Umbagog Lakeside Camping in August

We are going to site R12. Food, wood. Okay, time to set up home sweet home. All right, let's check out the campsite. This is remote 12. Cool and shady in here. Let's see, we have a picnic table. Zero neighbors. And from the tent platform you can see the lake. Just beautiful. I heard the first loon. Maybe I should be getting my camera. There he is, there he is. White head, white tail. Two of them. So that might be his juvenile. It's fledgling season you see. Drive in here and get all set up. And then the boat guy brought me around here. And here's my site right there. So I'm just gonna look around this area right here. But it's all so much bigger up there. I've never gone that way. My food is wrapped up in a cooler and a bag that's in another bag that's in an odor proof bag. But it's just sitting there on the picnic table. There are no bear warnings here. There are no bear boxes. I'm sure you shouldn't leave food out. But there's nowhere else to put it. I don't want to put it in my tent. Just wrapped it up the best I can. I just heard a loon again. And then they stop. They just do one. Oh, he's coming. I'm now coming upon a beaver lodge. I read there are up to 200 varieties of birds that use this lake. I've seen five so far. Two kinds of ducks. That bird which might have been a kestrel. The bald eagle. Two kinds of ducks. The kettle and loon. Zucchini, pinto beans, bell pepper, onion, tomato, kale, green salsa, chips, a tortilla, some spices, and a sour cream. So basically I made a veggie skillet and then I added pinto beans. The pinto beans taste very good because they were already flavored because I bought them at the taco shop. And I bought their tortilla. And I bought their amazing salsa. And their chips. And I just brought some of these wonderful ingredients up here to cook along with my vegetables for a delicious meal. All I can hear is the sound of the fire. Sometimes the loons. I heard an owl. And I can hear fish jumping. And I thought I would be able to see a lot of fires but I can only see a couple way over there. It's six in the morning. I hear the bald eagle. I think I see a strange thing. Like a water spout? I guess if you have to do physical rehab, this is a pretty nice place to do it. I was looking at the map and I'm over here at 12. And they told me the eagle's nest was on this island here. And this is the border. So if I just kayak over to here, I'll be in Maine. I think I'll kayak to Maine today. I see a loon straight ahead. An eagle. An eagle is coming. An eagle. Loons are absolutely amazing birds. They have dense bones that allows them to dive in the water. This lake is about 15 feet deep. And there's fish. They eat. And they mate. And they have their babies earlier in the summer. Oh. Meadowlack Island is quite a ways. I don't think I'm going to make it. No, I can't make it to Maine. I might rather just go back to my campsite and have a little swim and lunch. Well, here's one of the lake islands, I think. Shall I disembark? There's my tree. I made it back. It's lunchtime. Starting off with my carrot and I'm going to make a veggie sandwich. This is my second night. I'm pretty tired. I'm going to use up the vegetable ingredients I have and make sort of a soup. Onion, green pepper, zucchini. This is miso. This is pumpkin. Two kinds of kale. He soared by so fast. And he went like towards his house. And I thought, ah, it's all over. But I just got the camera anyway. And then he did a circle. Came up. And then he went down in the water. And I don't know if he got a fish or not. He tried to get a fish. And then now he's landed in a tree over there. I think that might be a beaver. Going back to the beaver house right around the corner from me. I just came out to take a picture of the stars. And I looked up at the sky and I believe I see Starlink bats. Those satellites that travel all in a row. I haven't even adjusted the camera yet. You're not supposed to be in there, little mousey. Can you get out of there? Go on, get out of there. Anyway, I'm exhausted and I'm going to sleep. Good night. Okay, the little yeti is gonna have to go in the back. This is one of my favorite camping places. I hope to return again soon. Good, here we go. They could have campsites all over the place, but they don't. It's really spread out. It's quiet and natural and amazing. You know how they say maybe we go camping because it makes us feel our roots as humans. To have a fire and to make your camp, to be out in nature. Well, I feel so connected somehow when I'm doing this. It's kind of like backpacking. Like I have all my stuff here in this kayak and I'm just going along. I see the base camp on the horizon. Now let me think, where's my car key?