Day Trippin'

Plans can change quickly some days. It was Sunday and my brother had just pulled into the driveway. We were planning on going out for a bike ride, get some exercise, work up a sweat, strain the muscles, burn the lungs and rest our minds. It can be a religious experience.

*ring ring*

'Hi Ma.'
'Oh your going to Phippsburg today?'
'Yeah sure we'll come down.'

Phippsburg is a small coastal town south of Bath. It's only about 40 minutes from our house and it is a beautiful place to hang out for the day. The riding could wait. Plus, LilGuns will get to see his Gram, Grand Aunt/Uncle and Great-Grandma. And of course they want to see him even more.
I ended up taking the longest possible way down, because I hadn't been there in years and I just couldn't remember any other way to get there. But the drive down was really nice. Long two lane roads. Tree covered. Hilly and winding. Rock outcrops just inches from leaving a big 'ol scratch down the side of the car. Drive carefully.
The camp is on Winnegance Bay in Phippsburg. The water is 30 feet off the dock. Stripper and blue fishing is awesome here. The year my brother caught the big bass, he got a 23 pound blue fish. Fought it for nearly an hour before landing it into the 12 foot aluminum row boat. The fish fight of his life.
The picture is looking northeast from the camp yard. The foreground shows a shell midden that contains lots of Quahog clam shells. We suspect the origin of the midden is from a local indian tribe. But that is speculating some.
The rocks are devonian age granites intruded into schists of the Cape Elizabeth formation.

Fish Story

I grew up in Maine on a large pond/small lake named Bauneg Beg. My brother and I felt like we practically owned that pond. We knew every nook and cranny. every shallow spot. every deep spot. where the best rope swing was. where the best fishing was. we explored this place in great detail with either: a 14 foot aluminum canoe when out for fishing, a 10 foot 9 hp aluminum boat or a 14 foot 90hp fiberglass boat.

***memories of waterskiing and kneedboarding alone after school before mom got home from work will have to wait, this is a fish story.***

My brother is into fishing among other things, bass speciffically. His luck and skill has always been very good. One summer he was out on the pond, in the canoe, somewhere between 12 and 14 years old he hooked on to the biggest bass ever pulled from this south western Maine pond. 10 pounds 12 ounces. So, large we actually had it mounted. Here it is:(beer bottle for scale)

Hold on...this story would be better told by him. Standby.

MooseHead

Took this pic 2day @ a taxidermist in Grenville. Pretty cool.

*Now that im home and not texting in a blog post I can add that this guy was really good. Bears, fish, fox, rabbits. Bears biting fish. everything. So since we were there and knew one of the other guys at the shop that day we got a brief tour. My boss was picking up a rainbow trout that he got this past summer. The fish are basically skinned and the skin is applied over a foam body. The head is moulded and cast into plastic as it would fall apart. It is all painted, shellacked and mounted. There is a salt table to dry out the hides. and plenty of bond-o, and epoxies are used. Its quite and artistic endeavour and the difference between a good taxidermist and a shitty one can be enormous.

Mica Fish...observations on a global scale

I was zipping around on the earth today...Google earth that is, when I came across this part of the world near the Mendocino Triple Junction.

Then using my trained geologist eye and a little computer magic overlayed the following:


Could this be a 'mica fish' on a global, crustal scale? So I quickly searched for a good photographic example of a mica fish, and found this:


Sure look similar. For the non-geologists reading the post, a mica fish is a micro-scale tectonic indicator of relative motion. Typically composed of Muscovite or biotite within a, usually, finer-grained matrix. They form in deformation zones, like faults -and their shape is a result of..well think if it like aerodynamics. The mica fish is like a Toyota Prius. All laid back, letting the world go by it.

Just thought that was pretty cool. The shape is right. The shear sense is right. Could the mica fish analogy scale up so large?

I should just be given a PhD right now.