Maine’s Great North Woods is a heavily forested wilderness, where nature had the upper hand. Distinguished from the rest of New England by its boundless scale, the Acadian back country vanishes, as if by magic, under snowfall in winter, only to be reborn in a spectrum of summer colour as life returns to the tree and ponds. Out go the snowmobiles, in come the wobbly canoes and muddy boots.
By late June, the few hikers, hunter-gatherers and fishermen who venture to Moosehead Lake, the largest in Maine, are no longer alone. As summer arrives, the Great North Woods fill with eye-rubbing, hibernation-starved black bears, and the largest population of moose in the mainland United States. There are so many barrel-chested bulls, it’s sometimes hard to believe your eyes. Some are as tall as totem poles, others stronger than a grizzly. An adult bull male) moose can weigh as much as l,500lb, four times more than the average reindeer. These thoughts play on my mind as I leave the trailhead behind on a moose safari.
The light falls shadowy and soft as, along with the rest of the group, I pick my way past tangled roots and lichen-covered trunks. We cross a mossy forest floor, the sun flitting through the treetops, before emerging at a lake, its surface like a polished mirror. At its centre, the water shimmers, reflecting the sprawling backwoods - which cross four states, and stretch all the way to Quebec.
Such woods have commonly been the preserve of America’s literati. Some 150 years ago, Henry David Thoreau turned his back to the world, and later recounted his traverse of the area in The Maine Woods, describing the forest as uninterrupted, vast and beautiful. Since then, his writings have inspired naturalists and fly fishermen, who drop in by helicopter to see the waterways of the Moose River. Here, there’s so much nature that it’s easy for visitors to find their own little patch of solitude.