Noted bear-hunting guide Wayne Bosowicz of Sebec will be on hand for the grand opening of the Cabela's store in Scarborough this weekend.

Bosowicz, who has been guiding at Foggy Mountain Guide Serivce for more than 30 years, will be on hand from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday for people interested in meeting him and talking about bear hunting.

Bosowicz is part of a number of nationally-recognized outdoorsmen who will be at the new Cabela's all weekend long.

Staff photo/TRAVIS BARRETT

If you're an outdoors writer or a Maine guide, the response is the same.

"Wow, you've got a great job!"

But to see a group of 20 aspiring guides, sitting in a lecture hall for 4 days as they study for taking the state's licensing exam for guides, you don't get that feeling at all. Instead, the very palpable thickness hovering in the air carries other feelings -- anxiety, panic, frustration.

Carroll Ware was once on the state's board of examiners, and he and his wife now run a class several times a year. This week, they're at the Skowhegan Community Center -- and the ground they cover is mind-baffling.

It's about a whole lot more than knowing where the best hunting spots are or about the best fishing techniques.

It's about finding lost people. Using a compass without a hint of self-doubt. Knowing where "river left" is.

Yep, being a guide is about a whole heck of a lot more than putting out bait under bear stands. Don't think so?

Find out in today's Kennebec Journal or Morning Sentinel.

The style police were apparently out in full force on Saturday.

Got a call at the office about our outdoors feature that day, the one entitled "Don't Panic."

Apparently, we should have sugar-coated the whole being lost in the woods and trying to survive thing. The anonymous caller wanted to "teach" me that the public would "learn more" if I had written that in a more "positive manner." I was told that I should have used "stay calm" instead of "don't panic."

Truth is, it was Joe Tyan, the focal voice of the story, who used the words "don't panic." I'm not willing to change around the words of someone passing on his knowledge -- and thus risking changing the tone of his warning -- to make it sound "nicer."

I just won't do it. In my opinion, it would be incredibly unethical.

And when we're talking about matters of life and death, as we are when it comes to wilderness survival, I'm not taking that chance.

-- TB

WILTON -- As they say in Grand Lake Stream, he's just living the dream.
There was no life-altering moment, no soul-searching discovery that opened it all up as easily as the pages in a well-worn book, telling Paul Laney that he would make his living as a Maine guide. But at 32 years old, Laney finds himself following his calling and doing just that.

For bobcat, bear or lake trout, the Gardiner native is your man, and as the show coordinator for the Maine Professional Guides Association, he's putting his best foot forward this weekend at the 4th annual Pine Tree State Sportsman and Gun Show. The show, featuring dozens upon dozens of exhibits and seminars, runs through Sunday.

"I grew up hunting and fishing with my father, as soon as I was old enough to do it," Laney said. "At some point I just decided that I wanted to make a living doing it. ... I'm pretty happy everyday I'm able to go out and do it and able to make a living at it.

"Everything I've ever done, I've just put my mind to it and I've done it. That's the way my mentality is -- I just go out and do things right."

Read the complete story in today's Kennebec Journal or Morning Sentinel.