Once again into the Breach

 Whitecap Redux... Hike #82

View of Sunday River & Washington

Yesterday, we had a good day on the mountain with temps in the 60's and 70's. Today, it's 91 degrees. I can't breathe and Bailey is panting. We walked for 20 minutes along the Swift River in the shaded park and that was tolerable. Tomorrow, and for the next 4-5 days, we're back to late May weather with temps in the 60's and 70's. I could do without the heat and humidity. 

I love having Whitecap a quick ride away from the house. We ran into two sets of regulars. Ilse Dunbar who is the administrator of Maine Hiking and Christine and Donnie St. Cyr who hike 2-3 times a week and post regular evening photographs on "You Know Your [sic] from Rumford, If..." Facebook site. Yes, an unfortunate typo that is discussed at length every few weeks by newcomers who are aghast that we haven't fixed the flaw. Thing is, all the posts disappear when the title on a group is changed.

No hiking today. I'm sure I'd have the big one. Onward and HYOH.  

Calendar Year Triple Crown

 

Sammy Potter & Jackson Parell with Bailey Tuckerman 
Click on photos to enlarge. 

BACKPACKING 7,938 MILES…. Last fall, I read about two Stanford University students planning to escape Zoom classes to attempt the Triple Crown of backpacking: The Appalachian Trail (AT, 2,184 miles), the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT, 2,654 miles), and the Continental Divide Trail (CDT, 3,100 miles). Sammy Potter is a Mainer from Yarmouth whose trail name is Buzz; Jackson Parell is a Floridian whose trail name is Woody. (Yes, Toy Story.) 

Background: One of my research interests as a professor involves athletes’ writing (e.g., How does writing about a game, practice, or a performance like hiking help athletes learn and improve? http://www.writingathletes.com). In January, I wrote to Jackson and Sammy and asked if they’d be writing about their hike. Sure enough, they were. Since then, I’ve followed their trek on the Appalachian Trail and their midwinter transfers to the CDT and PCT.  

So here’s the fun part: Early this morning I saw a photo on Instagram that Sammy and Jackson posted from the Mahoosuc Mountain range here in western Maine right near where I live. I recognized the view and after some quick calculations, I headed north with Bailey. We drove to the Height of Land near Rangeley and hiked south on the Appalachian Trail. After a few hours on the AT we headed back to the Height of Land. Something told me to hang out for a bit longer and within 20 minutes, there’s Sammy, then Jackson. Random. Fun. 

To follow their attempt of the Calendar Year Triple Crown on Instagram go to @cytriplecrown. They’re good guys, and you’ll get a kick out of their posts, especially their video SnackChats.

Sammy & Jackson with Stanford classmate Evan

  

Off they go, NoBo: Northbound to Mt Kathadin

Trail 728.... Hike #76.... HYOH

It kind of looks like I mowed Prospect Avenue; 
I can guarantee that I did not. 
Click photos to enlarge. 

Mowing my lawn always seemed like a good workout and fairly simple. These days, I feel the challenge. It has to be the hills and the weight of the mower. Today, the first mow of the season, also saw the heat soaring up to the mid-70's. That's wicked hot for mid-May.   

Birthday Hike!

 

The Birthday Boy

 

Bailey hit the Big 11 today, May 14th, on Rumford's Whitecap. 

Hike #75 of 2021 and on we go. HYOH.

Father & Son. 

Old Speck in the distance

Sunday River and The White Mountains

Trail with phallus in the distance. (Sorry.)

That might be the back side of Puzzle Mt

Bailey and Carin

The Presidential Range in the distance

A sign

Carins toward Bailey's Carin

More signage

New bridge on new trail 

Even more signage

Dogs in Springtime.... Hike #69

 

So far this spring, Bailey's had one 48-hour case of giardia and one full-body roll in gamy turkey poop. Now, whenever he disappears on the trail, I have nothing but bad thoughts. Like yesterday, I waited for him a half mile from Whitecap's summit just across the first bridge. I didn't run back up nor did I scream--I just whistled gently, then whispered an invocation that I couldn't repeat on a public blog. Sounds selfish, I suppose, but I didn't want to stay up with a pukey dog suffering from intermittent rocket-blasts of diarrhea nor did I want the aroma of turkey poop smeared in my car. I know, I'm a shitty dog dad. Fortunately, it seems Bailey simply found perfect smells in the blueberry fields, and in his own time came trotting down the Orange trail happily wagging.  

Zooming right out the back door

 

The Final School Zoom Meeting

On Friday, I spent 5 hours on Zoom in two meetings and a lunch-time lecture. I listened 99.00% of the time. When I did speak about the writing center philosophy of emphasizing the writer over the writing product, I felt grounded and in my element. I thought of my writing teachers--James Britton, Nancy Martin, Carol Ellis, Dixie Goswami, Anne Wood, the Wild Count, Michael Armstrong... and my student-colleagues through the years. Otherwise... my Friday was the stuff of a 3:30am wake-up call. 

For nearly 20 years I've listened to well-meaning university colleagues talk.  I've lived through 3-hour meetings that could have either been a 15-minute chat or a one-page email. There's something about an academic that kicks their mouths into overdrive when in a gathering of other academics.  I remember the few times this happened to me at UMaine. I started talking and could not stop. Is this what it is to be an academic? Those times that I've jibber-jabbered on and on, I left the lunch or meeting thinking to myself, "What the fuck just happened to me?" 

Maybe talking a lot is the way many university people learn. Or maybe there's something else behind their words. Frustration? Impotence? A need to be recognized? Or perhaps this is the way they negotiate the world. I can't imagine what it's like to be an administrative assistant or another staff member at a university. Think of all the listening they have to do. Honestly.  

Glassface for #67

 

The Presidential Range from Glassface Mountain, Rumford Center
Click photos to enlarge. 

Not sure if I've missed the Presidential Range in previous hikes or whether the sky was just a hair cloudy. Today, however, we saw Mount Washington. 

The last of the snow on Sunday River's White Heat

Mount Washington

Tick magnet

Celebrating UMaine's Graduation with Hike #65

 

We're not having a live graduation again this year at UMaine, so professors and staff from my college prepared a quick video of congratulations. Bailey and I climbed Whitecap to do the honors--last year, we hiked Black Mountain to the true summit for the video. On another note, as we came down, we met a group of 6, 20-somethings about half way up Whitecap. One of the hikers had her leg amputated at the hip and hiked with those metal crutches that balance on your forearms and come about waist high. I love people who push through and live life. In a way, I suppose, that's all of us, missing parts or not. HYOH. 

This picture will be at the end of the video. 
Click on photos to enlarge. 

"I'm pooped. Where's my treat?" 

Sunday River & Mount Washington

Two Rumford friends posing with the poser. 

Just below Bailey's cairn. 

Joe Pond Trails

 

Thinking about treats. 

It's the end of the semester.  My body aches from sitting too much––Zoom meetings, presentations, reading and responding to student work, and the tension of doing it all well. This afternoon, after responding to a collection of writing, and in the midst of reading the opening 45 pages of a student's novel, I decided to take the Joe Pond loop from the house, to the town garage, toward the pond, and then back down toward the Virginia School. I ached like an old man during the hike;  I think Bailey does, too. This could be my last semester.  At this moment, that'd be just fine by me. Time will tell.