(3/19/08) Greetings from the Blue Ridge Mtns. Of
S.W. Virginia.
I enjoyed visiting The Friends Of The
Allagash website. I am home sick again. Born and raised on a
dairy and potatoe farm in P.I. Maine and lived there for 55
years. I am a life member of the Presque Isle Fish & Came
Club and sat on the Sportmans & Landowners Association board
when Bucky Owens was commissioner and two others. I see
Dudley from Mattagamen Lake is still on the board.
Peter Hilton sent me your link. Marion and
I retired down here from Presque Isle, Maine back in 1999. She
retired in Presque Isle after 21 years as Senator Olympia Snowes
District Office Manager and Field Representative for
Northern Maine.
I retired from Civil Service at
LAFB in 1992 and than run my Professional Guide Service
"North Ridge Guide Service" out of Echo Lake in
Presque Isle for seven years full time spending 300 days a year
guiding as a Master Maine Guide, from the West Forks of Bingham,
ME. To Fort Kent.
I still continue to guide in Maine, Idaho,
Montana, Virginia and Northern Quebec & Labrador. A Bear
hunter of mine from Allentown, Pennsylvania set the record
for Maine Black Bear in 1993 between Crystal Station and Sherman
Mills, and it still holds the record today at 680 lbs. You
can see the Maine State Record Bear along with other of my
guiding experience at www.pro-flyfishingguide.com.
I guided for Bill and Rose Mitchell. "Moose Point
Camps" on Fish River Lake for many years and remember my
younger days of meeting Dana McNally at "Zella
Island" known as "Wilderness Island" where I
guided for Mike and Carol LaRossa and when I left John
Robertson took over. When Nick Curtis started guiding, him and I
spent a lot of time in the North Maine Woods. Nick was rough
around the edges but he had a heart of gold and I miss him as I
know his wife Gloria and the folks of Portage do.
I loved the Allagash Waterway and run it
many times from Telos to Pelletiers landing in Fort Kent.
My good friend Dean Wiggins from Echo Lake was the
Ranger at Lock Dam and he and I spent a lot of time together on Eagle
and Chamberlain Lake and Round Pound. We both worked on
helping restore the Locomotives at Tramway. One winter Wayne
Harper, Dean and I and others hauled stone over the ice in
toboggans to help set the locomotives on. Where has the time
gone!!! My 45 class reunion is this year whew...
I filled out an application for membership
and will send it out tomorrow. It has been quite awhile
since I have seen Gary Pelletier. I hope he and his family
are well.
Marion and I look forward in visiting
all of our friends of the Allagash when we come up to
spend this summer at our camp in Northern Maine. I might
even sneak over to the Flat Lands of New Brunswick on the
Restigouche River and and see if the Atlantic Salmon are still
there. I treasurer the memories of the many times I stayed and
visited Virginia Pinkham at her lodge on the Restigouche
River and the Mirimachi River. I did not make it up
to work this year as a volunteer for the communications for
the Can Am Dog Sled Races. I was in Biloxi, Mississippi on
a mission trip again. Dean and I and Gail Flagg spent many
years at Maibec Camps running the communications for the
races while Stan was at Net Control. I know all them outlaws
around Allagash Village hi hi...I long for the great fellowship
we had at Twin Rivers Rest...
Cathie Pelletier and Marion became great
friends. Cathie spent many good times on the North Ridge at
Echo Lake at our log home and that is where she meant her husband
Tom. We had a nice visit with them in Nashville, TN. A
few years back. Marion has published her book "When Men
Move To The Basement" and is on her second one.
She is the love of my life and a good
sport. She spent many hours on the inland waters of Maine with
me racing canoes and just recreational paddling. I hear Peter
Hilton wants to learn how to pole a canoe!!! Heh...heh...tell
him to practice polling a canoe in the heavy snow....than he
will be ready for the rips at Long Lake Dam or Spencer rips on
the Lower Dead River at the West Forks.
Well thanks for letting me stop by and
visit with you. Marion was a Virginia gal and when she retired
she wanted to be where the four seasons where like Maine but
without the harsh winters and I lost....but I know where home is
and it won't be long and I will be fly fishing my favorite
rivers and streams and eating Deans favorite Homemade
Biscuts, while Marion is writing and visiting family and
friends.
Many heartfelt thanks to all the Friends
Of The Allagash, for their hard work and outstanding dedication
in helping to restore and the preserving the Allagash
Wilderness Waterway for our children and grandchildren. I
remember the many wonderful trips Dean and I took on foot to the
Ranger's station at Allagash Lake when he was a ranger there
also. I have the pictures and stories to share with our sixteen
grandchildren and one great grandchild we have now.
I keep up on Maine's recreational and
working heritage in the Unorganized Territory and CLUP's harmful
proposals that the LURC staff have adopted.
May God Richly Bless All You Friends Of
The Allagash and your families and Marion and I look forward in
supporting you in anyway we can.
Sincerely,
Dick & Marion
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Master Guide Dick Higgins, {Ole Grizz}
North Ridge Guide Service
{Maine ~ Idaho ~ Montana ~ Virginia ~ Canada}
Professional Fly Fishing School
275 Grahams Drive
Rocky Mount, VA. 24151
Cell: 540-493-7179
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