Again in 2019, the annual Maine Red Hot Dog Festival kicked off with the Millside Fitness Bun Run 5K on Aug. 9 with 54 runners racing through the streets of Dexter. Perry Lebreton, 44 of Old Town, won the Bun Run in a time of 18 minutes, 14 seconds.

The Gary Wakeland Memorial 5K was held on the morning of Saturday, Aug. 10 in conjunction with the town celebration of Bowerbank Days, an event that occurs every five years.

The Gerrish Gravel Crushers defeated Save-A-Lot by a score of 12-7 in the 2019 Piscataquis Regional YMCA adult coed softball league championship game on Aug. 4. The win marks the fourth consecutive championship for the Gerrish Gravel Crushers.

Recent Penquis Valley High School graduate Cymeria Robshaw, who will be attending the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, was recognized as a Red Sox Service Scholarship recipient during a pregame ceremony at Fenway Park before the Red Sox-Tampa Bay Rays game on July 30. The program awarded students from public high schools across New England with $1,000 scholarships toward their college education based on academic performance, financial aid eligibility and demonstrated community service.

Difficulty: Very strenuous. The trail is 5.2 miles, one-way, and has an elevation gain 4,188 feet. The trail is extremely steep while traveling along Hunt Spur, a narrow, rocky ridge on the west side of the mountain. Many sections on the spur require hand-over-foot climbing. A few metal rungs embedded in rocks help hikers navigate sections where there aren’t any natural handholds and footholds in the boulders.

Difficulty: Easy to moderate, depending on the weather conditions and how much of the 96-acre pond you explore. Paddling along the shore around the entire pond is a little over 2 miles.

Rico Portalatin, 48 of Milo, won the men’s age 45-49 division at the 22nd annual TD Beach to Beacon 10K on the morning of Aug. 3. Portalatin covered the 6.2 miles in a time of 35 minutes, 8 seconds to best 277 other runners in his age group. He also placed 111th overall out a field of 6,414 finishers.

DOVER-FOXCROFT — For the last 23 years Foxcroft Academy graduates, community members and visitors to the region have been able to kick off the Saturday of Foxcroft Academy Alumni Weekend/Dover-Foxcroft Shiretown Homecoming by running in the Pony Pride 5K.

Brothers Jackson and Landon Smith of the Foxcroft Youth Track club combined to win three events and place in the top two in four overall during the 14 & Under USATF-Maine Association State Championship Group D qualifier on Aug. 1 at the Brewer Community School.

Whether you are a hunter or just an outdoor person with a fascination for wildlife in its natural surroundings, a trail camera is a useful device that allows you to not only get some great photos of wildlife, but figure out which animals are moving and at what time of the day.

More than a dozen residents from across the region took part in the 2019 Tough Mountain Challenge at Sunday River on July 27. Gail Clark, 54 of Atkinson, covered the course in a time of 1 hour, 6 minutes and 53 seconds to place 395th among 2,841 entrants getting all the way through.

Before the hiking (and the sweating and swatting of flies), and before the fishing, Jay Robinson of Woodville prepared for a trek into one of his favorite places, a trouty water he would prefer to be called “The Pond Behind the Rock” rather than by its real name.

Friends of Community Fitness held its 14th annual Fitness 5K, as part of the Piscataquis River Festival, on the morning of July 27 with the following results:

It’s no secret what the most important challenges facing the high school sports officiating ranks around Maine and the nation are -- recruitment and retention. Jeff Benson of Auburn hopes to combat those challenges as the state’s first commissioner of officials.

For the 18th consecutive summer wrestlers in grades 5-12 from across Maine came to town to learn techniques and skills they can use during the upcoming scholastic season at the Foxcroft Academy Olympic Wrestling Camp held July 23-26. The camp features guest clinicians and this year the younger grapplers had the opportunity to learn from two Maine wrestlers who have gone on to earn collegiate All-American status.

DOVER-FOXCROFT -- In conjunction with Foxcroft Academy’s Alumni Weekend and the Dover-Foxcroft Shiretown Homecoming, the 23rd annual Pony Pride 5K will be open to all and run at 8 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 3. For the fourth year in a row, the 3.1-mile event is starting and ending on the campus of Foxcroft Academy.

The Big Pine Gun Club Youth Foundation sponsored its first Conservation Camp the week of June 24 at the Big Pine Gun Club in Willimantic. Fifteen campers, aged 12-17, participated in the week-long camp. Campers learned to safely handle, load, unload, and shoot rifles, shotguns, crossbows, and standard archery equipment. They also practiced survival skills in the Maine woods and reviewed basic first aid.

Al Hackett, a member of the University of Maine and State of Maine Baseball Halls of Fame, died at his home in Orono on July 13 after a bout with cancer. He was 88.