday evening.

The boys had to checkout the lake right away to see if it is still there…

After breakfast, we took the canoes to go fishing. I didn’t take the camera with me, as I wasn’t too confident in our boating skills and I didn’t want to search for the camera at the bottom of the lake. All my fears were superficial as nothing exciting happend on the boats (except for pretty strong wind, that always drifted us in direction of the shore…)

We went to the Lake Katahdin outlet and we caught some trouts (Felix 2, Max 1, Granddad 3 and I had 1 catch). However, only one was within the length restrictions.

The guys are now real fishing experts and  had to try out their new skills on the beach as well.

Tonight, we had our “catch of the day” for dinner – Just kidding – our catch was the appetizer and Holly made a delicious roasted chicken for dinner.