You filed your application. You crossed your fingers. You’re carrying your lucky rabbit foot. And tonight, you’ll find out if this is the year you’re finally selected to head into the woods as a permit-carrying Maine moose hunter later this year.
This year’s drawing — the 29th overall and the 11th since the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife took its lottery on the road — will take place at the University of Maine at Fort Kent’s Sports Center.
And if past experience is any indication, hundreds of eager prospective moose hunters will show up to find out if this is their lucky year.
A total of 3,015 permits will be awarded, and about 57,000 people applied for those permits, according to the DIF&W.
The department says more than 40 exhibitors have signed up to provide food, children’s activities and other diversions for attendees. The permit lottery is being held in the St. John Valley for the first time. It was previously held in Aroostook County, however, as Presque Isle hosted the event in 2004.
Millinocket, Boothbay Harbor, Old Town, Bucksport, Rumford, Phippsburg and Kittery have also served as hosts of the lottery. Scarborough has filled that role twice.
Community organizers will open the doors of the sports center at 2 p.m., four full hours before the names are read aloud at 6 p.m.
Having spent a fair amount of time in the St. John Valley and Fort Kent, I can assure you of one thing: The event will be memorable.
Fort Kent’s well-documented hospitality will be on display, and town residents are always eager to successfully stage a big event.
And while the annual moose lottery might not be as high-profile as a World Cup biathlon event, to the prospective hunters who’ve been waiting since 1980 for their names to be drawn, it is a big deal.
I’ll be there to gather a few stories, and hope to get to town early enough to toss a few flies toward St. John River muskies.
On Friday, I’ll share a few of those tales with you.
I’ll understand, of course, if you find it necessary to begin reading that day’s paper in the middle of the sports section, where all 3,015 names will be printed.
And if you can’t wait until morning, the DIF&W will have the full results on its Web site (www.mefishwildlife.com) shortly after the names are plucked from the computer hopper this evening.
Good luck!
‘Going Outdoors’ on the Web
For more than four years, the BDN and ABC-7 have cooperated on an outdoors segment we call “Going Outdoors.”
The segment runs on the regular 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts each Monday on that channel, and at 10 p.m. on FOX-22.
ABC-7’s chief videographer Dave Simpson and I have worked together since the project’s inception, and our goal has always been to inform or entertain viewers.
This week I’m happy to announce that “Going Outdoors” is now available on the BDN Web site.
Well … some of the episodes are.
Simpson and I have gathered up nearly 50 offbeat segments that qualify as “evergreens,” and may be of interest even though they were filmed a year (or four) ago.
The first batch of those segments is available at www.bangordailynews.com. Just go to the Outdoors link near the top of the page and click the “John Holyoke Going Outdoors” pull-down option.
The segments are short — about 2½ minutes long, on average — and the topics are varied. You can watch me try to learn how to snowboard, or go hunting for the perfect Christmas tree. In one episode I join others as they jump off a rock into cool water, and in another I sit in a tree, eating doughnuts, waiting for a bear to show up.
Some of those episodes are already loaded and ready to view, while others will be added to our video library over time.
If you haven’t seen “Going Outdoors” yet, I hope you take a moment to check the new link out.
PCCA event on Saturday
If you’re looking for a good way to tire out the kids (and teach them a bit about the outdoors), you may want to head over to the Penobscot County Conservation Association clubhouse in Brewer on Saturday morning.
The club will host its first Outdoor Family Fun Day, and a variety of outdoor activities are planned.
Kids can learn how to cast or tie flies, find out what’s in pond water, paddle a 28-foot canoe, and learn how to geocache.
And that’s just a short list of the activities on tap.
The fun starts at 10 a.m., with a lunch break from noon until 1. Then the activities will continue until 4 p.m., when a barbecue dinner will be available.
The fun’s free. The food will cost you a few bucks.
And you’re guaranteed to have a great time with your kids.
The PCCA clubhouse is located on North Main Street (Route 9) not far from the North Brewer Shopping Center.
990-8214
