Backcountry Gourmet
Jesika Lucarelli, owner and founder of Great Mountain Guide Service, knows the Katahdin region’s woods and waters as well as you’d think for someone that’s been leading guided adventures there for the last thirteen years. Jes and I have had some incredible trips together: ski-in huts, Katahdin ascents, river trips. As our friendship grew—and our appetite for adventures, together, too—we realized we had a shared passion: cooking. Jes was always amazed by the campsite creations I’d cook up when tagging along on a guided trip; we’d sit up late together and share bourbon from a camp mug after her guests retired to their tents for the night and scheme about finding a way to incorporate gourmet cooking into more backcountry trips. We agreed that a stretch of the East Branch Penobscot we’d both paddled and camped together, and that she knew particularly well, would be a great fit for a backcountry gourmet expedition. We found guests, planned the logistics, and wrote a menu—going so far as to include wine pairing suggestions.
After months of planning, finally, we met our guests at a gas station in Millinocket and led a convoy of vehicles through a network of questionable dirt roads to a private camp a few miles down river from where the East Branch flows out of Matagamon Lake. I shucked oysters and served lobster rolls griddled in herb butter while Jes packed our boats. Over the next three days we experienced every kind of weather imaginable: wind and rain so extreme that we truly thought out tents wouldn’t stay standing, luxurious summer sun while we lunched and swam on a pebble beach along the river, and misty mornings as we trimmed our boats for a day of paddling. A constant through this all: excellent food. Seared halibut with a bourbon butter pan sauce. Steak tartare. Caviar service. Roasted duck. Hot dogs with smoked trout roe. After years of scheming, Jes and I had finally found a way to bring gourmet experiences to adventurous, backcountry outings.
