90+ Degrees on Black/White Trail

This hot and sticky day, Bailey stayed at Sharon's Daycare while I hiked Black Mountain in the toughest heat of this year. Like many of us, Bailey needs a few weeks to acclimate to temperature changes (well, but not to cold weather), so hanging out with Sharon is the very best alternative. It's hard to believe but just 12 days ago we had snow... now, skyrocketing temperatures. Heat or not, it's good to have my knee somewhat recovered and the trail available.

Hiking Bretton Woods

Mount Washington Hotel and the cloud encased Mount Washington

I've been sidelined from hiking for the past few weeks due to a bout of patella tendonitis (a knee issue). Today, I intended to take a big loop around the White Mountains in New Hampshire stopping here and there for walks. Half way around the loop I stopped The Rig at Bretton Woods ski area, just opposite the Mount Washington Hotel and Mount Washington. I figure that Bailey and I could stretch our legs and pee on the mountain. About an hour later we had summited. Odd how that goes. I didn't think my knee would handle a strenuous hike, but lo and behold no issues. I'm thinking it may be my new hiking shoes that have caused an issue. Remember: Click photos to enlarge. 

Again? 

Four feet near the summit

Race information 1/4 of the way up

Lodge

Mountain map

Near the summit lodge and conference center

Good view of Mount Washington with the Cog Railway on the left

Conference center and lodge at summit

From a parking lot near the mountain

Happy 10th Birthday, Bailey Tuckerman!

On selection day, June 2010.

It's hard to believe that Bailey is 10 today. It seems like last week that I trucked up to the base of Sunday River with my friends, Kate and Gayle, to choose this little guy. From the second I saw the 3 little pups tripping around in the grass, I fell in love. And I especially loved Bailey's mom, Maggie. What a mellow, loving dog she was.

Yesterday, we hiked Whitecap Mountain in a steady wind. Near the western summit I broke into an intermittent jog. Today, I'm paying for it. I thought Bailey would be a bit stiff today, too--but, he's not showing any signs of the hike. So, I think we'll take Black Mountain today because it has Bailey's favorite feature... snow. 

Since May 2019, Bailey and I have taken 194 hikes. Many of them have been short 60- to 90-minute hikes. But quite a few have been longer like Burke Mountain (VT),  Saddleback (ME), and the Black/White Trail in town.

What's next? Well, we'll see how our legs and bodies hold out. I can't think of a better way to spend a life than hiking with a good dog.

Saddleback

Road trip in May 2020 around Rangeley and Weld

Saddleback

  

Climbing Whitecap's Yellow Trail

I hadn't planned on traversing Whitecap's face, but with snow arriving today (yes, May 9th), I decided I best enjoy a longer hike. On the west side cliff ascent, I ran into a guy from southern Maine and we chatted for 5 minutes. After the traverse to what I like to call the western summit, we ran into a family of five and then 3 kids from the local high school. On this trip, I took photos of cairns and a little bit of the view.

First ascent up the Whitecap cliffs

Bailey just above the cliffs waiting for me to catch up. 

Trail after the first cliffs

Just before the western summit 

From the western summit--Sunday River ski resort poking over the first mountain and
Mt Washington (NH) in the far back. 

Heading back down at the Black/White trail intersection

Heading back down at the Black/White trail intersection

Sunday River's Whitecap with its steep trails. 

Bailey awaiting a treat after the hike. 

True Summit of Black Mountain for UMaine Video

Happy Graduation Class of 2020!

Our college is putting together a collage of well wishes from staff members and professors. I decided to record mine on the top of Black Mountain.

We hiked 4.2 miles. The top of Black had 2 feet of snow and, of course,
I fell through at one point and soaked my feet. No problem--it was 61 degrees! 

Whitecap then Sunday River, then the White Mountains in New Hampshire.

Whitecap granite top then Sunday River ski area, the White Mountains in New Hampshire. 

AllTrails app

There's no way I burned 1224 calories on this hike. 

Hiking Glassface Mountain and the Memories it Fosters

Androscoggin River with Sunday River ski area in the upper left

Six minutes from my home is the little village of Rumford Center. It's the quintessential small New England town with a white-spired church smack dab in the center, a large cemetery, and white clapboard community house.  Parking for the Glassface Mountain trail is a gravel lot named Hastings Landing that's right on the Androscoggin River. Hastings Landing also serves as parking for a boat launch.

The Landing is named after a friend and former assistant ski coach, Ann Hastings Morton. Her family has played an active role in my coaching life. Her  husband, Dave, coached skiing with me and their son, Paul, skied three events as a skimeister on our team in the 1980s. He also played an energetic brand of soccer on my Rumford High School team--he had a great engine. Ann and Dave's daughter, Pam, was on my first-ever soccer team, The Rumford Stinkers. And then there was Tom who skied alpine on my team in the early 1980s.

Newspaper article about my book, The Mosquito Test,
with my students Erica, Neil, and Stephanie. 

Tom, a carpenter in Colorado, battled cancer in the early 1990s when I taught, coached, and ran the writing center at the newly-formed Mountain Valley High School. During those early years, I also taught Erica, Neil, and Stephanie, three delightful kids who lived with cystic fibrosis.

Tom's cancer and Erica, Neil, and Stephanie's lives with CF sparked the idea for my book, The Mosquito Test (1994).  At the time, I thought about a teenager with CF, considered a chronic terminal disease in the early 1990s, befriending another teenager who had recently acquired cancer. In this case the friendship formed when the two kids became tennis partners.

Living in your own hometown conjures lots of memories... parking in Hastings Landing did just that.

*

Climbing Glassface takes 25-30 minutes. The trail had a few mudded-out areas but those sections didn't diminish the view.

Androscoggin River

Bailey looking a bit miffed... or like his false teeth fell out. 

Pretty boy

Sunday River

Wicked handsome boy ;-) 

Happy on the summit 

 

Scooting up Whitecap

Post-hike happiness... 

he knows a peanut butter treat is in his future. 

After work, we zipped up to Whitecap Mountain for a near 4-mile hike. The snow has disappeared for the most part and there's minimal ice left.

Within the first 5 minutes of the hike, we met a family of 4. As I glanced up the hill, I could tell they were pulling a wheelchair backwards up the hill. A little girl of about 5 or 6 called Bailey a sweetie or a similar term and the elderly woman in the wheelchair reached out to pet him. The two women yanking on the wheelchair, daughters I assumed, had purple hair.

"We're having a picnic," said one woman.

"Perfect!" I said.

And off we went so they could set up their meal.

Post Script: It just struck me that I believe the older woman may have had purple hair, too. Reminds me of a poem I used to read to my students back in high school, "When I am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple." I hope they had a memorable picnic on the slopes of Whitecap Mountain.

Bailey peeing on the Black/White Trail sign. 

From the Black/White Trail... Sunday River with
The Presidential Range in the background.

Trail Map (AllTrails) to the Black/White Trail.

Stop reading

"Please stop reading." 

This morning while reading a fabulous book titled Stay, Bailey put his feet up on my knees and stared at me.

"Stop reading! Let's Play! Let me have another bone!" This pose is not infrequent, though some days he's more interested in a nap after breakfast.

When I have Zoom meetings with colleagues, students, or an audience of writing center folks or coaches, he often climbs up into my lap and stares into the camera. Most folks laugh, call his name, and offer him a virtual treat. One uptight high school coach was having none of the cute dog deal and acted a bit miffed that my old dog would interrupt the meeting. Ah well.

Then there are those mornings when the 10:00am carrot and coffee break are not quite enough, and he thinks we should start running around the house or go out... or, again, that he deserves yet another mid-morning treat. At these times, he sits on his hind legs, lifts up his big feet, and flops them on my desk while I frantically push the computer and coffee mug off to the side.

We manage, Bailey and I. But life is a compromise for both of us.

One of the many gifts

Kellie and John Auger, April 4, 2020, Black Mountain of Maine

One of the many gifts of being a teacher and coach is unexpected meetings with former students. Today, that happened on a mountaintop in the old home town. Forty years ago John Auger worked as hard as any athlete I’ve ever coached. And talk about grace on skis. Here’s to chance meetings on mountain tops, good memories, and plans for a summer hike.

April 4, 2020, Black Mountain