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TTFrese
In June of this year my husband and I took our first trip to Maine. After time in Acadia we headed up to Moosehead Lake. My goal was simple- beautiful countryside and finding moose! After spending my childhood in Alaska it has been many years since I have seen some of the same wildlife. After reading reviews I had booked Youngs. Glad I did! Chris is very professional and super friendly. He picked us up at the Inn, go as early as possible, and took us down the road. You could drive forever on the back roads and never see anyone else or anything. Chris new the opportune spots for beauty and wildlife. We took canoes on a pristine pond and saw a yearling moose following a mother duck and her young with her nose to the ground. If you have limited time in Maine make the most of it by spending one day with a guide. Young's was excellent.
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AB31
I love Tripadvisor and am thankful that people take the time to post reviews. Once again, Tripadvisor helped us book the highlight of our trip, Young's Guide Service. If we ever get back to this area, I won't hesitate to book a second trip with Chris. It was an incredible experience for me. We stayed at Balsam Woods Campground about 20 miles or so from Greenville so we were up at 3:30 am. I know this would kill some people to get up that early but it is so worth it. The night sky was unlike I've ever seen. Without any light pollution, the sky was so black that it looked like you could reach up and touch the stars. Beautiful and a great way to start the day. Chris picked my husband and I up promptly at 5:00am at our designated parking area in Greenville and we were off on our adventure. I think it was probably a 45 minute drive to the "pond". Not sure because I paid no attention to the time and the trip flew by because Chris pointed out 5, yes 5 moose before we even got to the pond. Mind you, I wouldn't have ever spotted them on my own, well except for the pair that crossed the road in front of us! I had tried not to get my hopes up because after all, it was August and I had read that with warm temperatures, the animals are just not as active. I couldn't believe how lucky we were to have seen 5! We parked and walked down a trail to find a couple of Chris's canoes. He asked if we wanted to paddle our own or ride with him. We chose to ride with him. I guess he paddled 30 minutes or so. I don't know because I was mesmerized. The scenery in Maine is just incredible. Here we are in the middle of nowhere, on a pristine "pond", in complete silence with the exception of hearing the loons, magical. Not sure why Maine calls their bodies of water ponds because they are lakes anywhere else. Just want to be clear this is not a teeny tiny pond that most people may think of.Anyway, I am in awe yet once again. We come around a bend and Chris stops and points out a young Moose standing in the water eating. Oh my gosh, you have got to go. I can't do this trip justice. I am sitting in a canoe, watching this moose stomping around in the water and seeing the water run down his face! We probably watched him for 30 minutes. An incredible, once in a lifetime experience to see a moose in his natural habitat. We also booked a fishing trip with Chris the next day. Once again, incredible scenery. We fished a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains and watched the sunrise. We caught Togue and grilled them for dinner that evening. Chris I hope you enjoyed the wild caught North Carolina shrimp as much as we did the moose. If you want to stay in the area, Chris's family has some little cabins on Wilson Pond that are about 3 miles from the town of Greenville. I didn't see the inside of them but they looked fine on the outside and the grounds are pretty.I promise you won't be disappointed if you book a trip with Young's. He has a clean, comfortable truck for the ride and is extremely knowledgable and professional. Thanks Chris for helping us to mark a moose off my bucket list.
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ptw18
Our moose safari with Chris was great! He knows all of the best places to find moose. We even got to see a rare white moose.
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rpriceshuck
My husband and myself took this trip to Maine as a 30th wedding anniversary we wanted to experience both the mountain area and the coast. My husband is an avid outdoors man we live season to season: deer season, duck season and so on,. We wanted to see moose while in Greenville and Chris Young was a guide given to us by our hotel. My husband called to make arrangements and the only thing available was Tuesday morning and we had planned on leaving Greenville on Monday, but Chris made such an impression that we decided to stay another day just to go on a moose safari and we were not disappointed. Chris has such passion for this area and the wildlife in it. It was very foggy that morning so he took us by canoe knowing water was not my first choice he took such care to make me comfortable and secure and we saw 7 moose that day and beautiful scenery. The best part of our time in Maine. Thank you Chris come see us in KY
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472js
Why? So the next time I book another Moose Safari [and believe me, I will], I don't need the competition when it comes to scheduling it!Chris is very personable, clearly knowledgeable, and has the uncanny talent to make you feel that you are getting preferred treatment [as in, a longer tour, for instance], while making sure he gets you back to your pick up spot in time for breakfast.No early risers at heart here, the required early rise time put us in know mood for early chatter, and Chris let us 'ease into' our adventure while driving us to his prime spotting locations for Moose. As the morning progressed, sleepiness gave way to excitement as Chris located tracks, and the 'hunt' was on. Within minutes a mother and her calf were spotted. Pretty amazing. I cannot recommend nor thank Chris enough for his professionalism, his clearly apparent passion for what his does, and for making our Moose tour a really pleasurable trip.
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EllyJH
We thoroughly enjoyed our early morning Moose Safari with Chris. It was just my family and so had the personal touch which made for a much better experience. He took us to the most stunning pond ever. The sun was just rising and the mist was rising off the pond and I was in absolute awe at the beauty of it and would have been happy even if we hadn't seen a Moose but of course we did, 3 in fact and we were close enough to hear them lapping up the pond weed and see the water dropping from there faces. My husband took some stunning photos and all in all we had the most amazing morning. It was a real pleasure to meet Chris and hear about life in the gorgeous Greenville/Moosehead Lake area. I cannot recommend Youngs highly enough!!!
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kimrosencrans1
Beth was the sweetest most wonderful woman for assisting in booking this guide. She is a lovely person. Chris knows his stuff and makes you feel comfortable while in the truck and on the lake, which is big for me. I don't really like the water much, he made me feel safe. He knew all there was to know about the area and every moose fact there is. He was polite and kind I felt like I was with and old friend, this was one of the best if not the best tour I have ever been on. Will recommend to others and will do again if in the area. His respect for moose and the environment meant a lot to me. From one Golden Retriever lover to another, give Sage a hug for us. Thanks again Beth and Chris, you are truly one of a kind.
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K9191AStinab
My family and I visited Greenville Maine just to look at the moose. After much research we found Chris and his guided tours. It was worth every second of research. Chris was very informative, professional, personable, friendly, and an all around great guy. We were his very first Missouri family and after talking with him we are pretty sure that in any conflict Maine and Missouri will be fast friends. Chris answered all our questions, took us where we wanted to go, and was great with our kids. We got really close to several moose and have excellent pictures. We learned a lot about moose as well as having some great conversation with Chris. Thanks for the wonderful and memorable time. Keep the faith brother.
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David-and-Theresa
We decided to book a Moose Canoe Safari and with the help of TripAdvisor we chose Chris of Young's Guide Service. Everything was organised efficiently through his wife Beth via email and it was arranged for Chris to collect us from our lodgings at 6pm. Right on time Chris arrived and introduced himself and during the half hour or so drive to the pond Chris filled us in on all things Moose !The pond was tranquility itself and Chris got us on the water the two of us who had canoed before (some 30+ years ago) were trusted to have a canoe to ourselves, the females were expertly looked after by Chris and gave the appearance as if they were in the Maine version of the African Queen or similar !Due to a boat containing noisy children Chris persevered looking for Moose without success so he made a judgement call to take us to another location. No Moose was not a deal breaker to us as experiencing the calmness and in the main tranquility of floating on the water was a vacation memory.However a short drive away we parked in the woods and headed a few hundred yards to the shore of a lake / pond and as we came out of the trees we saw a large Bull Moose in the water a few hundred yards away and due to the silence we could hear his moving in the water when immersing his head to get food. Well within minutes there was another Bull Moose directly opposite us on the banks of the pond and then another. What a sight, what an experience,what a privilege.We then drove back during which a young male ran across in front of us and stood nearby allowing us a look at him in all his glory. During the ride back to our lodging we were treated to other sightings of Moose and Deer all of which were spotted by Chris well before us mere mortals saw anything.Overall this was money well spent seeing Moose was a bonus being out on the water initially in what was a tranquil calm environment was awesome. Chris is a man who obviously loves his job an readily accepts it is privilege work in the field he does and made sure we understood the large part his wife Beth played in the business. Congratulations Chris and Beth you deserve every success with this venture.
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mudballer
Chris, I promised I would write a review and how could I not after the wonderful experience you gave us. We will remember this for a lifetime. I will first start with making our reservation with your wife Beth. She was nothing but nice the entire time even though I bugged her with multiple date options. She went above and beyond by emailing me back several weeks later to see if we were still interested in a certain date because you were booking up. You don't know how much I appreciated that. Now onto the moose safari, Chris picked us up at our campground at 6PM. He informed us he's been watching the weather all day and almost cancelled due to some threatening conditions. Luckily for us, he did not and it ended up being an absolute gorgeous evening. My husband and Chris hit it off right away since my husband is a hunter. They shared experiences for the hour drive to the lake. On the way to the lake we saw at least 3 moose that Chris used his moose call to keep around so we had plenty of photo opportunities. Once we got to the lake, he supplied us with life jackets and some heavy duty bug spray. Before we even got in the canoe's he already spotted 2 moose in the lake. We paddled out to get a closer look but not too close because Chris is all about safety. Plenty close enough to get some great photo's in this gorgeous setting. At one point the one moose swam over closer to the other and we were able to get a picture of them both closer together. We spent about an hour and a half on the lake and as we were paddling back, sure enough another moose. When we got out of the boats we just stood and watched the moose and the sun starting to fade and light up the hills around us. As Chris said, "That is why they say Purple Mountains Majesty". All around he is just a great guy and we hope to meet again someday. I know my husband Josh is still wanting to switch a white tail hunt for a moose hunt. Anyway walking back to his truck, he noticed the moose on the move and told us to be quiet and follow him back to the lake quickly. We got back to the lake just in time to see the moose walk by in the water with the sun setting and the hills lit up behind it. Like I said, we will remember this for a lifetime. On the way back to the campground, we saw even more moose, totalling 9 moose on our experience. I can not thank you Chris and Beth enough.
