Mountain spring: hike to North Doublehead
Mountains in spring, breath clean oxygen. Listen: in the spruce, loving birds. I’ve been working with my students on form poems, including haiku. Thus, I attempt to describe a recent […]
family hikes
Rangeley Days Redux: Moose, mountains, and memories
Rangeley, Maine – Our first day at the lake was windy and mostly gray, a good one for moose hunting. We don’t always get our moose, but with the right timing […]
Caps and castles on Mount Jefferson
On Friday, prospects for a hike up Mount Jefferson looked gloomy. The higher summits forecast called for steady 50 mph winds, with hurricane force gusts, and winter temperatures in New […]
One hike, many discoveries: A plane crash, a fire tower and stone-age couches
Would we find the plane crash? That was the motivating question as I hit the road early one morning in late June with three middle-school boys. More than 40 years […]
Intersecting slopes on Mount Chocorua, New Hampshire
As we hauled ourselves up the granite cone of New Hampshire’s 3,478-foot Mount Chocorua, a middle-aged woman picking her way down the granite ledges groaned as she stretched out her […]
Art amidst the mills of North Adams
A decaying mill town on a gray November weekend in an isolated corner of Massachusetts might seem an unlikely destination, but North Adams had been on my radar for a […]
Three blogs for hitting the trails
The Arctic Vortex last week offered a good opportunity to hunker down and work on one of my New Year’s projects, which is to improve this blog. To that end, […]
Bushwhacking on Mount Tecumseh
Impossible as it may seem, within a few minutes of our hike up Mount Tecumseh in Waterville Valley, my friend and I have lost the trail, and now find ourselves […]
Refuge in the sands
As all hell broke loose that Friday in Boston, the beach at Morris Island stretched for miles, empty and unpeopled, like the city in lockdown. Instead of fear, the beach […]
Winter dreams of summer days on Mount Washburn
On this cold winter afternoon in Maine, I am dreaming about summer days on Mount Washburn. The temperature is even colder today at Mount Washburn, but this past August, we […]