The first night

While Susan was working the GPS, Kyle, Judy and I scanned the shore, in a line not closer than 20 or 30 feet from each other, but could NOT, for the life of us, find "Red Pine 1". We hollered back and forth to each other, took turns being first in line, but no luck. Just when Susan was reminding us that the GPS says we must have passed the site, Kyle scoots around and sees a little, itty-bitty white sign facing down the lake. Judy says "well that's probably it!" This was only the first of several annoying things we dealt with while on this lake. You see, Upper and Lower Richardson Lake sites, although some being Maine Public Reserve Lands, all are "managed" by South Arm Campground (at the southern tip of Lower Richardson in Andover). And I use the word "managed" lightly.
We were told that the lakesites were fully booked those days (we saw two groups of people...maybe), that there should be some firewood (nope) and privys at each site. Oh yeah, the "outhouses" were there, but obviously had not been maintained in a very long time and were difficult to stomach. We are not fussy, in any sense of the word, and have spent thousands of hours in the woods, but this was just bad. We dealt with it, as we would anything we might come upon. I couldn't help, however, getting annoyed at the campground and how they were collecting money for sites that were not maintained at all. Ha! I guess they figure that if you're a 'wilderness' camper, you won't mind WHAT condition your site's in, eh? Hey! We have standards! LOL Regardless of their influence on our trip, we overcame their shortsightedness, re-engineered the sites we used and made them work for us. On the way to this first site, we saw two bald eagles resting in a raggedy tree close enough to snap some wicked good shots of, lots of loon pairs, several Kingfishers and a few turtles. The clouds closed in, though, just in time for unpacking. It rained steadily until we were finished, of course. The rain stopped and the clouds lifted just enough to get a decent sunset before nightfall. All of us are pretty self-sufficient. While it rained, we unpacked the boats, set up a quick tarp, pooled our gear undercover and set up our tents, or in my case, my jungle hammock . The rain part was not fun, because we knew we'd have to dig into our clean, dry clothes too soon and finding a dry place to sit was a problem. We covered the picnic table seats and started our dinner. Susan brought her Jetboil and we each brought our own food. Almost everything we carried was dried and just needed water, or was packaged. We researched freezer bag cooking, but mine was not very appetizing - in fact, never again. Blechh. I prefer the tuna and chicken in pouches, flour tortillas, ramen soup and my flavored coffee. I did, however, miss my daily egg and toast and a good hamburger or hotdog, but we are working on making that happen in the future. We found it pretty easy to pack extra light, but have plenty to eat. My favorite staples are my homemade trail mix (nuts, oats, fruit, chocolate - you know), hot ramen and a cup of tea or cocoa. Each of us had something a little different and we share well with others. As always, the four of us enjoyed good conversation and lots of belly laughs. I think Kyle gets a little wierd-ed out when the three of us girls start laughing - we progressively make less sound, we clap and bang on the table too much and the tears just start a-runnin'. I was good to take a moment and be thankful, too. I had my family with me, in this wonderful setting, and we were happy. Just as the last light of the day faded away, the loons began their calls. If you have never heard a loon, follow this link for a wide range of calls. This went on all night and I loved it. We hung the bearbag over a branch above the water and hunkered down for the night. I climbed into my hammock, comforted by the sounds of the loon calls echoing over the lake.