WESTON, Maine — On Saturday, Aug. 1, the Chiputneticook International Lake Conservancy (CLIC) held its annual picnic from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Half Moon Island, which is situated toward the northern end of East Grand Lake.
CLIC, founded in 1992, describes itself as a group of people which advocates for those on and around the Upper St. Croix River Watershed’s five Chiputneticook Lakes: North, East Grand, Mud, Spednic and Palfrey, as well as for those on Deering Lake in Orient and Bracket Lake in Weston.
Supervisor Chris Collins of the US Customs & Border Protection Agency (DHS) was the agent on duty at the island for the picnic.
The group began hosting a picnic, free to all comers, a number of years ago. In recent years, the picnic has been moved from mid-July to later in the summer when it is more likely that the level of the lake has dropped enough to provide a beach on the island.
Aug. 1 began as a bright sunny day. But Doug Callnan, a member of the CLIC board who helped with the picnic’s preparation, jokingly said “Just as we finished setting up, we considered taking it all down again.”
Dark clouds had appeared. By noontime, however, the sun was bright once again and the 150 or so attendees were busily eating, sharing stories and even discussing the full moon the night before – a ‘blue moon’ no less (the second of two full moons in one calendar month is referred to as a ‘blue moon’).
A few years ago, CLIC arranged to have one or more U.S. Customs agents present on the island (this year, there was just one) to make it easier for Canadian residents to come onto the inland. Grand Lake is a boundary lake and the U.S.-Canada border wanders from shore to shore up and down the lake so any lake residents from the Canadian shore must be granted entry just as they are when they drive through a customs port.
For this year’s picnic, CLIC purchased new equipment for the event: a deep fryer for making French fries, a griddle and a barbeque. There were three canopies over them in the event of rain, all three of which were donated over the past few years by Bob Ellis and Bill Walton. Ellis has served as a CLIC officer and board member in the past and Walton is the current membership secretary and treasurer.
Needless to say, the picnic could not have been held without countless volunteers. The most visible ones were the cooks, of course, but three pontoon boats carried food, cooking implements and other supplies to the island. It took four or five trips to return them all to the camp where they are stored.
As sometimes happens, the second race of the Peter’s Cover Yacht Club regatta began off the north of the island at 1 p.m. The Yacht Club, a loose confederation of sailboat owners, holds three races each summer.
So as the CLIC volunteers cleaned up after the picnic, the sailors began their race while storm clouds gathered over the New Brunswick shore to the east. Later in the afternoon, the picnic attendees who were snug in their camps hoped that the slowest of the sailors had gotten back to their dock before the skies opened with a deluge shortly before 3:00 p.m.
For information about CLIC, contact President Bob Quebec at RobertandSharonQuebec@gmail.com or at 448 2323. For Information about the Peter’s Cover Yacht Club, contact Paul LaPointe lapointe_04730@yahoo.com
