For content related to stuff I do for fun, like hiking, skiing, swimming...
Feeding chickadees
(February 2020)
It’s not that far, really.
Just off my back deck and down the hill
Through what I still remember as pasture for our mare,
To the little wooden foot bridge o’er the stream.
No, it’s not that far in steps, though in full winter
When the snow is newly deep, the going is slow and makes you wish
You’d bothered with your snow shoes.
I love to snowshoe in the fields and woods behind my house.
I have been interesting in photography for as long as I can remember. I love art and tried water colors, oil painting, charcoal, pastels, and pen and ink drawings. I was a dismal failure. I always knew what I wanted a piece to look like, but I could never make it happen. But photography seems to be something I can do.
I began in my early teens using my mother's very old Kodak Duo Six Twenty camera to take family photos on holidays and vacation trips. I still have many of those family photos.
With a solid 18 inches of snow and the much appreciated work of our expert grooming crew, I had my first real skinny skiing session of the season. It was 11 F when I started, and the temperature was on the way down. But the sky was blue, the tracks were great, and the cold weather kept the crowds down.
It is going to be very cold for the next 10 days, so we are off to a good start. Some photos:
After decades of hiking, camping, canoeing, kayaking and swimming in various back country environments, it finally happened. I have been colonized. Beaver fever, also known as giardiasis, caused by the protozoan Giardia lamblia. Enjoying my metronidazole.
First hike of the season and it’s official: I’m out of shape.
The plan was to do Baldpate via the AT from Grafton Notch, and I was enthusiastic enough to be fully packed before I went to bed the night before, up at 5:00, on the road at 6 and at the trailhead by 7:30:
The first of November is the official end of the trail running season and the first of December is the official start of the Nordic skiing season. November serves as a transition month.
I found this on a scrap of paper tucked inside an old version of the Appalachian Mountain Guide. I suspect I copied it from a Hut register, though I do not remember. My note indicates it was written by Poetry Man in 1993.
Every experienced backpacker has a collection of newbie stories suitable for teaching and humor. One of my favorites involves a young couple looking for romantic adventure.
My first hike of the season is always both tentative and special. Tentative because I can never be sure of either the trail conditions or my body. Special, because the mountains are my friends and restorers.