The Council Room

[DavidAyars]

Well, yeah, and Long Lake in Maine certainly has both loons and motorboats, so it's probably my misunderstanding of loons' nesting habits. They're probably all over Winnipesaukee now. The birds have come back and spread their range in the last 20-40 years, so I can believe they could be all over Winter Harbor now and may have been there in a more limited way in the 1960s and 1970s. Dave B or Bob K will let us know.
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Camper: J-8 1965 (Kevin Ryan), J-8 1966 (Mike Freeland), S-6 1967 (Russ Hatch), S-3 1968 (Jeremy Cripps), and JA-2 1969 (Dan Mannis).
JC: J-2 1970 (Bill Bettison) and J-3 1971 (Gene Comella). Councilor 1972, J-5 1973, and JA-1 1974 & 1975

[Jim Culleton]

Great follow up on the loon issue, Chris and Dave. Yes loons are now more common on Winnipesaukee due to a number of conservation measures taken by interested citizens and The Loon Preservation Committee in Moultonboro, NH . . . . .

http://www.loon.org/contact-loon-center.php

Melvin Island, owned by Camp Belknap (Tuftonboro), is also a loon sanctuary and their habitats and nesting grounds are being protected as best as possible to increase their numbers.

Chris, here are some haunting sounds to take you back in time during your overnight at Land's End! Enjoy! No, it wasn't a werewolf!!

http://www.loon.org/voice-loon.php

Jim
_________________
'56 - J-9 J. Moulton
'57 - J-11 J. Moulton
'58 - J-4 E. Web Dann, S. Hood
'59 - S-6 P. Leavitt
'60 - S-2 F. Avantaggio
'61 - JA-1 RK Irons
'62 - C-9 JC with P. Freeland
'63 - C-1 JC with S. Borger
'64 - C-6 Councilor

[David Bentley]

Jim is right about the spreading of loons. I think two phenomena are in play, 1), the increased protection by groups such as the Loon Preservation Society and the Lakes Region Conservation Commission, and, 2), the evolutionary adaptation and socialization of the loon to the presence of humans. I have power boated in areas of the Lake and seen certain portions of islands actually blocked off with a string of milk bottle floats protecting a loon nesting area. I have been canoeing in Winter Harbor and in Wolfeboro Bay and loons hardly get out of your way. I would not go so far as to say loons are overly populated, but there are plenty of loons on Winnipesaukee.
_________________
C-1 49 J-7 52 S-3 55 J-10 58
C-7 50 J-7 53 S-2 56 J-8 59
C-8 51 J-4 54 S-7 57 (JA) J-8 60 - 64
1965 - 1968 Military service
Pine Cone 68 - 75 (with wife,Sherry,
and daughter Tracey)
Wolfeboro - full-time since 1997

[Chris Gill]

I do a lot of canoeing in northern New England, mostly on relatively undeveloped lakes and rivers and I see lots of loons. I will often see them in the distance and quite often they will move closer on their own. I think they are very curious birds and are relatively unthreatened by canoes.

This thread has gotten me interested in visiting Winnipesaukee to do some paddling. I will probably plan a trip sometime in the fall after most of the power boats have migrated south for the winter. It was fun to look at the lake on GoogleEarth, in my mind I remember it as a HUGE body of water and actually it’s a relatively moderately sized.

Please don’t mention werewolves, I’m still scared. There is one that lives in the woods near Olds Beach.
_________________
1965-1975
C7,C8,J8,S4,S3

[Mike Freeland]

It's really great to see some of these old threads revisited. The loon discussion is particularly interesting. I remember hearing the sound of loons coming from the direction of Johnson Cove, but never from anywhere else. It is relatively protected.

Jim, you have a picture of Melvin Island taken early in the morning on a misty October day, which to me is achingly beautiful. I use it as the desktop wallpaper on this computer. Would you mind posting it here? Or would you mind if I did? It may be somewhere else in the forum, but if not, it really should be seen.

Chris, I really envy that morning paddle on Long Lake. I think hearing reveille played on the shores would send me into a swoon of nostalgia.

It wasn't a werewolf. It was an escaped lunatic from the insane asylum over there in Moultonboro (where security was terrible). Somebody escaped from there every summer like clockwork, and headed directly toward the camps.
_________________
'56-C-9 C. Mosher '57-C-9 Bill Feaster
'58-J-14 H. Peavy '59-J-11 G. Wood, C. Duncan
'60-S-8 R. Leavitt, D. Hemphill '61-S-1 E. Slocum
'62-JA-1 H. Dunbar '63-C-2 (JC)
'64-C-5, (JC) Councilor
'65-C-9 '66 - '72-J-8
'73-JA1 '75-J-6

[DavidAyars]

Yeah, that had to be the same guy who, after escaping from the Moultonboro asylum, would hang out in a tree on Forest Road, waiting for a counselor and nurse to park underneath at night for some heavy necking. Then he'd make a noise and the counselor would get out to investigate, and a few minutes later the nurse would hear "tree branches" scraping the car roof, which was really the fingernails of the slain counselor hung from the tree above the car. I can't tell you how many counselors we lost over the years to that trap. You'd think guys would have learned to park down at the beach away from trees. Other times, the escaped lunatic would keep himself amused by chucking rocks at the Junior camp August nights around 10 p.m. Damn zombies.

Seriously, you know why we get a flurry of posts every year in late June/early July, don't you? Our hearts are all still up there... Dave B, Bob, and Jim are the lucky ones. Though it's different without the camp there.
_________________
Camper: J-8 1965 (Kevin Ryan), J-8 1966 (Mike Freeland), S-6 1967 (Russ Hatch), S-3 1968 (Jeremy Cripps), and JA-2 1969 (Dan Mannis).
JC: J-2 1970 (Bill Bettison) and J-3 1971 (Gene Comella). Councilor 1972, J-5 1973, and JA-1 1974 & 1975

[Steve Hood]

I do not recall hearing loons, per se.
But I do remember lots of strange bird and animal calls coming from Land's End. I always assumed it was "Cap Taylor" doling his animal imitations.
_________________
1951: C-9. F. Whitemore, P. Durkee.
1952-53: J-11. E. Wilkins.
1957: S-7 D. Irons, JA
1958: J-4 W.Dann JC
1959: J-1 G.Engstrom JC
1960-61-63: J-6. Councillor
1964: JA-2. Councillor

[Mike Freeland]

Dave A, you've hit the nail right on the thumb.

For some reason, June 28 seems to me to be the magic day when camp started, or at least we had to be there. We staff had to arrive a day or so ahead of the boys, by noon anyway, to get the last of the precamp work wrapped, "The Project" done and the pre-camp meetings dispatched. Councilor Handbook, Brass Tacks, section council meetings. Councilor wharf tests, sweep out the Pines. Distribute the trunks and duffel bags, and try to get the best mattresses and beds for your kids - some of those springs sagged something awful, and some of the mattresses should be at the rifle range.

As a camper, I always arrived with the Philadelphia/New York Party, on a school bus from Dover (I think) where we were dropped off the overnight train from New York, somewhere around mid-morning. That arrival was terrifying when I was 9, and got slowly less so each year, as I knew more what to expect.

Not a June 28 has gone by since '75 that I haven't thought of driving through that stone gate into the "Central Area" and greeting guys I hadn't seen in 10 months, and some never before, many of whom were unknowingly in the early stages of lifelong friendships.

The couple of nights sleeping alone in my tent or cabin before the boys arrived were warm, quiet, with only the wind in the trees, the squeak of a lantern chimney being levered up somewhere, and that one goddam mosquito just out of reach. Those nights were rife with anticipation and a healthy dose of apprehension too. Fresh kerosene was in the lantern, pump sprayer filled with DDT, new area bucket filled with water from the faucet-on-the-pipe-with-the-rocks-under-it, cots ready for new sheet-blankets (mattresses good-side-up), ropes for hanging stuff strung taughtly between tent poles, all ready for when the first busses arrived with the kids. Life was good then.

It's all of that and a whole lot more which I think would have come flooding back to me if I'd been in the canoe with Chris last week and heard reveille from the woods along the lake.
_________________
'56-C-9 C. Mosher '57-C-9 Bill Feaster
'58-J-14 H. Peavy '59-J-11 G. Wood, C. Duncan
'60-S-8 R. Leavitt, D. Hemphill '61-S-1 E. Slocum
'62-JA-1 H. Dunbar '63-C-2 (JC)
'64-C-5, (JC) Councilor
'65-C-9 '66 - '72-J-8
'73-JA1 '75-J-6