wow. what a week. how to capture it all in this space without writing a novella. though i'm sure, dear reader, you wouldn't mind a novella. alex and i had a great week! (i must mention that he now has a link to this blog as well, so my entries may be somewhat guarded and i may not be able to tell you what REALLY happened. kidding.) (hi alex).
but seriously, it was a great week. we started at the hotel in new hampshire which was amazing. we had a third floor corner room overlooking the harbor and a most spectacular sunset. we drove into portsmouth (NH) for a japanese dinner and a wander around the town, but seeing as i was using my points for the hotel stay - we wanted to take advantage of the facilities (tennis courts, basketball hoops, swimming pools, spas, etc) - so we didn't stay long in town.
the next day we made the big drive to baxter state park. with all of our stops, it probably took us 6-7 hours - but could've easily taken 3-4 if we'd not stopped so many times at shaws, walmarts, and dunkin donuts for coffee and tea breaks. (did i say tea breaks?, i meant PEE breaks!, ha ha). that day was all about the journey and not the destination because we had a great time wandering down aisles and shopping for supplies. we found a campstove for 20 bucks and just about everything we'd need for a weeks worth of foraging in the forests of maine.
perusing the sporting goods aisle at walmart i happened upon this fantabulous contraption i'd seen on TV for only $29.95 called the
CROSS CRUNCH. i'd seen the commerical only once and have spent hours and hours in front of the television waiting for it to come again to get the 1-800 number so that i might order it and get myself my own six pack. (only kidding about watching hours of TV - but i have been on the look out) ... BUT WAIT ... you can imagine my delight when it was selling for only $19.99 with NO shipping or handling! i sidetrack here to explain this purchase and my excitement for it only for entertainment purposes. laugh if you will, dear reader, but we'll see whose belly shakes more ... give me six weeks with this machine and i bet it won't be mine! i spent the mornings on our picnic tables working my abs ... really, it says i only need to do 90 seconds a day to have beautiful abs and i definitely had that kind of time on our trip! (this was, of course, right after the pancake breakfasts with bacon and eggs!)
i digress.
we got to baxter state park and set up camp hastily in the twilight, toasted hotdogs on the fire and called it a night at dark in order to be up at 4:30 to hike up mount katahdin. but when the alarm went off at 4:30 and it was still pitch black outside, we turned it off, rolled over, and slept another hour and a half. to our credit though, we were climbing the mountain by 7:30 and made the climb in seven hours. three hours up and four hours down. i would put in some pictures here as i'm sure there are some disbelievers among you (yes, i hike!) - but my computer keeps crashing in my attempts to upload. you'll have to wait for the ofoto link.
the hike was great. very likely the most difficult hike i've climbed to date. it was rocky and steep and needed all four limbs to make it over some of the points. i'd use the word 'scrambling' to describe our ascent and descent up the mountain ... only that infers a more rapid movement than would have been physically possible for either of us. it was more of an 'amble scramble' if such a thing exists. and neither of us were entirely prepared for the climb. (i in my diesel jeans and running shoes, and alex in his swimming trunks and city sneakers). it was laughable really - especially when we passed the serious hikers with water pumps attached to their backpacks and nordic walking sticks. but we made it, and that was all that mattered.
we weren't particularly prepared for the trip in general, neither of us being seriously outdoorsy folk. i was anticipating indiana-like camping with thick hot summer air and tank top weather every day. i only threw in a pair of jeans and light jacket on my way out the door, as in a 'i'm-sure-i-won't-need-this-but-what-the-heck-i've-got-room-in-my-bag' sort of way. little did i know i'd be living in them for seven straight days. and i definitely did not know we were going to hike to the top of mount katahdin. not that i minded, but i might've brought something more sensible to wear. but who am i kidding, i don't have any sensible hiking outfits!
apparently maine is about three weeks ahead of boston in the seasons ... (alex tells me this on the way up) ... so once again, walmart saves the day with boys XL sweatshirts for $8.77.
we spent the next morning rubbing our aching legs and ambling even MORE slowly out to trout brook pond in search of moose. we'd actually walked RIGHT PAST a moose on the trail the day before, munching in the trees on our path. i thought it was a bear and was about ready to scream and jump and make myself appear larger than life (this is what they tell you to do) when alex hushed me down and told me to get back because it was actually a moose. being city folk, we crept back about 15 feet and waited, having no idea what to do but feeling slightly like intrepid wildlife photographers. i think we would've stayed there, our hearts racing nervously, if a seasoned hiker hadn't been close behind us. 'oh, it must just be a moose' he said too casually for our liking ... as he proceeded to walk past, chuckling AT US as if in our awe and incredulity, we were somehow an odder spectacle than the 700 pound moose snacking on the leaves. we thought it was amazing, and couldn't get over the fact that we'd been SO close to a real live moose. (though in actuality, were quite glad to leave our heavy friend behind us and continue down to camp).
we'd also seen a baby bear cub on our drive to the campsite, which was equally amazing, but meant that alex 'i've only seen the cubs at fenway' johnson was somewhat neurotic bordering OCD about food or anything fragrant anywhere NEAR where we might sleep, hang or otherwise rest our aching legs.
baxter was great - but we were both glad to have the 'roughing it' part of camping over with and move onto moosehead lake - slightly more traditional car camping. our site at 'casey's' was very likely the BEST possible spot in the campground. we were on the edge of all other sites, and literally ON the water. well, not literally, i suppose, but our tent was 15 feet from moosehead lake and opened onto the most beautiful mornings and colorful sunsets. and we had no neighbors on either side, so it really did feel as though we were on our own island. (someone must've mentioned to the others that camping season had passed and that we were a few weeks too late for the peak). it was terribly windy, but JUST warm enough not to let that chill us to the bone - certainly warmer than baxter had been. and until the day we left, the wind did not relent. but we learned to live with it, and swam in the lake when the sun shone through the clouds. we also left the campsite both days to explore greenville, the nearby town, had lunch, did some laundry, played dominos at the local cafe, and poked around in the local craft markets and antique shops.
we ate well on our trip too! 'roughing it' didn't really come into play when it came to breakfasts and dinners for us! (did you really think it would?) we had hot dogs, chick pea salad, spaghetti and meatsauce, grilled asparagus and onions, tacos, kung pao chicken with brocolli (actually, this was freeze dried that i bought at a camping store as a joke just to see, and it was disgusting, not as good as it sounds), granola and fruit, pancakes, bacon, eggs, etc etc. and lots of snacks for all those hikes we never took after the first day!
you see why i bought the cross crunch!?
after moosehead, we were intending to head to acadia national park on the coast of maine, but decided we wanted some warmer weather, so drove back south via boston, collected our bikes, and headed to cape cod. what fun! i'd never been before and had always wanted to go, and alex's flatmate has a family house with very welcoming parents who didn't mind us cramping their style for a few days. so we abandoned the tent in favor of the bungalow, three blocks from the beach. we spent friday riding bikes all over the cape (dennis through harwich to chatham, if that means anything to you) and then spent the evening playing trivial pursuit with barry (his flatmate) and his girlfriend mary ellen.
we were so used to rising at dawn and sleeping when the sun set that we were exhausted by 9 or 10 each night - so it wasn't a crazy weekend. but i'm getting used to enjoying the days and might see about making it a habit, if i can.
saturday we spent on the beach, i finished lolita (nabokov) though in doing so burnt the backs of my knees and alex went swimming in the atlantic with the car key in his pocket. you can guess what happened but luckily he'd remembered to bring a spare. (which unfortunately he'd left in the locked car, but thank goodness for AAA). we went for a game of minigolf, but ended up leaving after the 12th hole because the backup of golfers was just too much and we couldn't be bothered with the wait. i was having a particularly bad game so decided to chip my ball OVER the pond in the middle of the green rather than around it and subsequently lost my ball to the river that flowed through the course. which was fine by me as it sped the game up a bit to have 3 players instead of 4.
all in all, it was a great week. i didn't read as many books as i'd hoped (or lugged) and i never did get to many of those push ups so my arms still look pretty much the same, but it was a wonderfully relaxing week nonetheless. i had some time on my own to think (lots of that actually) and journal, and write postcards, and catch up with my thoughts, which i don't often have time to do in the city.
it's nine o'clock here in boston on sunday night, the thunder is booming outside my window and my eyes are getting sleepy. i may have to head to bed with the sun.
good night. bon nuit. buenos noches.
i had this amazing experience when we were camping that i forgot to blog about. it was dusk and alex had gone to take a shower, so i was at the camp on the lake on my own. i was watching the sunset and for some reason i turned away from the sun and looked back at the campsite. this picture attempts to capture what i saw, but only towards the end when i rushed to grab the camera before the light faded. it was truly magestic, awesome, amazing. the wind was whipping through the trees but it was silent, and the trees and bushes were shaking. but in this light, it was as if this were an audience of worshippers, humble servants, exaulting their sun god, unable to contain their excitement for this precise moment - whispering and laughing in nervous anticipation. it was absolutely amazing and i wish i could even convey what it felt like to see such a spectacle. i felt like i was intruding on nature, invading the private space of their nervous energy. very very cool. 
