Tomlinson Lake Snowshoe Adventure

Posted On March 12, 2014

The first annual Tomlinson Lake Snowshoe to Freedom Event on March 8 made for a fun-filled, if chilly, outdoor adventure for everyone who attended. One hundred and fifty people of all ages braved the brisk wind to share in the day’s festivities. This is more than double the crowd that attended the first Hike to Freedom last fall, so this event has definitely got folks engaged!
 
Joe Gee and many volunteers set up a terrific Bush Camp as a base where everyone could meet up, get warm at the fire and chow down on some great food. Linda Nicholas provided the Bush Camp, a complete canvas cottage strung between trees. It was outfitted with a wood stove, with a stove pipe, a table and a bench. It was a popular hangout, always packed with people getting warm and refuelling themselves with some of the homemade stew, chilli and jambalaya that was bubbling away on the wood cook stove.
 

Linda and Caitlin Paul also had batches of Chaga Tea, pine needle tea and real brewed hot chocolate, made with that tasty dark cocoa you can get at Nissen’s Market available in the tent. Naturally, there was local honey and maple syrup on hand to sweeten the tea as well!
 

Don Dickson said “This is nice, what you have here (the camp) is something you would have seen back in the 1940’s.”
 

CBC Radio interviewed Joe last week on the air about this event, and within minutes Joe received a most interesting phone call from Quanda Johnson. Originally from Philadelphia, Quanda is now a Fullbright Scholarship student at Brooklyn College in New York. She is currently visiting the Roper family in Houlton, and is conducting research on the Underground Railroad. She heard Joe’s interview on CBC and promptly called him to introduce herself. She then drove to Carlingford to meet Joe in person at the Customs Office to learn more about our local history, and the Tomlinson Lake connection to the Underground Railroad.
 

Dean Butterfield brought an amazing collection of historical and nature artefacts. In his box of goodies he had old time Balm of Gilead, a variety of whistles, a hoot owl call made from a plastic bottle and a piece of plastic pipe, wood samples that were infected with the fungus that causes the Foxfire effect and more. He also brought a display of mounted twigs from 45 different local species of trees that he’s collected during winter, so you could see what these tree twigs look like without leaves. Most interesting were the little whistles he’d fashioned out of hazelnuts. Take a regular hazelnut, and carve a hole in it and extract the meat. Hold the hollow shell up to your lips and force air down into it…the sound was amazing! And every hazelnut whistle produced its own unique different tone.
 

The Snowshoe Hike kicked off at noon, and people began arriving promptly. Joe had brochures printed that mapped out the trails and explained the Tomlinson Lake connection to the Underground Railroad along with other fascinating bits of history.
 

The event ran until 5 pm, and with all the helping hands everything was packed up and loaded by 6 pm….with the exception of the hot wood stove!
 

Joe has already begun planning the Second Annual Hike to Freedom for later this year, with many folks already volunteering to help mark the trails and organize the event. If you’d like to donate time or money to this project please contact Joe on
Facebook.