[Journal for Fieldtrip 12A of the QMIII Project, Northern Maine, May 19-25, 2012] During this trip, Vadim Levin and I (Bill Menke) installed seismometers in northern Maine.

May 19, 2012. We drove up to Harpswell, Maine and stayed the night at the Abbott Cottage.

May 20, 2012. We spent the day in the Harpswell area. After a shopping trip to Brunswick, we sat out on the lawn in front of the cottage and tested the solar power system, to ensure that the panels were charging the batteries properly.

May 21, 2012. After a meeting with Bob Marveny and Will Harris at the offices of the Maine Geological Survey in Augusta, we drove up to the town of Mount Chase. We stopped at an overlook along Interstate 95 near Medway, which has a fantastic view of Salmon Stream Lake and, beyond it, Mt Katahdin. The forest around the lake is fully leafed out, though still with the brighter greens of spring. Mt. Katahdin still has a little snow at the higher elevations. We decided to camp at Shin Pond Village, a resort in Mt. Chase Maine run by Terry and Craig Hill. We had lunch at tent site T2. We walked to the southern end of the very pretty Upper Shin Pond, at a point where the outlet stream emerges. We also took a side trail to a footbridge over the outlet stream, about a half mile further downstream. We then drove west on Grand Lake Rd towards the Hay Lake Ranger Station. We stopped to admire Seboeis Brook, and walked around its banks, passing a hydrographic station and a boat launch. We overshot the ranger station, and found ourselves at Matagamon Wilderness Camp, located on the East Branch of the Penobscot River a few miles west of the ranger station. Backtracking, we found the ranger station on the north side of the road, in a large clearing that also hosted a large barn and a wood shed. We walked around the property, and found two places where rock ledges made of a black slate were exposed. We also walked down the access road to the Hay Lake boat launch, and stood for a while on the lakeshore. The black flies were very bad, and we covered up best we could, including wearing netting over our heads. Even so, we received many bites! We then returned to Shin Pond Village. After a hike to view Lower Shin Pond, we set up at Tent Site T9, which has the highest elevation and – hopefully – the fewest bugs. We cooked a dinner of steak and hash brown potatoes on a Coleman stove before turning in. I used my Sierra Designs Zolo tent.

May 22, 2012. In the morning we ate a breakfast of scrabbled egg sandwiches. We drove to Hay Lake and assembled a solar panel stand out of two-by-threes. We then drove north, through the town of Ashland, and visited the Six Mile Checkpoint, on Realty Rd. This is one of the facilities run by Maine North Woods, an NPO that provides public access to the privately-owned timberlands of northern Maine. We walked around the grounds of the station, and chatted with Rita, the attendant, looking for possible seismometer sites. However, the noise of the timber trucks, which is very substantial, probably precludes our using the checkpoints. We then drove to the Forest Service district office in Island Falls, were we spoke with Sgt. Joe Mints. He gave us permission to install a seismometer at the Hay Lake ranger station. We then drove to Hay Lake where we laid the concrete for the seismometer pier, finding a slot between two rock ledges where we could dig a trench deep enough for the plastic bin that housed the recorded. Back as Shin Pond Village, we had a dinner of macaroni and cheese. The stars were very bright during the night.

May 23, 2012. We arose early and after a light breakfast of muffins and coffee headed up to Ashland for a meeting with Al Cowperthwaite, the Director of North Maine Woods. He advised us to visit John Martin at Moose Point Camp on Fish River Lake. We headed first to Ashland, stopping for a few minutes to admire the Aroostook River near the Highway 11 Bridge. We then headed north to the town of Portage, stopping for a few minutes at a park with a nice pavilion along the shore of Portage Lake. We then took Fish Lake Rd west to the Fish River Checkpoint, were we signed in, and then continued west to Moose Point Camps. It is a few miles north of the main timber road, on the east side of Fish River Lake. This camp consists of a half dozen or so rustic log cabins spread along a short section of the very beautiful lake shore. We spent an hour walking around the area, finding some ledges of black slate just off the access road near the camp entrance. We met with Mr. Martin, who advised us to check out ledges on the several islands in the lake and who lent us a canoe for that purpose. They were about a mile out into the lake, and we had to paddle strenuously against a headwind to reach them. The smaller seemed to be composed mainly of boulders. The larger has metaconglomerate rock ledge of a good quality, but in the form of a hogback with the overhanging side facing south. We were unable to find a site that could be used without substantially leveling it out with concrete, and the difficulty of transporting heavy loads by canoe discouraged us from using the site. We opted for the site along the access road instead. We then returned to Shin Pond Village, were we ate a dinner or spaghetti and marinara sauce.

May 24, 2012. We left Shin Pond Village early on the morning, and after buying building supplies in Ashland, we returned to Moose River Camp. We sighted a moose, dark brown in color and with a partially grown velvety rack, along the side of Route 11, and also a large brown owl on the access road to Moose Point Camp. We spent the day building a very small shed (perhaps four feet wide and three feet high), mounted directly on a flat section of rock ledge, which had concrete block walls and a plywood roof. We were invited to lunch by the Moose Point Camp cook and his wife, who served us delicious homemade chicken stew. We watched hummingbirds dart around a feeder outside a large picture window as we ate. The interior of the lodge is exceptionally well-decorated, in a rustic fashion, with lacquered wood furniture, pictures of wildlife and a moose head. We finished the installation just before 5PM. We ate chicken sandwiches, onion rings and fried at the restaurant at Shin Pond Village. The cook was kind enough to keep the otherwise empty restaurant open for us while we ate.

May 25, 2012. We returned once more to Hay Lake. The seismometer enclosure was already finished; we spent a couple of hours installing the electronics. While we were there, the ranger Will Barnum, dropped by. We showed him the gear and made a little recording of us stomping on the ground. The black flies were particularly bad. After finishing up, we walked down to Hay Lake, and watched anglers fishing in a boat and turkey vultures flying overhead. We then drove straight back to New York.