ABC's 'Good Morning America' shoots in Mason Township

Last Saturday afternoon, Steve Crone stopped by to get his mail as I was dropping off a couple logs on my woodpile across the road from the mailboxes. He said, “I’ve got a good story for you.”

“Oh. What is that about?” “I can’t tell you now. You’ll have to come up to the Inn, and I’ll show you.”

“Okay. Do you want me to come up now?”

“No. Make it late tomorrow afternoon. I’ve got some guys doing some stuff with the dogs over at Umbagog Recreation area tomorrow, and we’re coming back to the Inn.” (Telemark Inn at the end of the Kings Highway).

“Okay. See you then.”

I drove up to the Inn about 4:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon. Leo Jost came out to greet me, and I told her Steve invited me up to see some people, but he didn’t say who or what they were doing.

Leo laughed and said, “They are from the ABC Good Morning America TV program, doing some shooting with the dog teams and skiis and stuff, and they wanted to make a video of primitive camping using the teepee up here on the hill.”

“Really! I think I’m a little out of my league with that.”

“Well, they are still up at Umbagog, and I don’t expect them to get back before 6:00 p.m. or a little later. You can take a look at our teepee there and come back later to meet them and perhaps get a story.” “It’ll be dark by then, so there wont be much for pictures, but I’ll be back.”

I went back to the Telemark Inn a little after 6:30 p.m. Steve led me inside and introduced me to the three-man crew from ABC, who were relaxing by the fire.

They were chief cameraman Gary Wynn, producer Cameron Brock, and Cameron Mathison, correspondent for “Good Morning America.” Mathison told me he also starred in “All My Children,” “Dancing With the Stars,” and “Desperate Housewives.”

All three men were friendly, easy going and seemed to accept a country boy like me.

Mathison talked about his experiences that day with the dogs at Umbagog. He said he had never been on a snowboard before, especially with a dog pulling, and he wasn’t sure about the right way to begin. He took a tumble shortly after starting, landing pretty hard on his shoulder.

This scared Steve, but Mathison said he learned from the fall and did a lot better after that. He also got in some quality time on cross-country skis behind the dogs.

After some more chit chat, they let me to take a photo of the three of them, before we all headed out back and up the little path to the teepee. I was unfamiliar with Mona’s camera, and Gary Wynn helped get it set properly. I wasn’t quite sure what I was supposed to do as they headed toward the teepee, but Steve beckoned me to accompany them.

A young lady, Jocelyn Bradberry, was in the path holding a sled dog (Harvey) by a towing lead, waiting for the next camera shot.

The teepee was lighted only by a couple of candles, but Steve brought a bucket of live coals, which he placed in a mound in the center of the teepee floor. Then he placed sticks of kindling wood on the mound, making a teepee out of them, but the kindling just kind of smoldered, without bursting into flames.

I suggested we blow on the coals to ignite the sticks, but this was a slow process, so Steve improvised a “blowpipe” out of an old aluminum ski pole (hollow).

Using this pipe, he was able to “blow up” a pretty nice cheerie fire in short order, smoking up the teepee in the process.

Not to worry. The teepee had an inner lining of material stretching from the floor to about 6’ above ground level. “As soon as the top of the teepee starts to warm up the cool air will rise up along the inner wall of the teepee and vent the smoke right up and out the smoke hole.” And it did.

As the teepee was being warmed by the fire, the camera crew (Gary and Cameron Brock) set up for a shot of Mathison on skis being pulled up to the front of the teepee by Harvey, in the light of an outdoor campfire.

The preparation for this shot took much longer than the shooting, and I couldn’t get a photo due to the dark.

Steve and the shooting crew went into the tent, where Mathison planned to spend the night with Harvey. I excused myself due to the late hour and because I was getting cold.

Steve told me they planned to get some more shots of Mathison skiing behind a horse at the alpaca farm on the Flat Road the next day, but I wasn’t invited to join them.

I was planning to be logging.

Born in Ottawa, Mathison was quite at home in Steve Crone's teepee in the winter woods of Maine.