A good friend once told me that the best thing about being an adult is going on vacation. This past week, I learned the truth of these words. For most people summer break constitutes a period of relaxation between grueling semesters at Bowdoin, but for me it’s always been a time for manual labor. For the past month and a half I’ve been in upstate New York working hard for the Adirondack Mountain Club’s professional trail crew, but even I need a break from acting the noble savage. So I’ve spent the past five days embarking on my first “adult” vacation. During the past week I’ve traveled across New England with Kaitlynn in tow; mostly we’ve been causing a commotion, but we also spent time hunting down various members of the Bowdoin ski team.
After leaving Lake Placid my first stop was the Miller residence nestled in the hills of northern Vermont; I had two goals: 1) deposit five weeks of paychecks in a TD Bank, and 2) kidnap Kaitlynn. These objectives were quickly met. Before leaving Vermont for greener pastures, Kaitlynn dragged me on a run up Elmore Ridge Road and fed me massive quantities of beet greens from Hannah’s garden. All and all, I had a successful visit to one of my favorite places.
On Friday Kaitlynn and I followed the faint smell of freedom east to New Hampshire. We met Riley, Shelby, and Emma at the Eusden’s summer house in Randolph. The next day the five of us embarked on the third annual Bowdoin Nordic Presidential Traverse. This was my first time hiking the twenty-plus mile traverse all in one day; I could barely sleep I was so excited. Our hike began with an early morning charge up Mount Madison. When Riley and I stopped to wait for the girls just below tree line; I realized that I had forgotten my lunch in the refrigerator miles below. Luckily for the small and stalwart team, my sandwich calamity did not set the tone for the hours to come.
We had flawless weather (clear, warm, and windy) for the entire hike; as a seasoned New Hampshire wild flower, I can tell you that an entire day of good weather almost never the occurs in the Whites. The five of us traveled at a steady pace; we bagged peak after peak, and stopped for lunch right below the summit of Mount Clay. We bumped into a Nordic skier from Williams on the summit of Washington (she was working for the AMC on the Lake of Clouds Hut Crew) who generously handed out candy bars to the famished crew. After Monroe and Eisenhower, the hike was basically all down hill; by dinnertime, we were off the mountain and on our way to Gorham to pick up an all American feast: pizza and potato chips.
On Sunday morning we parted ways: Shelby headed south to Gilford while Kaitlynn, Emma, Riley, and I traveled to various destinations in Maine. Later that day, Kaitlynn and I met up with Grandma Clare Stansberry for a stormy swim in Sewall Pond. That night, we crashed in Clare’s tent at the Woodruff farm in Brunswick. Kaitlynn helped Clare to do evening chores while I bonded with a pregnant cow (I was on vacation after all). On Monday, we drove to my house in beautiful Bow; en route, we met Erin for smoothies and caught up on her post-graduation exploits.
Tomorrow my first real vacation ends. On the way back west, Kaitlynn and I will drive through Rutvegas in search of the notorious Hannah Wright. In Charlotte, Kaitlynn and I will part ways for the next several months; we’ll be spending the fall semester on separate continents. I hardly know Bowdoin without Kaitlynn, but I feel fortunate that the two of us were able to embark on one epic, final hoorah.
On top of Madison - we're explorers.
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