When this blog began, Bailey Tuckerman Kent was an 8-week-old Bernese Mountain Dog living in the western mountains of Maine with his writer dad, Rich. These are their stories.... and don't forget, click on most photos to enlarge.
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| Click on photos to enlarge. |
It'll be cold the next couple of days, but today, at 28 degrees, the hike reminded me of summer. On the Yellow Trail, we ran into two backcountry skiers who were traversing the mountain. We met them on the way down 4-5 times as they picked their ways down a stream bed with a few extra rocks. I could see what I figured was the cold front coming in from the west. It's not going to be fun the next two days. Back to "Yoga For Beginners" on Prime Video. :-) Ha!
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| Best Western in Rumford Click on photo to enlarge |
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| Black Mountain of Maine's New Lodge replete with AC! |
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| Bailey on Whitecap |
Bailey makes me laugh. I get a kick out of his waddling butt and his early-morning howls in anticipation of breakfast. Some nights, he leaps up onto my bed and hogs 3/4 of the space. Later on, I'll wake up to see that he's lying on his back, feet and legs sticking into the air... I can't help but laugh even at three in the morning. In the evening after a tough hike, he'll retreat to "his" bedroom and go to sleep around 8:30pm. He's like an old man... But then, most mornings when I'm trying to read and many evenings when I'm comatose on the couch in front of the evening news, he'll yank out one of his toys (like below with Andy the Anteater) and sit in front of me play-growling with a muted bark. Drives me nuts. Some times I chase him; some times I just stand up and eye him. When I have exchange students, I turn toward them and point at Bailey, saying, "This is why you're here." They laugh, get up, and chase him throughout the rooms of the first floor. That's Bailey.
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| After the Whitecap hike |
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| Late evening when he's had quite enough. |
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| Treat? |
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| Watching me take down the garbage. |
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| Still watching... |
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| Even more... |
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| "What? You didn't want me to help, right?" |
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| Co-pilot in The Rig. |
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| Bailey: I'll do anything for a treat. |
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| On the summit of Whitecap-- well below zero with the wind. |
One issue non hikers might not think about is foot health. In the Army, we were always lectured about keeping our feet dry and clean. As a day hiker, I have to keep my eye on my feet, knees, hips, and toes along with hydration. I've battled a toenail issue for several years. On the way down a mountain, the front of your shoe tends to slam into your big toe. That, in turn, can crack a toe nail. And there you have it... a problem.
Yesterday, on Whitecap, the pain in my left big toe disappeared on the way up, but on the way down, I had to adjust my foot plant so I didn't irritate that toe. I do minor "surgery" before each hike to wrap my toe and sometimes add gauze beneath the toenail. It's what happens when you hike. Above is the foot of a long-distance hiker I follow named Crunchmaster who has hiked 13,500+ miles over the past few years. That's what happens to your feet when you hike 25 miles a day. As for me, I might hike 25 miles in a week!
Here are photos of Whitecap on a beautiful, January day at 15 degrees.
On New Year's Day, Bailey and I were hiking on Rumford's Whitecap Mountain with long-time friends Kathy and Jim Bennett. On the descent, I crossed paths with Meika Hashimoto, a student in my last class at Mountain Valley High School back in 1998-1999.
This morning I finished her book, The Trail, and wrote reviews for Amazon, a hiking website I'm on, and Facebook...
ANOTHER RIVER VALLEY WRITER! Bailey and I were hiking Whitecap recently when we crossed paths with Mountain Valley HS graduate Meika Hashimoto. A book editor and author, Meika has written "The Trail," a Scholastic book for 7- to 12-year-olds. The good news? This 229-page story about a boy, a dog, and an Appalachian Trail adventure will hook readers of any age. I loved every page. Congratulations, Meika!
I love celebrating local authors, especially friends or former students. I know well, and from experience, the struggles they face with writing and publishing.
This week, real winter weather will strike midweek. Today, at 30 degrees, I decided to climb Whitecap yet again even after climbing Red Hill yesterday. Bailey did a good job with these back-to-back hikes. There's a video down below that has him jumping a stream in youthful fashion. Good boy, Bailey.
Three-quarters of the way down the course, I traversed the slope and cut back hard across the fall line. I was wearing 207cm K2 Comp skis that I now realize were too long for a light-weight like me. The two bones in my lower right leg broke across the top of my leather boots--thing is, I had not fallen. You're probably wondering how my bones broke without a fall? The straps kept my boots in place and the torque in the turn... well, something had to give and that something were my leg-bones.
Immediately, my lower leg went numb. I leaned into the slope, dropped onto my hip and shoulder, and skidded to a stop. It sounds like I did this intentionally, but to be honest, I just did what came natural. The fall was not a wild crash. People along the race course thought I'd just lost my edge, slipped, and fell. Fortunately, the ski patrol knew better.
I don't remember pain until later on in the hospital when the spinal anesthesia wore off and the pain seared through my leg up through my body.
That "spinal," as it was called, is also known as an epidural or spinal block. A local anesthetic is injected near the spinal cord and nerve roots. It blocks pain from the entire lower region. It was then that the fun took place. The doctor asked me to reach up and hold onto the top of the operating table while he (and maybe a nurse) yanked on my foot to bring the two bones back into alignment. Don't worry, I didn't feel a thing. But I have for the past 50 years.
The doctor got 80% retraction and that would look something like this:
After six months in different casts, the leg built up calcium deposits around the jagged edges. Here's what the healed leg looked like in the 1980s in an X-Ray taken by my personal physician at the time time, my brother Fred. No, I didn't have health insurance. Thank goodness for the good care at the Countryside Animal Hospital!
Having a minor physical issue like a crooked leg, which could have been a major problem if I didn't keep hiking and exercising, has kept me in-tuned with my body for the past 50 years. I used to have a road biking partner who was also an orthopedic surgeon. In the 1980s, he'd be drafting off me on some long ride out to Andover or thereabouts, and would periodically remark, "Some day you're going to have a problem with that knee." So far, I have not. Time to gear up and go for a hike.
We stopped by the Gray Memorial, the site of a long-ago plane crash that killed 2. One survived. My other purpose in climbing Will was to see if I were mistaken about seeing Sunday River from along the summit trail. Not only did we see splashes of the seven-mountain ski resort where I worked in the late 1970s and early 1980s, now there's a home (a ski chalet?) about 150 yards from the summit trail that has a full-on view of the mountain. There's a snowmobile trail that winds its way up from the house, but I didn't go closer to the home than about 75 yards. They've earned their privacy.
