NEWBURGH, Maine — Carson Lord began hunting last year, and it didn’t take long for him to figure out that sometimes luck just isn’t on your side.
“I shot a deer [last fall],” his mother, Heather Lord, said. “But he wasn’t with me. He was with my husband at that moment.”
On Youth Turkey Day, held April 30, 11-year-old Carson again teamed up with his dad, Greg Lord, as well as family friend Chris Labonte, who is a registered Maine guide. And the result was quite stunning: Carson finished the day with not one wild turkey to his credit but two.
And he bagged both birds with just one shot.
How? We have to start at the beginning.
Labonte, who owns Tri-County Outfitters in Winterport, had issued an invitation to Cason and his dad, and after an early wakeup call, the Lords joined him in Hampden at 4 a.m. It didn’t take long before the woods came alive.
“At about 4:30, [turkeys] started to gobble,” Greg Lord said. “And they gobbled, and they’re a-clucking, and they’re a-purring, and they’re a-gobbling. There was a whole bunch of racket.”
About 45 minutes later, the first turkey showed up. And a second. And a lot more than that. And the males were all strutting around, trying to attract the attention of the females.
“[Carson] had never seen one up close, big and puffy,” Greg Lord said.
As a group of eight or nine turkeys approached their ground blind, the Lords thought they might be in luck. Then the birds detoured, never giving Carson a shot, and visited with a group of decoys Labonte had set up behind them.
The decoys were viewed as rivals and were not treated kindly.
“Chris kicks himself now for not having his camera with him,” Greg Lord said. “[The large tom] was not happy. He just beat the tar out of the decoy. And finally, about 10 minutes after that, he started pushing his flock back up the hill.”
And Carson was ready.
After the tom got within shooting distance, Greg Lord told Carson to take aim at the bird’s head and fire when ready. At the last moment, a jake, or younger male bird, stepped behind the tom.
“After I pulled the trigger, I saw that there were two birds on the ground,” Carson said. “I was surprised that I got two of them at once.”
Shooting two male birds is perfectly legal. Maine hunters are allowed to harvest two bearded, typically male, birds during the spring season, which stretches through the month of May. Each year several hunters achieve this feat, but in most cases only one turkey is taken with a single shot.
“He was excited,” Greg Lord said. “He’s been bird hunting with us and missed a couple of partridge last year, and he’s been deer hunting and hasn’t seen anything.”
Carson said that even though he’s been hunting for just two years, he’s already got a favorite season. He said listening to the turkeys answer the calls of Labonte added an element of excitement.
“I like the turkey hunting a heck of a lot more than the deer hunting,” Carson said. “Deer hunting, you don’t know [if the deer are around]. And turkey hunting, you know.”
Carson also is active in scouting and is quite an outdoor enthusiast. In fact, he may be the most avid fifth-grade hiker you’ve ever met.
Heather Lord loves to hike, you see. And a few years ago, she decided that her other son — Carson’s younger brother, Rogan, is 7 — was ready to take up the sport.
And she didn’t mess around when she chose a destination.
“My mom said she wanted to take me on a hike,” Carson said. “I said, ‘Well, where?’ And she said, ‘Mount Katahdin.’”
Carson was a little surprised at the time.
“I’m like, ‘The tallest mountain in Maine? I thought you had to be 6?’” he said. “She said, ‘Well, it’s only like a half-month difference. It’ll be OK.”
And it was.
On that first trip, at 5-going-on-6, the two hiked to Pamola Peak via the Roaring Brook and Dudley trails.
“He did a great job,” Heather Lord said.
A year later, at 6, he climbed Abol Trail to Baxter peak. At 7, they hiked Katahdin by using more trails he hadn’t yet seen. And when he was 9, Carson tackled Knife Edge, an expert route known for its narrow route and sheer dropoffs on either side.
“I didn’t like Knife Edge very much,” Carson says now. “It’s a straight drop, and once my mom told me people had died [there], I was like, ‘Well, that helps!’”
Now, Heather Lord says, Carson has hiked every possible marked route up and down Katahdin. She hopes he’ll be able to add a newly routed Abol Trail to that list as soon as it opens.
And Rogan? He already joined in on the fun. Both brothers climbed Katahdin with their mother last summer and are looking forward to returning.
