Recent content by el-bagr

For those following the Northern Pass project, the developers announced yesterday that they are moving the transmission lines' start-up date back a year to 2016, to allow them time to find a new route from Groveton north to the Canadian border.

While I haven't run that exact trip, I've run multi-day river trips in the area using shuttle services -- either driving to the put-in and paying a local to drive my vehicle to the take-out, or getting a pick-up at trip's end to ride back to the put-in. Advantages of having someone shuttle your...

Thanks for the pointer -- to me, this is good news. Over the past decade I've seen more stations go offline (usually when funding dried up) than come online. Whether you're an angler or paddler, or are interested in hydroelectricity or hydrology, or just a plain old nerd, these data sets are...

Keep up the good work...

So Ben, how's the skiing going? For what it's worth, I skied nearly exclusively on hiking trails. Especially in the boreal zone, for most of the NH48, there often aren't viable alternatives to hiking trails. Skiing a stone staircase might be ugly, but it beats bushwhacking on skis through...

The Maine Public Broadcasting Network ran an interesting 6-minute story on this project last week, entitled "Northern Pass Project Promises Renewable Power, but at What Cost?" http://www.mpbn.net/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3478/ItemId/14725/Default.aspx The story notes that the Appalachian...

This is an interesting issue. As Google Earth and similar programs become more broadly used, we will see more and more video simulations of what projects might look like. Project developers often generate their own simulations to help convince regulators and the public that their projects'...

For those interested in the Northern Pass project, and its impacts on the White Mountain National Forest, you can find the USFS's page on the project's anticipated application for a special use permit here: http://www.fs.fed.us/nepa/project_content.php?project=34752 There don't seem to be any...

This is a topic of personal interest to me. Big cats are nifty creatures. I enjoy hearing the different perspectives expressed here, including the first-hand accounts that seem surprisingly numerous. Johnranta logically emphasizes the importance of a nearby wild population to "seed" wandering...

From Saturday's Bangor Daily News: "Biologist doubts Maine cougar sightings". I find the reader comment section especially interesting: lots of first-hand tales of encounters.

Right, the Champlain Hudson Power Express will be entirely underwater and underground. It's a 300-320 kV DC line, consisting of two 5-inch cables to be buried at a depth of 3 feet. Perhaps the VFTT Paddle Park participants will one day kayak or canoe over it. They provide a PDF route map here...

I'm interested to see this discussion here -- dealing with transmission lines from Canada, and their policy implications, is part of what I do for work. Canadian generators (like Hydro-Quebec and Nalcor) have large amounts of hydropower and other generation north of the border, far in excess of...

Tangible evidence of lions in Quebec and New Brunswick: http://www.easterncougarnet.org/QuebecPR-corrections.htm

From the Alaska Public Radio Network, an interesting 4-minute audio piece on this incident. It suggests the French-speaking Canadian hikers had been foraging for wild plants, and had eaten a broad variety of plants including the false hellebore. One victim who ate several bulbs reached...

Nh6 -- the mountains just to the left of the central marina channel appear to me to be Whiteface and Passaconaway. I have seen them in a very similar orientation from a dock on the north shore of Moultonborough Neck. How about the view north from this marina near Laconia?