A Week in Potato Country

A week ago Dale and I returned from Aroostook County, near Fort Kent, a few miles from the Canadian border, to spend a week surveying northern Maine lakes for invasive plants (good news, NONE were found). This is part of the Lake Stewards of Maine's Northern Maine Initiative, to bring a Travel Team to lakes that don't have a plant surveying team of their own. This area is potato growing country, and runoff from agricultural lands has impacted water quality locally. Our hosts on Cross Lake have been working with local farmers and organizations to try and improve the situation and it seems to be paying off - their visibility readings are much improved this year (let's hope it stays that way).

We stayed in cabins with kitchens, hot water showers and queen beds! Luxury.

View of river from our cabin

The lakes were so different in character from our Lake Arrowhead, being much more open with wide expanses of water, so that we were badly impacted by winds whilst kayaking. There was much more development of camps right at the water's edge, close to each other, with barely any trees overhanging the shoreline for the most part. 

Photo: D. Schultz

Though we didn't have much rain to contend with, the cloud cover was pretty thick most days.

This was one of the more heavily vegetated shoreline areas

We teamed up in twos and threes to survey, switching team members every now and again. Dale and I opted for snorkel surveying one morning, but I found it really chilly, and by afternoon I was back in my kayak. Many areas we surveyed were bare of aquatic plants, which made surveying boring, but it helped speed up the rate at which we could cover ground (or should I say water?)

Photo: K. St Peter

Photo: K. St Peter

  

We had many great meals and evenings together at our hosts' home

Photo: K. St Peter