A Place Where Time Stands Still

Our days and weeks seem to pass in a flash. It is nice to remember that there are places where life goes on at a more leisurely pace.

We just returned from Maine where we celebrated our middle son Doug’s birthday at West Branch Pond Camps in Kokajo, Maine.  The camps are ten miles off the main road, down a dirt road, sometimes nearly a track, deep in the Maine woods. It’s comprised of a few log cabins, built prior to 1900. They line the water’s edge while White Cap mountain rises across the pond and wild flowers grow all around.

We first went to West Branch Pond Camps more than 40 years ago during camping trips to Moosehead Lake.  A local man recommended it for trout fishing and moose spotting and for the roast beef dinners served on Thursday evenings.  One treat of those camping trips was a day at WBPC ending with dinner. A few years later we gave up tenting to stay at the camps. The log cabins haven’t changed much but now have indoor plumbing. Meal times are announced by a bell mounted on the roof of the dining room and rung by pulling a rope. Thursday night is still roast beef night and Sunday dinner is still roast turkey with all the trimmings. A walk past the kitchen window brings welcome scents of baking bread and fruit pies cooling on the table.

The same family has owned it since 1910, the current owners, Eric and Mildred Stirling, are the fourth generation. Our weekend took us back in time to those quieter years when telephone service was sporadic, there were no cell phones or computers and we were virtually inaccessible for two weeks every summer. Our days were spent fishing, hiking or just reading on the porch. Outside of a few minor improvements, (indoor plumbing), not much has changed. The cabins are heated by wood burning stoves, the generator provides electricity until 10PM and the loons still call across the pond.