My extensive outdoor adventures bucket list contains more than a few objectives that some of my more critical friends have suggested to me are odd.

Maybe … but all the ones I’ve knocked off so far have brought great joy and satisfaction, not to mention hours of sheer pleasure out in the Maine countryside.

Ever since I paddled an old aluminum Grumman around Long Pond (aka Beaver Mountain Lake) just south of Rangeley on Route 2 where I spent a few delightful summers in a Vermont log camp I owned on the west shore, I’ve been searching for, and canoeing or kayaking on, as many sponds or lakes named Long as I can find, with the objective of doing so on every single accessible one in Maine.

And here, kind reader, you can help by letting me know about the ones I’ve missed. As I’m sure there are probably many.

So far I’ve crossed off Long Lake on Mt. Desert Island, Long Lake in Naples, Dyer Long Pond in Jefferson, Long Pond in the Moose River between Jackman and Rockwood, and Long Lake south of St. Agatha way up in Aroostook. This summer I’ve already planned a trip to Long Pond east of Lincoln, and the one up in the 100-Mile Wilderness, but my list, at the moment, stops there. So please help me!

This past week I spent a delightful few hours one day doing a 7.5-mile circumnavigation of Long Pond that extends from Coopers Mills, south to north, to Somerville, between Routes 17 and 105 east of Windsor.

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There’s a state-maintained launch site with plenty of parking just a mile north of Route 17 on the Somerville Road. Keep your eye out for Barton Road on your left.

You’ll slip your craft in at a point slightly below where the lake narrows and becomes, again, the Sheepscot River as it wends its way down to Wiscasset.

The pond also has the distinction of not only being in two towns but also in two counties; the Kennebec/Lincoln boundary slices through the west side.

This particular Long Pond, once known locally as Patricktown Pond, has a surface of about 500 acres and is only 16 feet deep at its deepest point. Although it’s shallow and warm, I’m told the water stays crystal-clear and I spotted only a few areas where motor boaters need to exercise extreme caution.

To say the pond is a popular fishing spot, not only for the owners of camps and a few year-round homes that dot a portion of the shoreline, but for visitors would be, it seems to me, an understatement. I say that because on this particular mid-May day there were kayakers and motor boaters not only trying their luck but having some real success. And the anglers spoke eloquently of their affection for this particular body of water. Typical of such a pond, bass (large- and small-mouth), perch and chain pickerel prevail.

Just after launching I encountered Rick Conrad from Carlisle, Massachusetts, who owns a farm (to which he plans to retire) in Whitefield, fishing with his visiting vacationing brother, Rob, from Ohio. They told me it’s an annual tradition, and they spend hours exploring and snagging fish on many of the surrounding lakes and ponds.

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Another party, farther up the lake, proudly showed me a freshly caught 13-inch bass, destined for the frying pan later in the day.

I was enjoying the scenery and relative solitude of this pretty little pond so much that I didn’t even uncase the rod. Next time.

If you should plan a trip, you’ll be close enough to Windsor that you really should make at stop at Hussey’s General Store right on Route 32. And if you have been there before, you’ll undoubtedly want to swing in again.

Should you need groceries, hardware, furniture, appliances, used books or tools, you’ll find plenty of all those things. Need a wedding dress? A shotgun? And a license to hunt with it? Some gas or diesel or kerosene? Feed or grain? And, of course, cold beer.

The store’s a classic, and you can even pick up a sandwich to snack on while you’re enjoying a day on one of Maine’s many Long Ponds.

John Christie is an author and year-round Maine explorer. He and his son Josh write in Outdoors about places to enjoy the beauty that only Maine has to offer. He can be contacted at:

jchristie@fairpoint.net


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