Northern Maine Woods

Lisa Hebert

ENG 121: Composition 1

Instructor Jaclyn Mallan-King

January 14, 2012

The Northern Maine Woods

Imagine yourself encompassed with one of God’s greatest creations; a place where you can alleviate the stress compiled from everyday events and indulge in the pungent smell of decaying leaves, pine boughs and the crisp fall air; quietly sitting on log of a blown over tree and listening to the rhythm of your heart through the chattering of squirrels and chirping of the birds overhead. Chills running throughout your body from watching your breath create a fog in the crisp fall air and simultaneously engorging the warmth of the early morning sun. With all these feelings and emotions rolled into one, my sentimentality of the outdoors has grown ever so much throughout the years.

My love and devotion to the outdoors has been a part of me since I was a little girl. For a long as I can remember, my father would arrive from a long, stressful work week and jump right into packing a two day supply of meals, snacks and drinks along with our hunting supplies. As soon as he was finished packing the cooler and hunting supplies into the pickup, he would bundle me up with my snowsuit, mittens, bonnet and boots, harness my seatbelt and head for the northern Maine woods. The drive to our sentimental location took almost three hours, but I knew before long, we would be in a state of relaxation and tranquility. Whatever stresses my father and I had just seemed to melt away from the moment we departed from our home.

The evening is growing late and we have just arrived to our log cabin. Dad scrambles inside to start a fire in the wood stove. A short while later we unpacked the pickup and the heat begins to ascend and fill the cabin. As we sit with a couple mugs of hot chocolate and pleasantly cuddled with our warm blankets, we begin to fall asleep in the midst of the crackling wood fire stoking before us. We are exhausted but rest assured that tomorrow will bring an abundance of more relaxations and profound emotions as we journey in the great outdoors for a successful day of hunting.

It is 5:00 a.m. and my father shakes me awake by saying, “Wake up sunshine!” As I stumble to the restroom to prepare myself for a long, chilly day, I smell the rich maple bacon and fluffy scrambled eggs cooking on the stove. As soon as my father and I finished eating our hearty breakfast, it was now 6:00 a.m. and the sun was beginning to warm the brisk morning air. We hopped in our pickup and headed for our special spot. Even though the possibility of not having a successful day of hunting was lingering, just the fact of being in a quiet, desolate place, where I could just sit back and think of anything I wanted to think about and relax, meant more to me than actually hunting.

As we first enter the woods, my father and I spot a massive Northern Maine moose. He stood there with his dark brown fur, enormous antlers and big snout just staring at us, creating a fog with his breath in the frigid morning air. Shortly after spotting him, he decided to trot a little further in the woods and we continued our journey through the beautiful forest. With the quietness of the air, the sound of crisp leaves falling, the birds chirping and squirrels chattering, it felt as though I was in a fantasy paradise. My father found us a blown down tree to sit on and at the same time provided us cover for the deer we were out to hunt. Hours went by, the morning sun shining