 What is up guys? Joe Holland here. It has been a long time It is a little bit before 5 30 in the morning and we got a load behind us We're going up a pretty big hill right now. Guess who is with me on this trip? I'm gonna let him tell you about this trip the one and only Donnie Hey, how's it going this morning guys? Got up early this morning usually it's like this with me Either in hunting season time Or I know I have to be up in a certain hour I'm always alone two hours earlier than I should be Just for the excitement of it. And when you mention the North Main Woods to me That's exciting even at my age So we're off. We're loaded down with a trailer load of White pine boards Which are going on this new cabin We're gonna be building this fall Gonna be a great great experience way to heck and gone up in the North Main Woods And I've been coming up here for well not this particular area But the North Main Woods for quite a few years and every time I come I get working excited. I Just love it So we're off and running. It's a foggy morning Pretty mild really humid humid humid And hopefully we'll get rid of some of this humidity As we get further north Make it a lot easier on line loading this huge load of boards that we have so Stay tuned. We'll be we'll be videotaping as we go There you have it guys If you're new to the channel and this is one of your first episodes Make sure you hit that like and subscribe button I don't ask for that, but maybe once a year. This is the one time I asked on this channel Because we have some really exciting stuff coming up Based off of this trip. This is a pretty rare video that I'm shooting in the summer Donnie and I are gonna build a wilderness cabin with with our great friend Stevie in the North Main Woods Zone to we're gonna be somewhere west of Portage Lake Donnie's got it all planned out. It's gonna be what is it 24 by 28? No, no, no, no, it's gonna be 28 by 20 with an 8-foot farmer's porch All right, and for you people that don't know what a farmer's porch is part of main lingo But it supports the whole length of the building which would be 28 feet long It's gonna extend out eight feet and be roofed over so it makes a great place to sit out there in a rocking chair or Stack your firewood for the winter and keep it undercover So that's that's the gist of the building and hopefully Hopefully we get to it this September, which I think we will and Maybe have it closed in by Snow fly and We you know, hopefully plan on coming up here during the winter months and maybe doing a little ice fishing in this area Never been fishing in this area Hopefully a little bird hunting in October November and a little maybe a little shit hunting in Late December January So it's an exciting time for me, and I know it is for Joe and Steve also So it's just gonna be great Yeah, you guys may remember Stevie from being on the channel during ice fishing season Stevie and I are longtime friends Great guy. It's been his Dream to have a camp or a cabin up in the North Main Woods It's been my dream to have the cabin up in the North Main Woods There's been Donnie's dream to have a cabin up in the North Main Woods So this opportunity came up and we jumped on it. So Donnie and I've been milling lumber for There's good a good part of the summer trying to get ready for this We're gonna actually mill every single piece of wood that goes on this except for maybe the subfloor and we might use like an advanced tech subfloor But we're gonna be milling all the dimensional lumber the 2x4s the 2x10s the floor stringers the rafters the walls the jacks the Window headers all the boards All the we might we might not do the v-match right we might well we might not get to it this yeah, you know But that'll that'll happen down the down the road a bit Yeah, our goal this year is to get it weather tight meaning buttoned up a little insulated on maybe and Get a wood stove in there and probably some alternative heat like a propane Like wall heater or something some such thing Because in the winter months when you come into a cold camp after being out all day it takes a while to warm up you know and It would be nice to have something that would stay on low and just keep the chill off so So if you guys can picture a trappers cabin up in the middle of the North Main Woods That's kind of what we're after and who knows Donnie and I both got a pretty long history Trapping once we get this cabin built. We might end up having to set some steel Maybe one of these falls or winners go up for like two months and set some steel and chase them for around and But we definitely know we're gonna be using it for snowmobiling probably as a base hub for ice fishing trips And if we get drawn for moose hunting again, we'll we'll moose on out of it And I don't know but like I said if that's what you're interested in it's a good time to hit that subscribe button So you don't miss anything we also started another channel called jh rough cut where we're actually cutting the lumber and cutting the trees And stuff that might be born to my average viewers that are used to a lot of the fun stuff on this video But stuff you might be interested to so I'll throw a link to that channel for you so you don't miss any of that stuff if you're interested in it and Expect some pretty good updates on this channel and come along with us on this trip. Thanks for coming along guys This is gonna this is pretty exciting for Donnie and I it's it's 5 30 in the morning. We're already this excited This is this is only the second time we've been to this location the first time was last fall when we were up in this area moose hunting and That's when the lease was purchased and that's actually the only time we've been there. We went there was Steve I Heaven knows how we got there. We went on so many Roads that I have no clue how to get there. No, Donnie and I neither one of us know how to get there So so that being said, I forgot to tell you we're stopping in milanocket on the way north We're what are we about two and a half three hours? Yeah, I'm sorry two and a half anyway Yeah, so we got we got a pretty good drive ahead of us. We're gonna meet up pick up stevie And stevie's gonna show us how to even get there Yeah, that's that's gonna be something so Joey luckily he does this computer stuff. I I Refuse to do it. I don't know just stopping this. I guess on my pot but You'll get it macked on his computer so we can get back here again Not build on the same on somebody else's land. You that or I'll throw some breadcrumbs down We'll find it one way or another Ha ha imagine that smart I know it was huge Well, we're here at the disacs I figured we stop check tire pressure and add some air Make sure we're good on air and I was coming over to the air pump Which is all you're gonna have a credit card to run the air pump now, but check out this friggin bug Look at the size of this sun gun You've got some wicked pinchers on the head of them Eyeballs out on the side big Big wings He's over three inches long, but I have no idea what that is But I don't think I want to get my finger too close to them mandibles But if you guys know what that is, let me know he's probably under this light pole for For the night and then stuck here in the morning But we should mess with him. Oh look at that. He went after it Oh, he's going to bite it No idea what that is You don't like me. Good to see you. Hey, we were talking on the way up You see these two shit? Oh, you gotta get you one. I need one of those too. This is the uniform Oh my god, oh my gosh How far till the checkpoint? Oh, it's just up here. I may be a mile. Okay. Okay. Yeah, awesome Yeah, this this road is a nice shape. Yeah, that the mill is bad. I knew it was gonna be real bad through the mill That was this looks awesome. This should be pretty good. Yeah, where do they mill there? They mill They've got no big logs. I know I but I didn't see anything Slide out. Right. I'm not sure what it is. Yeah Well, all right, well, we'll see you in a couple. Do you see that little fox back there? No, that's why we stopped Yeah, oh, did you know what did you see it? Donny was gonna give it a downstairs and then that guy rolled up on us Oh, yeah, yeah If it was a Donny, no one would have seen it, right? Oh, he'd be right over there. He'd be right out of his hands. Yeah All right, see you in a few minutes. All right, give a hell Because we're on rocky road. So we're somewhere up here. We have, Donny and I have no idea where we're going I've been on this road my life. We've seen the land and the campus there for five minutes about almost a year ago and we came in from a totally different direction. So This is all new to us. We're pretty excited Great. They say this way is a little easier than the way we went in the first time last fall There's a snowmobile sign. Must be a snowmobile crossing right here trail Well, that's probably heads into portage. Yeah, probably I'm sure you can get to it Portage can't get there from here Well, you might be able to on this one. What's this rig in here? Something pond trail. Well, that's the car pond trail. There you go. Really? Wow, that's that must be how you get into the car. Wow Sweet That's got to be the snowmobile trail then, huh? Yeah Well, they've done some work here Yeah, one of the nicer dirt road dirt roads I've ever been on. Yeah, but then some cab roads have been on That's the truth Way better than the gold road so far I'm starting to get excited Donny. This is You know that new car smell they talk about I'm I'm getting that new camp smell. Yeah You can smell that five lumbar. Yeah Yeah, that'll be a good smell. Yeah Fill for us. They probably just Take it out of the ditch and hold it over there. Tell you what if the gravel looks anything like this Yeah, that's nice stuff. Yeah Real nice stuff There goes a turkey up through the woods more a while life so far. We've seen a grouse A turkey and a fox before we even got to the checkpoint Pretty cool He seems really nice. Oh, yeah, super. They're both super pleasant. Yeah, real nice The more north you go the more pleasant helpful people are I think yeah, but tell the folks where we are Donny We're at a checkpoint. Yeah, we're came into portage and Followed this dirt road in and and this is the north main woods checkpoint To get into the north main woods. So you have to check in here and if you Seventy and older such as I am It doesn't see you fellas. See you It doesn't cost a nickel to get in here. No But uh, Joey is a lease holder. So he he also gets a free pass So this the north main woods is a conglomerate of several different monstrous landowners that own the woods up here and they They it's used for commercial use with for commercial logging and forestry practices and They keep the roads up and they They keep the roads in real good shape and that's where the money goes to is for the roads and also the employees that man the gates so There's access points all over it and if you're not a landowner or over 80 or under 18, there's A fee to use the roads or to sleep over in the north main woods Pretty good. It's worth every penny. I promise you that Yeah, and yeah, did you say if the camp out in here, there's an extra fee for camping and also a fee for Road use. Yeah, and there's a pile of camp grounds all over the north main woods I mean literally hundreds of them of camp sites I should say like next to rivers next to brooks on top of mountains that they also keep those up to a man those So that's where the money goes. So It's worth it and you know a good many of us in Maine Spend a lot of time in october Bird hunting up here in the north main woods and when I say bird hunting it's for grouse or paratroops like we just saw Donnie I thought he said first left. Yeah, he said first left after we go 20 miles We don't know what first left meant. No first left. We've been by two lefts already so We're about at the 20 mile mark or anything. Donnie and I are gonna be so lost coming out of here We're throwing we're throwing breadcrumbs out the window from them dumpsters We'll be able to follow our way home This looks like a pretty good pit. Yeah. Yeah, this is great. Oh, thank you You know You play that game. He loves me. He loves me not Oh, that that looks like you could dig into that. Oh, yeah Well, steve give us the update. Oh, are we there yet? We're getting close We get probably another mile on this road and then we take a right and I think it's about eight miles And then we turn right again and we're about a mile or less to the camp Yeah, pretty big size deer I'd say that was a wop I think it peed in the road. Yeah, look at that. Oh my god felt its name and everything Look how heavy that load is it's pushing the gravel down. Yeah, we had a little trouble After we got off the interstate those hills were hard when I had that little smaller trailer. I was It's not a Comfortable easy Mindless drive. No, right. Yeah when you got all that weight pushing you don't want to be on the brake coming down the hill Yeah, you got up Well, you want a little momentum to get up that huge hill on the other side Yeah, but you don't want to go 80 either. So it's like, yeah, I had no trailer brakes on that one either I was puckered white knuckle. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was pushing us. You're gonna need a beer when we get there. Yeah, right First beer of his life Let's roll Yeah, we're there yet. We're there Do you want to take a walk down? See how you want to yeah, how you want to get in there? a friggin yet What do you recommend backing in or driving in? tough room to drive in And just pull right up alongside the camp and then when we were done unload and I just backed right up into that Spot there, but I think you might be too long for that pretty great We were doing this last time we were here, wasn't it? Boost track Right in our yard. Yeah, it's all one Yeah, I don't think I could get turned around I don't I think it's too. Yeah the trail is longer and your truck's longer. Yeah bumper crop of horse flies this year, huh? Yeah So so are you thinking the camp right here? That's what I'm thinking donnie or a little higher. Oh donnie's got his compass out Well guys, we're uh, we're gonna figure out where we're gonna put this camp on this piece of property Does that sound right or no? Stevie's got a question mark going that compass any good? I got another one in my truck probably Well, we're figuring out where we're gonna put it we had to get Um the dumbest thing in the world we had to get a leech field even though we got an outhouse For a sink that we might not even ever use We might just have a bucket But we got to put a leech field in so we had to get a site plan steve did all the permits the paperwork all the foolishness Donnie and I would have lost it dealing with that. So he's very patient So that's where we got to put the leech field. So we're thinking we're not going to be pumping obviously So we're thinking about putting the camp a little higher and a little bit to the side of that leech field So we can run it right out to it Um, so it's either going to go like this direction or this direction But it's going to be higher than where that leech field is and next to it This is the planning part guys. This is the fun part Donnie's got a lot more experience than steve and i can mine. So we're gonna We're gonna definitely be leaning on him for this type of stuff. I'm just a dumb plumber donnie I'm just a plum dumber I got a pretty dumb crew I mean donnie we don't have to be right next to that leech field, right? We could we could pipe to it Okay. Yeah, so we could put put it anywhere up here that you want Yeah, I'm just thinking these last big trees to cut where he's here. Yeah Does it matter to you on the driveway? No I like I like being on high ground. I don't like where that other camp is in a hole That's why it's rotten out and that's why it's sinking. That's why it's coming down. Yeah It wasn't always like that. No, you can tell even when they built that porch They ain't the stairs angle this one. Oh really like I'm sure they built it flat when they put them on So what we'd have to do is We're gonna have to We're gonna have to clear these trees and then we're gonna have to get rid of the stumps And put some gravel down One side of the camp Right here go on that one. That's the edge. Yeah, okay And then length wise is this way The porch will be on that the porch is on that side The length the length is this way porch is on this side Beautiful like the front right or is it on the side? Yeah, the front beautiful So for this load of lumber that we got to take off um I'm almost thinking about just backing into here and stacking the lumber here somewhere flat Like right there even or here Donnie is that Is that agreeable is stack stack the lumber like over here or here? Guys this is pretty cool being able to pick a spot to build up here in the wilderness So the camp's going down there. Well, it might be a little better up here All right, I'm gonna see if I got my rain jacket. I'm pretty sure I packed it last night Of course she's gonna rain on us, but hey, it's no big deal. I ain't gonna melt I know I'm sweet, but I ain't that sweet There's a jacket. All right, we're pretty steep here. So I chopped the tire Just enough to let's go with us behind it and We're gonna do a stack of wood Stack of boards up here. Huh? So too far apart or is it good? I think our first bunch are all eat butters Aren't they? You good with turkey? Yeah, anything I'll have some mayo Donnie. Well We got here just in time for the rain and we're we're unloading we got pretty good stack started there and Probably triple that inside here and we're stopping for lunch right now because Donnie and I've been on the road for seven hours and Stevie for at least four yeah, probably four So we're gonna get we're gonna drive some lunch right into us found a couple of orange gatorades and Then we're gonna get back at it and try to get wet That's no problem getting wet Wet as summer I can remember Only rain twice this summer in Maine. The first one was for 40 days. The second was for 30 And that's pretty much the whole summer But it's been the craziest wet wettest year You'll sleep good sleeping in this thing right if you do We can set your tent up in here Every hour. Yeah Think I'll pitch a tent. I think I'll sleep right in here. Yeah I brought a bunch of squares from Bertha on Campobello made these And I think you've had some I did Joey's had some I know. Oh, yeah, and I've had too many So so Stevie you dip in and I'll lead off. Yeah Thank you. Thank you Bertha Yeah, Bertha gets all the credit. She makes lovely squares It's the best Oh man, I feel heavy Bring it out in the light so you guys can see it This one's mint chocolate Thank you Campobello Bertha Okay, we got the trailer fully unloaded That was a beast. It was way more boards than I remembered loading. I'll show you guys the stacks That one's over six foot tall That one's four and a half five foot tall So that was a lot of lumber and a lot of weight Oh, and I felt it the whole the whole way. So we got that unloaded. We started taking a few trees down And right now we're going to go try to figure out a Good place where we can get some gravel to put down for the base and the foundation and also We want to See if we can find the closest one. So when we bring a machine up, it'll be a lot quicker So that's the plan right now. We're all going to jump in with Stevie. I think and uh And he's got a couple spots mapped out that we're going to go take a look at and then we're going to contact the The logging company the landowners and see if we could purchase some of that gravel To to do our driveway and where we need to for the foundation So what do you think Donny? It's quite a stack of boards, huh? Yeah, the weather didn't really cooperate too well with us this afternoon Not loaded but Got a little damp got her done though. Didn't we got her done? Yeah So that's the plan guys. I feel pretty good about about it so far. Um There's a lot more trees to take down than I was expecting so I gotta Kind of rethink that Process and how much we don't even I want to take down There's some of them are pretty tricky and if we're going to have a machine in here anyway I'm just thinking maybe Maybe we'd be smart be safer and do it when we get the machine in here Yeah, it's uh Beautiful day in the north main woods. I haven't seen anybody yet. I thought I heard one truck go by but Yeah, you okay Yeah, great great day so far I'm pumped. We made it up with no problems. I was really nervous. We're gonna lose an axle or tire or both or I don't know. That's a lot of weight Truck was she was she was squatting pretty hard She made it So we'll just put a little bit more weight on next time. See how much we can haul Keep adding a little bit till it breaks. Yeah, that's the main way When the grass on the right on the right, you know, they're big Is it just one? Oh, yeah, no, there's more chirping. I heard some more Yeah, look at how pretty they are. Oh third one, buddy I like when they do the run watch this Oh another one's gonna be right here The run is hilarious to me There it goes She must have because he's starting to go bigger one. They got like a little tough Over there be Yeah, oh That's gotta be the last time Yeah, this time the tree You see it. Yeah, he's looking at us Oh, yeah, that's gotta be a martin. It is a martin. It's dark. It looks almost black though. Summer coat on it Guys, there's a pine martin. Yeah, there he is. It's a martin for sure Bring that birch tree Well, that was pretty cool. I saw pine martin So that answers the question Donny and I had on the ride up if there was any fur in the area The three of us are still in the truck. We're uh, we're looking for some potential gravel pits that the loggers use to Make the roads up here and improve the roads and when they do ditch in or put culverts in And then we're going to see if we're if we can buy some of that gravel from the log company Bring an excavator up and put our own road in and get some underneath the can't so that's what we're doing now We're going for drive. We got to see those six baby grouse and the mother grouse and we got to see that pine martin and uh We saw a red tail hawk, which is they're awful hard on the grouse So you don't like seeing them around them baby grouse We did see one of them anything else we see Well, yeah, we saw the fox on the way in Stevie saw deer on the way in we haven't seen any moose yet, but we got our eyes peeled. So stick around You might get to see a moose Donnie and I steve is going to take off here pretty soon We want to try to get him on the road before he has to ride on uh root 11 We want to get him on that before the dark because that's a wicked moose crossing road And then Donnie and I might go for moose cruise tonight See if we can find anything So far we're We're really liking this area with the ridges There's a ton of ridges that is new to Stevie and I in the north main woods Areas we hunted were more green growth and swamp and not as much up and downs these these kind of Don't even look like areas of main that we've been We can see like the heart like big ridges up there. They got some green growth on top and saddles and stuff So So we're looking forward to exploring those and learning how to deer hunt them and see if there's some deer in this area And Donnie's looking forward to hunting the valleys underneath those ridges We're waiting for you to drive him down the hill He's gonna send us up and we're gonna send the deer down and there'll be nobody happier than Stevie and I When Donnie plugs one of them big bucks We put him up on the wall in the new camp Hello to the women for me. Yes, I will. How do you what's this? Oh, it's just a little tricky This this thing gets pushed in so you can't slam it you just gotta oh, okay I'll get it good enough Yeah, all right. We had a successful day a fun day. Yeah Well, it'd be fun learning this area, you know scout it out Oh, yeah That's the old camp Nice nice outbuilding Yeah Birds living in here. What do you see a bird? See all this oh There's a mouse shit. Oh my god. Look at all the mouse shit. Yeah mouse has been chewing probably living up in that Roof system look at all the mouse shit. Yeah, we've been either that a squirrel Yeah, could be a squirrel a lot of booze left up there. Yeah Probably a lot of memories made here. Yeah But they ain't ours by all the by all the names are on On that wall. I'm sure there's a lot of history to it Yeah We got the white perch came out of damaskotta lake and uh friend of mine caught them Brought me over a whole slug of them. Holy mackerel Squirrel or something in the house over here You came out? I can hear them chirping. I also got a brook trout. Oh, there you go from my range lay light here Nice lay down Nice little trappers cabin. She's sitting down in a hole and kind of sinking too Imagine the snow builds up pretty high on the sides of it and she chinked with Some kind of insulation. I guess her spray foam and she's coming apart. She's in some dire need of repair And it's just not worth it to us to fix this one. We're going to build another one Start from scratch build our own memories and And build a whole new trapping cabin for ourselves. Well, I was looking we look good You can eat that trout. I'd take perch over trout any day. Oh, yeah, I would too, but Thought I'd just throw it in. Yeah, you gotta have something for the fox Probably ought to cook all this up, hadn't I? Peace I don't know. What's he gonna eat it tomorrow? Well, I hadn't planned on it Looking good Donny You hear it? Yeah, you hear him. We're all too bad Stevie Couldn't stay I wouldn't want to ride that road in the nighttime No No I wish we could have come up tomorrow, but it didn't work out. Yeah, I mean yesterday Well, we're good I got a quart of strawberries and cut them up mashed them up We got strawberry shortcakes up here made some biscuits yesterday before I came up and Well, let's we got a little treat. I haven't had strawberry shortcake in a while Me neither Looks good If we can cut through the biscuits, I think we'll be all right Gonna need a sharper knife I was hoping the juice would soften them up. It did That's great Well, I brought two beers with me In the process of drinking one Now I'll be lugging the next one home. There you go I'm excited to show people at home your tent for tonight Yeah, my sleeping quad is a really Really exquisite That's for the hat. Yeah, that's fine. Okay. This isn't pretty level. That's not too bad That's how it might be higher where you are. Okay, maybe you're You've got a dry tent Hey, what a what a how Right. Yeah, this is great We had one stud in it before now we got another stud in it Well, folks, that's gonna do it for tonight pretty awesome day made it up here. No problems Got everything unloaded got to spend some time with steve and Really really happy for the day. Uh, it's just about dark. It's gonna get dark pretty quick here I'm gonna crawl into the old sack and do a little reading and Call it a night. We'll see you guys in the morning Thanks for tuning in Well, good morning. Good morning guys. We as you can see, we are on the road again 6 30 in the morning. Yep We've been on the road since about six I got up around four and it just has been pouring the whole day And morning Reigned super super hard last night. I'm sure it sounded pretty loud to you donny and that oh my gosh I slip in this uh trailer this closed in trailer and It sounded like a hurricane out there Yeah, it was it was really loud. It's a good thing. I'm a little bit deaf and And uh, didn't get the full Effect of it until I put the hearing aids in this morning and holy god It was wild. Yeah, so Yeah, I I slept in the truck. I got a bed in the back there I don't know if you guys can see it and same thing, you know, I could hear it all night I had a couple skeeters in there when I went to bed and I killed as many as I could Could get with the light and then I woke up this morning and there was two I squished into the ceiling and they were right full of blood So I'm guessing I know whose blood that was But I turned this thing on because we just saw moose And I wish we could have shown it to you guys But he he ran across that road so quick and down over in the bank Didn't even have time to grab the camera But it was pretty cool seeing a moose this morning and I'm sure they were out during the rain earlier today too Yeah, yeah, it's uh It looks like it might might clear off in the Towards the east here. It looks a little brighter right now But it's still sprinkling So yeah, we'll see how we make out the roads That we were on one You know if the rain keeps up it's going to really wash the road, but this Road we're on right now. It's here pretty good Well, the plan is we're going to try to find our way out of the woods today. We followed steve in so We didn't pay Super close attention to how we got in here, but we're going to time it See how long it takes to get out to tire road and If we could even make it out to the tire road And then we're going to work our way downstate again back home and Donnie and I are going to go We'll work the mill real hard this week in the mornings We got a lot of milling to do of hemlock for dimensional lumber. Yeah, that's that's going to be a Feet getting that up here. You know, we had a wicked big load of boards this time and And that hemlock really weighs up more than the pine So and it's all dimensional stuff. So that's that's going to be really heavy to move But we got a couple heavy-duty trailers That we can line up and And uh, so that's going to be a big help We'll see how that goes. Yep. So stay tuned. We're gonna We're gonna probably stop in portage lake area and see how the coffee tastes and maybe See if they got something to eat around there and we donnie brought up a slug of food to eat But this morning it was just Way too, too wet and rainy to mess around. Wow, look at that. It looks like a mud pit running down here A lot of popsoil going there. Yeah Quite a runoff going there So that's the story guys. Stay tuned might see something good coming up It is torrential roads are getting a little slick a lot of mud in this gravel We were gonna cut some trees today Start to clear some more of that lot, but I'm glad we didn't Yeah, you know damn well have been dripping down into your butt track. All right We'll be bringing some mud home donnie We'll be bringing some mud home. Yeah Well, we're we made it out to the town of portage Portage lake We tried to they told us to go eat at the dean's motor lodge, but