Wayne, Maine

We are leaving our friends via South China on the Belfast Road. It has been an ideal four days in Wayne, Maine, with Theresa Kerchner and her husband and daughter Jim and Emily Perkins. Theresa is the stewardship director of the Kennebec Land Trust (www.tklt.org) which has been able to preserve over 3100 acres in this area of south-central Maine. Theresa coordinates about 40 volunteers to protect the properties and to set up trails.
Jim teaches high school math. He had given years to this work and expressed concerns that the one-size-fits-all approach favored by Maine school bureaucrats is not appropriate for many kids. Both Jim and Theresa are amazing folks and they have given much of their energy into refurbishing their home, originally built in 1788, and caring for the 72 acres that remains of the original property. Their son Daniel is taking time from studies to work for the Nature Conservancy in New York and their 16 year old daughter Emily is a soccer player and Nordic skier. (We appreciate her strength and stamina more than ever seeing her play on Saturday in a grueling play off.)
Theresa and Jim took great care of us and got us to some gorgeous countryside and introduced us to some really interesting people. The result is that it is really hard to leave.
Our favorite experience was being on our own in what turned into an adventure. We got socked in by fog out on the Androscoggin Lake and had to make our way back without the benefit of any visible land. (I’m including a common loon photo—the wild cries of the loons through the fog, you can imagine.) We also got out on Pickerell Pond with Jim and Theresa, another part of what is called “the thirty mile river” that Wayne residents are immensely proud and protective about. We also hiked on two of the trust holdings on Besse Road and also on the Gott Pasture, named after original homesteaders.
There is a lot of fascinating history about the area and the traditional life styles and succession of land and peoples. I’m just really glad that my friends had the wisdom to sink their roots within this unspoiled countryside.