The AT South off East-B Hill

Once again we delighted in the Appalachian Trail off East-B Hill. The sun on this late afternoon hike created a wide array of enticing shadows. Even more, Bailey got to swim in the chilly water... I'm sure that made his day. 

Hiking Black/White & Black Mountain

Bailey waiting for the hike

Black Mountain is 6.2 miles away or what takes me 11 minutes to drive. We hike the ski area 2 times a week in the off season and then sneak on during the ski season when the weather is good and none's around. Usually, that's Mondays. Who knows what will happen this winter with COVID. 

Yesterday, we trekked up the Black/White Trail (Black Mountain and Whitecap Mountain connecting trail) and drifted down the longest ski trail on the mountain known as Allagash. The mountain manager, Jim, has been out cutting the trails, so the slopes were easy to negotiate. It's wild to think I've been going to Black Mountain since 1961 and it still doesn't get old. 

Kristin & Ryan's Wedding

Kristin & Ryan in Weld a few days before their wedding. 

With COVID-19, life is different. We endure. Yesterday, Kristin and Ryan were married in Charleston, SC with just immediate family in attendance. However, around 80 of us joined via a video link. The audio didn't do the service justice, but I sure liked watching the affair with Pam & Fred and Anna & Allen. Here's to the newest Kent family... many happy days. 

Mom and Dad with Ry-Ry

Ryan and mom Anne

Tyler, Ryan, and Rob

                                                     Some of the Kent uncles and aunts

Kristin played varsity soccer at Stanford University, 

so Bailey chose an appropriate necktie. 

Vows

Cake craziness

The video feed afterwards. The bride and groom 

saying hello to all of us.

"Take my picture for Kristin."

Cousin Ian and Julie in Weld watching the service. 

The Fireplace Trail on Center Hill

Fireplace off the summit of Center Hill

I'm guessing that I've hiked the Center Hill trail 100 times over the course of my lifetime. But yesterday my cousin Ian told me about a new trail off the summit that slithers past an ancient fireplace set about 100 meters off the summit. That granite tourist perch has 180-degree views of the Tumbledown mountain range, Byron Notch, and the lake.  This new trail (marked in orange tags) seems made for snowshoers, and after a mile of hiking merges with the ATV trail down near the Ranger's home. What I find remarkable is that this old fireplace may be a football field from the summit. It's been there a long time, and reminds me of the fireplace my cousins had next to their camp in the 1950s. I picture folks from Weld coming up to the summit for picnics and early evening dinners cooking their burgers on this open hearth. It's kind of fun to think of these gatherings in a place that I thought I knew so well.  

Fireplace Trail marked with orange tags

The Hobbit Trail is just above the ATV trails and is marked in yellow. I did 

not follow those yellow flags. 

After the Hike: Bailey slow motion drinking

Hiking with a Friend

                 

Whitecap Mountain, Rumford, Maine. September 1, 2020

Josie Bray is a former high school English student of mine, my coauthor of Writing the Dance, a choreographer, an instructor at Emerson College (Boston), a Level 3 Franklin Method Educator, and a newly-minted creative producer whose show, Trevor, the Musical, is waiting for its post-COVID-19 launch at Stage 42, 422 West 42nd Street, New York. 

On Monday afternoon, we slugged up over Whitecap Mountain and talked about everyanything the entire way. What an engaging time between old friends.   

In high school, Josie spent her last quarter of the school year in my high school English classroom choreographing a dance and exploring all she could about the art she loved. What a performance she gave. 

I've written a slew of recommendations over the past 45 years. One of my favorites is the one I wrote for Josie as an 18-year-old heading to college. 

 

                     Click on photos to enlarge

Mill Town

 

I've known Kerri since the early 1980s. When she graduated from Beloit College (WI) she moved back to coach skiing, substitute teach, and cobble together jobs not unlike what I'd done when I first moved home to write. Later, in the early 2000's, she started studying her family and our community, the mill and cancer. In 2008, she jumped into an MFA program at the New School. Fast forward 12 years and she's written "the book of a lifetime" in Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains. I couldn't be happier for her. 

When writing friends publish books--Kate Kennedy's Skin, A Memoir; Darren Worcester's Open Season: True Stories of the Maine Warden Service; Monica Wood's The One-in-a-Million Boy--I feel such vicarious joy for them and for all writers. Writing's hard; publishing that writing challenges most of us. 

Here's to Kerri and her book-- she's earned this experience through decades of work.