Fall Camp 2016

This year, Fall Break coincided with Homecoming, so it was quite a busy weekend for us.  After a nice Saturday rollerski in the Pownal/Pineland area, we hosted the 11th Annual Phil Soule Phlail 5k on Sunday.  Despite rainy weather, we had a solid turnout, with 70 finishers.  We were thrilled to see two former Bowdoin Nordic captains in attendance, Grace Hyndman '11 and Erin Hatton '12 (sadly, I didn't get any pictures).  Great showing by both of them, and Erin actually won the race!  The skiers did a nice job of running things smoothly, and overall it was a very successful event.

A couple hours after the race ended, we were in vans heading for one of our favorite fall camp venues, the Sugarloaf/Bigelow area.  We did a good hard bounding workout up Sugarloaf and were greeted at the peak by howling winds and amazing colors.

After a quick scramble back to the base, we rolled down the road for a short hike up to our lodging, the Stratton Brook Hut.  This is part of the Maine Huts and Trails system - a very cool organization with some fantastic trails and beautiful huts.

Here, we encountered our third former Bowdoin Nordic captain of the weekend - Hannah Marshall '16!  Hannah currently works for MHT at the Flagstaff Hut, but she came over to Stratton Brook to  hang out with us and help the Stratton staff manage our unruly crew.

After a delicious dinner and a sound sleep, we got up to tackle the Bigelow Range the next morning.  In past years, we've run/hiked the whole range, but the location of Stratton Brook Hut made it more logical to start on the east side of the range near Flagstaff, run the whole range except Cranberry, and then work our way back to Stratton.  It was another gorgeous day with some of the best fall colors I've seen in years.  The conditions on the highest peaks (West and Avery) were pretty intense - super windy, frost on the trees, and even some kind of weird hail/sleet/graupel stuff falling out of a mostly clear sky.  The skiers did an amazing job of powering through 18ish rugged miles and four peaks - this a remarkably fit and capable group.

With another tasty dinner, some quality team time in front of a warm fire, and a restful night's sleep, the team was ready to tackle the final workout of camp, an OD classic ski on the legendary Long Falls Dam Rd.  This is a beautiful road through a remote area near the Bigelow Preserve - gorgeous scenery, not much traffic, and surprisingly great pavement.  We worked a little technique and rolled on at a nice brisk clip on another blue sky day.  The team showed great energy even at the tail end of a few very tiring days - an excellent workout to close out a wonderful camp.  Many thanks to H. Marshall and the folks at MHT for making it all possible!

(photos courtesy of Orion Watson and Rachel Zafren)