(Les Hyde’s comment continued)

“...For the past 15 years or so the Tanglewood 4-H Camp youth Leadership II program participants have camped in the lower meadow of Austin and Norma’s property on the shore of Seven Tree Pond.    LII is a three week program of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and is done in collaboration with GRLT.  It is for 15-17 year old boys and girls, mostly from Maine, and begins with a nine day trip down the St George River. The trip begins on Frye Mountain, where the river begins, in the town of Montville.  The trip ends at Marshall Point Light in Port Clyde… where the river meets the sea.  The first three days the campers are on foot and carrying their tent, food and gear on their backs.  They exchange their backpacks for canoes in Appleton and paddle the rest of the trip to the sea.  The Leadership St George trip has become a rite of passage for campers striving to become Tanglewood staff.

Every year in June I spend several days planning the trip with the staff that are hired to lead the program and show them each of the sites where they will be camping.  It is usually about the third week in June that I give Norma and Austin a call and ask if we might come by and visit the camp site.  Austin and Norma always greet us with such warmth and generosity.   Austin always offers to walk down the steep path to the shore, pausing to show us his vegetable patch, the latest rose variety and we get to marvel at the beauty of their gardens.   Austin never fails to weave in a tour through his American Chestnut grove where he tells the story of the tree and efforts at restoration.  The staff are always so grateful for their good fortune to have such a beautiful site to camp on Seven Tree Pond.  

I do not actually get to experience the trip down the St George with the campers, but I always meet them on Fort Point in St George.  This is their last night of their trip before their final challenging paddle to the mouth of the river in Port Clyde.  I call them into a circle and ask them to tell me about their trip thus far and to tell me about the “roses” and “thorns” of their experience.  You can guess the thorns: mosquitoes, rashes, sore muscles, rain, sunburn, heavy packs, dragging the canoes….  The roses always include the night camping at the Jones on seven tree pond.  They tell how beautiful the site was generous and friendly the Jones were.  They tell of swimming in the warm water of Seven Tree Pond, how Austin brought them firewood, offered them extra warm clothes…and blueberry cake.   Over the fifteen years that we have been running this leadership program, camping at Austin and Norma’s is always a highlight of the trip.   The 200 plus Tanglewood campers who have spent a night or sometimes two at the Jones remember Austin for his generosity, warmth, caring nature, gardening skills and for the blueberry cake.

I will remember Austin for his friendship, generosity and stewardship of the land.”