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Course in Winslow Teaches Women a Range of Outdoor Skills

October 01, 2008 - WINSLOW — Loons bellowed from the warm lake water. An egret's wings beat the air softly as it settled on the sunny boat dock.

But the cacophony of wild turkey gobbles, purrs and yelps coming from beside Pattee Pond were even more wild.

As Registered Maine Guide Reggie Read of Phippsburg led five women through turkey sounds last weekend at the state's Becoming an Outdoors Woman program, two imitated the noises -- while they strutted around like turkeys.

The north side of the pond was a rattle and hum of their turkey chatter.

"My husband wanted to know what was going to happen when I go home from this. Well, this is what will happen: My husband can't do this," said Andrea Wellman of Bangor, after walking around and clucking like a wild turkey.

The women talking turkey at Camp Caribou in Winslow came for three days of outdoor seminars. Now in its 11th year, the Becoming an Outdoors Woman program draws participants from all over New England. They pay a little more than $200 to participate in a variety of seminars that teach critical outdoors skills.

Game wardens and Maine guides teach firearm safety, ATV skills, fly casting, canoe strokes, survival skills, kayaking, and hunting-dog handling.

"All the instructors are volunteers. They are all experts in their field," said Mike Sawyer of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Charlie Ek, who founded the Kittery Trading Post's Outdoor Academy for youths, taught GPS skills, which was not as straightforward as his students might have thought.

Ek led them across a football field at the camp, which has served youths since 1922. As he walked under a goal post he continued on toward the lake, stopping at the water's edge. Then Ek turned back and followed his track recorded in the Global Positioning System, pointing out how the course is a little off the mark.

"I'm on the track, but I'm some distance away. That is as good as you can expect," Ek told them, emphasizing his take-home warning. "If you are above tree line in a white-out, you could walk off a cliff following a GPS. It gives an approximation. It tells you how far you've gone."

Several wilderness courses teach survival skills, from fixing a car engine to first aid to firearm safety and canoe handling.

Katheryn Libby of Skowhegan waited years until she had time to participate in the outdoor camp.

Now, with one son married and another off at medical school, she finally made time.

"There are people here from Boston and Rhode Island. It's kind of neat. It's only $200. I don't want to tell anyone until I've taken all the courses," Libby said. "This weekend, I'm going to learn to kayak because I am deathly afraid of water, and I need to get over that."

Libby spent her first of four seminars at the turkey calling course, even though she has no interest in turkey hunting.

Read delighted Libby with imitations of the 26 vocalizations turkeys make.

"She keeps saying it's not good, but it's actually very good," Read's wife, Gail, said of Libby's turkey calls.

Like many of the outdoor instructors at the school, Reggie and Gail Read thrive on their students' excitement. They helped five women make turkey box calls and learn to use the mouth calls that are key in turkey hunting.

"When he first stated (turkey hunting) we were driving to Bangor and he was practicing. My dog looked at him like, 'Is he ever going to shut up?"' Gail Read said, with smiling eyes.

Sharing their turkey-hunting knowledge, the Reads are unsure how many of the five women actually will hunt.

Only Wellman had hunted before and plans to again. However, all of them attempted the calls and clucks with amusement.

"How do you know you won't like it unless you try it? I went on a moose hunt last year and I said, 'All right. I've got to try this,"' said Wellman. "Turkey hunting this year was phenomenal. I heard these turkeys gobbling. It felt like I was one with nature. My mother called the turkey in. This camp is good for me. I am taking two courses in hunting."

By DEIRDRE FLEMING, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, September 25, 2008


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Regions: Belgrade, Bangor


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