Exploring the Maine Woods - The Hardy Family Expedition to the Machias Lakes

"We ran away this fall. In fleeing the telegraph, the post-office, the door bells, and all our many masters, we experienced a sweet, if guilty satisfaction, which more than compensated the unpropitious skies that followed us - this is the chronicle of the trip." Fannie Hardy Eckstorm.

From a series of articles written in 1891, comes a paddling memoir that weaves together woodlore with a knowledge of literature and Maine history. The writing is superbly descriptive of the Maine woods, the prose is often like poetry, and the feeling of the period is captured on the pages.

Fannie Pearson Hardy Eckstorm was not a fur trader like her father, Manly Hardy, or a trapper like her grandfather, but she knew the woods. She was an interpreter of nature, an ornithologist, an expert on early Maine history, with scientific habits and mind for detail.

This annotated edition of a Father-Daughter canoe trip celebrates one of the earliest and most talented Maine outdoor writers.

Read about the Maine woods, history of the Machias Lakes region, stories about "The Outlaw Jock Darling," the legendary Maine storyteller, "Uncle" Bill Barrett, and even the original Penobscot Man - Big Sebattis Mitchell.

This book is more than a memoir of a camping trip, it is a tale of Maine woodcraft and includes details about the Maine woods told only the way those familiar with the region could do so.