I am going to jump off my steady stream of "what’s new" articles and treat you today to one of my adventures. I have been on many trips, from fishing the waters around the Galapagos Islands, 600 miles into the Pacific off the west coast of Ecuador, to moose hunting in Newfoundland, one and a half Time Zones further northeast. I will preface these stories by saying that I have never received anything from any outfitters, so my opinions are unbiased. I hope you enjoy reading this first one, my bear hunting trip to northern Maine.
Four years ago, I met Edgar Lugdon, the owner of Lugdon Lodge in Eagle Lake, Maine at the Northeast Sportsman's Show in Syracuse. A delightful man to chat with, he gave me all his time and attention. I was working for the Adirondack-Catskill Chapter of Safari Club International (ACSCI) trying to get some vendors interested in attending the annual banquet and possibly donating a trip to help the cause. Ed was very interested in helping out ACSCI and did in fact donate a six-day bear hunt.
Anyhow, Ed has donated year after year and finally I could not resist bidding. After talking with other successful hunters, all had great things to say about the camp, the amount of game, the meals, accommodations and guides. So, after a few emails and phone calls to iron out the details, I was set to go.
Ed told me that they had a good population of bear, but they are rather on the small side, as in Maine they spend half the year in hibernation. A good-sized bear would run 300 pounds, but speaking with biologists and folks at the bear check station, average adult Maine bears run 140-175 pounds. At Lugdon Lodge, they hunt only the first three weeks of the four-week fall bear season. The last week off allows the woods to calm down a bit and the guides to prepare for the opening week of moose season.
With the first week filled to capacity, I opted for the second. The hunt weeks start on Monday and ends on Saturday, with arrival and departure on Sundays. This allows for six full days of hunting.
With my car packed I hit the road for the 14-hour trip north at 3 a.m.. By sun-up, I was half way across Massachusetts and my breakfast stop would be a quick coffee and Egg McMuffin via the drive-thru at Micky D's in Worcester. My next stop would be the State Liquor Store just south of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Right on Interstate 95, the big draw is there are no taxes on liquor in New Hampshire. So, most libations are about 40 percent less than you would find anywhere else. I grabbed a bottle to share over the evenings’ story telling in camp, and a few to stock up the liquor cabinet at home, and I was quickly back on the road again.
It is a quick ride through New Hampshire and I was in Maine in short order. I had to get my bear license, and I also needed a headnet to keep the pesky mosquitoes and black flies off me while I would be in the tree stand. So, I took off the Interstate and ran up U.S. 1 to Kittery. Of course if you go to Maine, two "must-see" stores for any outdoorsperson are Kittery Trading Post. and L.L. Bean. I think between the two there is not an outdoor product you could think of that they don't have. Except maybe a headnet! Just my luck, both stores were out of them. Oh well, I knew from past bear hunts that just about everything that flies in Maine bites you or stings you, so my hopes were that they would have something in a general store near camp. Before leaving the town of Kittery, I gassed up the car and hit Bob's Clam Hut for a delicious lunch of fried clams, oysters, shrimp, and fish. This would fill me up for the long drive north, as Kittery was only halfway to my destination.
Five hours north and I finally got off I-95 and jumped on U.S. 11 for the rest of the way to Eagle Lake. A very nice, scenic ride through the Maine woodlands, Route 11 takes you all the way to the Canadian border. You guessed it, Eagle Lake is right near the Canadian border, and Lugdon Lodge is located on the eastern shore of Eagle Lake. I arrived just as dinner was being served. Ed and Marion welcomed me, introduced me to all the hunters in camp (there were 11 of us) and the cook staff, and promptly sat me down for a delicious home-cooked meal. Afterwards, Ed showed me to my room. My bunkhouse was a converted mobile home that five of us shared. It was very comfortable and I had a bedroom all to myself.
Interestingly enough and without any prior planning, my fellow ACSCI member from Binghamton, Bill Rought, his son and a buddy from Pennsylvania were in camp that week to hunt bear also. Bill is an incredible wood carver, seasoned bear hunter, and unbeknownst to me, a gold panner. During the week, Bill would head out during slack time and pan for gold in a local stream. I was astonished to see his take, nearly an ounce of gold from a nearby brook. But Bill was not here just to pan gold, a birthday gift to his son was this bear hunt. Bill would also visit the elementary school and show kids his carving skills while he was there.
So, typical days in bear camp are what you make it. Some guys just relax after breakfast, paging through outdoor magazines or reading a book. Some go fishing or sightseeing, taking in the local charm. One panned for gold and one searched for a headnet! Lunch is HUGE, it is the biggest meal of the day. You fill up on more homemade grub since you might be in the stand for over eight hours. At Lugdon's, the trucks head out to drop hunters off on stand at about 1 p.m. on the first day, since every hunter would have to be showed into his stand. On the second and subsequent days, the truck would leave a little later. The ride to the stand could be as near as 10 minutes away or as far as two hours. My stand was closer to the latter, so I knew it would be a long time getting picked up at night, even longer if someone who got dropped off before me was able to tag a bear.
The two ways to hunt bear in Maine are over bait and with hounds. Ed hunts over bait of molasses, old bakery goods, and other assorted sweets that bears like. The stand I was in bordered a brook, deep in a privately owned forest plantation. Time went by slowly as I watched canadian jays and chipmunks scurry about the bait taking turns grabbing something. The first night was quiet and it turned dark at about 8:30. It wasn't until nearly 10 p.m. that I heard the truck rumbling down the road and could see the headlights. A lot goes through your mind sitting in the middle of nowhere in pitch blackness for an hour and a half, let me tell you. They were late getting to me because two hunters were successful in getting their bears.
Back at camp at nearly midnight, a small meal of soup and sandwich was served while Ed and the other guides tended to the bears. The following morning the camp was abuzz with activity as the bears would have to be taken to the check-in station to be weighed, aged, and tagged for transportation home. This information helps the Game Department manage the bear population, which they do very well. Once brought back, the bears were skinned by a taxidermist and then the meat was processed by a butcher. This was the first outfit that I ever seen that had these services right in camp.
The second night out, Ed put me in a different tree stand. I sat quietly amongst the boughs of a fir tree. All of the sudden, in the corner of my eye, was a black blur. It became clearer as it moved through the underbrush. Here came a bear. I watched as he tossed logs that hid the sweets beneath and decided that he was good enough for me to take. I waited to make sure this bear did not have cubs trailing behind, and when I was sure, my Marlin 336 in .45-70 did the trick with one shot through the lungs. The bear went about 25 yards and made the distinctive death bawl. I had my bear.
Interestingly, where I was deep in the Maine woods, I had cell phone coverage due to the close proximity to cell towers stationed on the Canadian side of the border. So I text messaged Ed, and within an hour he was in to help me get the bear out of the woods. Two other hunters tagged bear that night, including Bill Rought's son who took his first bear out of the same treestand that his dad did on his first trip to Lugdon's. We had a total of five bears for 11 hunters in two days. Now it was my turn to do the bear check-in drill.
I stayed in camp two more days and helped on two occasions track wounded bear. Not much is more nerve-racking than looking for a wounded bear in the dark in woods you're unfamiliar with. But it was exciting, and I surely did not want to see a bear lost. We found the bear the next morning. The drives out and back with hunters also proved interesting, seeing moose, lynx, deer, and other critters along the way.
I called Ed from home on Sunday to see how the rest of the hunters fared. He told me two had passed up small bears and one fellow missed. So all in all, eight bears were harvested by 11 hunters. The week prior, 11 bears were harvested by 17 hunters. This was undeniably the best bear camp I have ever been in, even without a headnet.
To contact Ed and Marion: Summer phone 207-444-4557 or email emlugdon@fairpoint.net

For questions or comments, contact Franke at george_franke@yahoo.com.