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 […]
White Mountains
Giving up on Isolation
When we set out from Kittery at 6 a.m., I knew we had a grueling day ahead of us: two+ hours to the trailhead, 11.5+ miles of hiking, 5,000+ feet […]
Mountain Day on New Hampshire’s Mount Washington
On August 11, 2016, Japan’s inaugural Mountain Day holiday, I was climbing Mount Fuji with my son and thousands of other hikers. We didn’t know it was Mountain Day, but […]
Rediscovering the beautiful silence on Coppermine Trail
The car thermometer read two degrees as we pulled on gloves, strapped on snowshoes, and set out on the Coppermine Trail to Bridal Veil Falls. The trail began flat and […]
Gray jays, great day: A fall hike on Mount Waumbek
Hiking on the Starr King Trail to 4,006-foot Mount Waumbek, it’s hard to believe that this off-the-beaten-path peak once was part of a proposal for a mega-ski resort stretching across […]
Hiking the Baldface Circle Trail, plus twenty
The guidebook describes the Baldface Circle Trail as “a strenuous trip not to be underestimated,” but I didn’t remember it as so. I first hiked this 9.8 mile loop with […]
Presidential aspirations: You can’t always get what you want
I have long held Presidential aspirations — that is, to complete the Presidential traverse hike across the highest peaks of New England including Mount Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and Madison. I […]
Bretton Woods: birches, beautiful snow, and bargains
In this new year, I’m taking some time away from longer projects to write about New England ski areas. I’ve been skiing since junior high (back in the days when […]
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 […]
Moriah, my Moriah: Why did I wait so long to climb thee?
As I hike through a lacy hemlock forest, I wonder why I have waited so long to hike 4,049-foot Mount Moriah. The Carter-Moriah Trail climbs 3,400 feet from its base […]