My Top 12 Hiking Memories in 12 Years!

A few days ago, I closed out - at least for now - my Racing for a Cure blog with a post about my top 12 memories while racing for a cure.  As I said there, why just 12?  Well, because this past April marked my 12 year survival anniversary since discovering that I had Hodgkin's lymphoma.  If you learn you have cancer, it is best to think of yourself as a cancer survivor from day one, and that is what I did.  And I have been fortunate enough to have 12 more pretty amazing years, for the most part. These mostly happy years have been sprinkled and sometimes liberally dosed with times of sadness and grief, but that is life.  I am grateful to still be here, and healthy and strong.  And still hiking!

So I thought it would be fun - and challenging - to come up my top 12 hiking memories as well.  With all of the hiking I have done since 2002, this was a tall order, and I had to make many cuts at the last moment to restrict things to 12, among them some hikes in the Everglades, Yellowstone, and Mount Rainier National Parks.  Here, in reverse order, are my top 12 hiking memories as a cancer survivor.

12. My Last Hike Before Beginning Chemo.
When? June 2, 2002
Where? Shenandoah National Park
Why is it memorable? Because this was the day before I started chemotherapy, it was a gorgeous day, I knew I would not be hiking any time soon, and I felt quite alive and grateful to be up in the mountains.

I'd had surgery a few days before to get a portocath put in, and I was still sore from that, but I wanted to have one last hike before beginning chemo.  So we drove to Shenandoah National Park on a picture-perfect day, and drove along Skyline Drive.  The hike was short - about a mile total to the Black Rocks.  I didn't get a lot of photos on my chemical film camera - how much things change in a decade! - but you can go to this post from a backpacking trip nine years later to see the area.  Or you can go here for more details on my return to the Black Rocks nine years later.

The mountain laurel was in bloom that day, as seen in this scanned photo from that outing.

I felt really wistful when we left the park that afternoon.  I felt like I would survive cancer, but no one really knows how things like this will turn out.  Would I ever see the mountains again?  Would I ever hike again?

The answer was a resounding "YES!"  Here are 11 more great hiking memories since that June day.

11. Mount Judah.
When? July, 2013
Where? Sierra Nevada area, California
Why is it memorable? Because I made the hike with family - both of my brothers and a sister-in-law - during a trip to celebrate my surviving sister Clare's 70th birthday and to have a family reunion.  Plus, the scenery was killer, and I got to hike a bit on the fabled Pacific Crest Trail.

It was a gorgeous day, and we started out early.  This was not a long hike, just about six miles, but it was long enough and pretty much a 9 out of 10 for scenery.  Plus, it was great to do this with family members who live far apart and can never easily get together.  Here is a representative photo, and if you want to see more, just go to my Mount Judah post.

10. Backpacking to The Priest.
When? November, 2010
Where? Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia
Why is it memorable? It was my first backpacking trip in nearly 20 years, and even though the weather should have been crisp but not bitter in early November, the mercury dropped to about 12-15 degrees - my coldest night every sleeping in the great outdoors.  Plus, I have never seen such amazing stars as on that cold, crystal clear night.

Sure, I'd done lots of day hiking, but I'd not backpacked in a long, long time.  When a friend suggested we hike the Priest together - taking in Spy Rock and Crabtree Falls along the way, it sounded like a great idea.  And despite the cold weather, at least 15-20 degrees below average, it was a great idea and a great trip.  It got me back out to backpacking again.

Here's a photo from the top of The Priest.  If you want to read more, start with my account of this great trip by going here.

9. Hike up to the Kennecott Bonanza Mine.
When? September, 2010
Where? Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Alaska
Why is it memorable? It was as remote a spot as I ever hiked to, it was amazingly steep, and despite the lack of views because of rain and fog, I did see willow ptarmigan up close, which was quite cool.  Plus, it was in Alaska!

We were staying at the Kennecott Glacier Lodge in the park, an amazing place in itself, and I did a nine mile day hike 3,800 feet up to the abandoned mine site.  The views would have been amazing without the rain and fog, the guide kept reminding me.  Here are a couple of photos, but for more about the hike, you can go here.  Or to learn more about the ptarmigans, go here.  To learn about the historic Kennecott ruins, go here.

8. Bald Mountain Nature Preserve.
When? August, 2008
Where? near Antrim, New Hampshire
Why is it memorable? It was simply a beautiful place, I heard loons call again, and there was both lakeside hiking and mountain views, plus I saw the most amazing mushrooms!  And I hiked it with my brother and sister-in-law, on her birthday.

This was just a perfect day in the outdoors with family in a beautiful spot.  If you have ever heard the call of a loon, you know that this in itself is amazing and memorable.  You can read more about this hike here, just weeks into the start of this blog.  Here is a photo from the day.

7. Logan Pass.
When? September, 2005
Where? Glacier National park, Montana
Why is it memorable? Here I was, hiking on a trip to see some of the trips of the western national parks, a trip that we had to cancel in 2002 because of my cancer treatments.  So I felt blessed to be alive to have a second chance at this trip.  It was so beautiful, and we saw several mountain goats up close after seeing them from a distance for several days.

You could spend all summer just hiking in this National Park, but you would be hard pressed to find a more lovely or easier trail.  The scenery is amazing, as is the wildlife.  Here are a few photos from that hike.

Bearhat Mountain

Alpine views at the turnaround point in Logan Pass

It was pretty cool to have a mountain goat walk past us just 30-40 feet away.

Mother and child - a nanny mountain goat (left) and her kid (right) graze just above the trail.

6. Bullhead Lake and Ptarmigan Falls Hikes.
When? September, 2005
Where? Glacier National park, Montana
Why is it memorable? This was a pair of two hikes on the same day starting and ending at the same place - a five miler to Bullhead Lake and a seven miler to Ptarmigan Falls.  Both were out and back hikes.  They were memorable not just because of the scenery in a spectacular park, but because we were hiking in grizzly territory, and that makes one feel really alive!  Plus, I saw the biggest moose that I have ever seen - at least at that point in my life - on the second hike of the day.  When I heard a branch snap, I froze, thinking it was a grizzly!  Yeah, memorable!

On the hike to Bullhead Lake, we were in prime grizzly territory and on full alert.  A man and his daughter had been attacked and badly hurt by a grizzly just a couple of weeks before a few miles from where we were.  And a man we met on a short morning hike that day before starting out on this hike later told us how he had done this hike the day before and had been "mock charged" by a large grizzly three times!  We kept making noise as we hiked along, but saw nary a bear.  Here are couple of photos from that hike.

I was solo for the afternoon hike to Ptarmigan Falls, a steady but not steep climb along the side of mountain through a large valley.  I remember it being beautiful, and I especially remember the moose and feeling certain it was a grizzly.  I just knew for sure that it was a large animal, because when the branch snapped, it sounded like a rifle shot!  Here are a few photos from that hike.

5. Backpacking on Shackleford Banks.
When? June, 2013
Where? Cape Lookout National Seashore, North Carolina
Why is it memorable? Not since 1973 have I backpacked on a barrier beach, sleeping among the dunes and carrying drinking water.  I went with two friends, and we each carried about 25-28 pounds of water for our two night trip to Shackleford Banks.  We enjoyed the beach, found great shelling, and enjoying seeing wild horses.  I strongly recommend this as a destination if you are up for it.

There is something about being on a remote island.  We saw people every day but I don't think a single other person was camping out that weekend.  The horses were a special treat.  I would love to go back here in the fall when it is cooler.  The seashells that we found were amazing!  You can go to this post to read more about my three day trip to Shackleford Banks.

4. Mount Washington.
When? July, 2007
Where? White Mountains, New Hampshire
Why is it memorable? Forty years before, as kids, my father took my younger brother and I up into the Whites, and we hiked to the top of Mount Washington, the highest mountain in the northeastern USA.  Now, my brother and I were coming back there together, and it just felt special.  I've always wanted to stay in the AMC huts and eat the amazing meals cooked by the "Cru," and that also is very memorable.  Plus, my friend Dick, something like 82 at the time, accompanied us, and it was great to hike for three days with him as well.  (read more about Dick here).  And as the frosting on the cake, my brother and I hiked to the top of Mount Monroe the second evening and witnessed one of the best sunsets I've ever seen.

The scenery was fabulous, the weather in the somewhat fickle and sometimes deadly Whites was great, the company was a lot of fun, and the meals were delicious.  Plus, we were backpacking, but with light packs, as we did not have to carry tents, sleeping bags, cookware, or much food.  I plan to go back, and have belonged to the Appalachian Mountain Club ever since.  Here are a few photos.

Day 1 - Mount Eisenhower (left) and a distant Mount Washington (center)

Day 2 - final approach towards Mount Washington's summit.

Day 2 - from Mount Monroe summit looking back from where we had hiked that day.

Day 3 - My brother and I on the steep hike out

3. Grayson Highlands Backpacking.
When? October, 2012
Where? The high country of Southwest Virginia
Why is it memorable? This may have been the most fun backpacking trip I've ever done.  We were out four days and three nights, and the weather was really nice - no rain, and not nearly as cold as the prior two trips I had done.  The scenery was spectacular through much of the hike, and although we didn't see wildlife, and one camping area was crowded and loud, our last night on the trail was at a perfect campsite.  As a bonus, I hiked to Mount Rogers, Virginia's highest point.

I wrote a lot of accounts of this trip so I won't repeat much here.  Suffice to say, it would be hard to beat this one for pure backpacking fun!  Here are few photos from the four day excursion.

Lunch on the trail.

Mother Nature got out her paint brush.

A good part of this trip had beautiful open views.

2. Riprap Hollow.
When? July, 2003
Where? Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
Why is it memorable? Eight months before taking this hike in the backcountry of this beautiful park, I was on chemotherapy and feeling so weak and ill.  Now, I was finally hiking again!  I felt incredible joy at my good fortune.  I was a month away from doing my long-planned for Tumbledown Mountain hike in Maine, and this hike was my chance to see what hiking a tough trail would be like for my still not full strength body.  As a bonus, I saw two bear cubs on this hike, but got no pictures.  For some reason, the film in my camera was damaged and could not be processed.  I also took a dip in the cold, clear pool in Riprap Hollow - always a refreshing shock on a hot day.

I've returned here most years since then, most recent recently a couple of weeks ago, and wrote a post which fully documents the hike here.  The jewel of the hike is the swimming hole - if you dare to take the plunge!

And my number one memorable hike of the past 12 years is...

1. Tumbledown Mountain.
When? August, 2003
Where? Weld, Maine, near Mount Blue State Park
Why is it memorable? The year before, my wife Mary and I planned to hike up Tumbledown with some good friends, but my cancer diagnosis put the kibosh on those plans.  But being well enough to do it the following year was my statement to cancer: "You may have slowed me down for a while, but you didn't beat me!  I'm back!"  To hike to this wonderful place a year after I had been in the hospital, and to hike it with my wife and good friends (one who was celebrating her big Big 5-0!) was simply incredible!  Barring dementia, I will never forget it!

I wrote about this hike in this blog five years after I did it as a stroll down memory lane.  In the photo below, I still had a little way to go to the top (in the background), but wanted a photo of myself near Tumbledown Lake.

What kind of adventures and hikes will the next 12 years bring?  I hope to find out soon enough.  I know that I have some plans coming up in the next few months that should be fabulous!

Thinking Back 10 years

I've been thinking this week of how I hiked up Tumbledown Mountain in Maine 10 years ago on August 24, and how much that meant to me.  I am not going to repeat the story - you can read it in the link above if you are interested.  The photo shows the three of us from my group that went on to the top.  You can see the lake well behind us, and one of the summits in the distance beyond the lake.

It's great to be healthy, 11 years after cancer, and 10 years after struggling a bit to make this hike about eight months after wrapping up chemotherapy.  I hope to keep going strong, but know very well that life holds no guarantees.  So it is important to be grateful for what you have, and to live each day to the extent you can that day - given the responsibilities that each of us have.

A return to Tumbledown Mountain is on my "bucket list."  It is amazing how fast time goes by, though, so I guess I'd better find a way to make that happen.  The 10 years since I went there to hike up the mountain and to celebrate our friend's big 5-0 have gone by in a blur.  Now, my friend just turned 60 and we couldn't make it this time - just not enough vacation time with the trips to California and Michigan.  The mountain is still there, waiting, and will be there longer than my time on the earth.  I just need to find time to get back, and make sure that I am strong and healthy enough to repeat the hike to the top, with cancer so far in the past that I can barely remember it any more.

Cold Memories

It was about 17 this morning when I left for work, cold for this part of the world in the Old Dominion.  But it brought back memories of a three day backpacking trip two Novembers ago, because that was about the temperature when we woke up early that Saturday morning.  I seriously did not want to leave my tent.  It was so cold - even in the tent.  And I knew it would be worse outside.  But nature was calling, urgently, and I decided a dry, cold tent was better than a wet, cold tent.  But it took a lot of willpower to crawl out of the sleeping bag, pull on some ice-cold clothing, put my hard-as-iron hiking boots on my feet, and move outside.

But it was a fun trip, with good memories, and the cold temperatures today triggered those memories for me.  And it made me appreciate a warm bed, a hot shower, and a car with a heater to get to my next destination (even though it was just work, not a fun hike up a mountain to the next camping site).

Marking Ten Years

Today marks exactly ten years for me.  No, not of blogging, but of surviving cancer: Hodgkin's lymphoma, one of many types of blood cancer.  The time has flown by since that April day in 2002 when my doctor looked at an X-ray and gave me the news.

I thought that I would reflect a little on some of the things that I've enjoyed in the outdoors over this time.  I won't list them all, just some of the highlights of things that I got to do because of really good luck that not everyone with cancer has.  I am really grateful to have had that time, while also hoping for more time ahead - I guess we all do that.  Well, here are some highlights of those 10 years.  I wonder what the next ten will bring?

2003 - about seven or eight months after chemo, I took my first hike: to Rip Rap Hollow in Shenandoah National Park.  A snail could have gone faster, but that was OK - I was alive and hiking again.  A month later, I hiked up Tumbledown Mountain in Maine to fulfill a promise I had made to myself the previous summer when I felt so ill and weak from chemo.  And that fall, my two brothers and I met for a camping trip in Colorado - our first time that just the three of us ever got together.

2004 - I visited the Everglades - a long held dream - and the Big Cypress Preserve in Florida.  Talk about being up to your @ss in alligators!

2005 - Not only did I complete my first ever marathon in Alaska (about seven miles of it were through the woods), but I also went on a bear watching day trip and saw an Alaskan brown bear catch a salmon.  I also made a trip to Glacier, Grand Tetons, and Yellowstone National Parks - which still ranks as one of my best vacations ever.  I think this was also the year we swam with manatees in Florida, still one of my life's most amazing experiences - to have this gentle giant swim up to me.

2006 - I did a little hiking in the Adirondacks in New York, as part of a visit to my sister in her home in the Catskills.  One of the highlights of the trip was the incredible Museum of the Adirondacks in Blue Mountain Lake, NY.

2007 - I celebrated being a five year cancer survivor in style by hiking up Mt. Washington with my brother Nur 40 years after our dad took us there as boys.  Being a Philly kid, it was like nothing I had ever seen.  Also along on this trip in 2007 was my friend Dick, who is planning on doing the same three day hike this summer - and he is pushing 90 now.  How is that for inspiration to keep moving?  I wish I could join you, Dick.  This working for a living ain't what it is cracked up to be.

2008 - I hiked in Saguaro National Park, although with weary legs, after the Arizona Marathon.  I also spent several days hiking and kayaking with my brother Nur and my sister-in-law Martha in New Hampshire.  I also started this blog shortly before that trip to the Granite State!

2010 - After the Seattle Half-Marathon, I spent three days hiking in Mount Ranier National Park.  Then in the fall, it was back to Alaska for two weeks, where I went all over the place, including Denali, Kenai Fjords, and Wrangell-St. Elias National Parks.  A quick mental count (always dangerous) tells me that I have visited 11 new national parks in my 10 years.

2010 and 2011 - I finally went backpacking again with two trips to the mountains in Virginia.  Both times, I picked the coldest night of the year.

Well, those are some of my best outdoor memories of the last 10 years, years which I feel very grateful to have had.  I don't know if the next 10 can match some of these experiences, but time will tell.

Eight Great Outdoor Experiences in 2010

On this date, eight years in remission from Hodgkin lymphoma, I thought I would look back on 2010 and write about eight great memories I have had in the great ourdoors this year. These are not in any particular ranking order. If you want to read about my eight great moments racing for a cure in 2010, click here.

1. Rip Rap Hollow hike. Every summer since 2003, I do this wonderful hike to celebrate still being on God’s green earth with enough strength to hike. Rip Rap Hollow was my first post-cancer hike, and it is a beautiful one. I know some day, I will do this hike for the last time, but I hope that won’t be for a while. I often see wildlife on the hike, but not this time.

2. Hiking in Mount Rainier National Park. Wow, hard to top this! After the Seattle half-marathon in June, I left Seattle and my teammates behind and struck out on my own for three days of hiking. I was tired and my left foot hurt like crazy, and there was deep snow everywhere over 4,500 feet, but I think I did about 25 miles of hiking in many parts of the southern section of this park. As a bonus, I had incredible views of Rainier one day.

3. Seeing a lynx. We were driving past Denali National Park in September on the way to a restaurant. Suddenly, like a vision, a tall, gangly cat ran across the road in front of the car through the rain – a Canada lynx! He disappeared into the thick brush in seconds, but the image endures of the first feline I have ever seen in the wild.

4. Backpacking the Priest. I’ve been wanting to try backpacking again for years, and did just over a month ago, doing a circuit hike through the Priest Wilderness in SW Virginia. It was definitely one of my great outdoor moments this year, and I need to do it again in 2011. Man, it was cold, though.

5. The starry night. My friend and I camped at the summit of Priest Mountain on the backpacking trip on that cold, clear night. The wind was howling and we huddled around our little fire after gulping down dinner. I looked up, and realized that the stars were just amazing. We walked out on rocks to get a clear view and were both awestruck with their brilliance. The word awesome is much overused, but this truly was awesome.

6. Cruising the Kenai Fjords. While in Alaska, we did a one day wildlife cruise in Kenai Fjords National Park, and it was incredible. Not only was the scenery spectacular with all the mountains, glaciers, and islands, but we saw incredible marine wildlife. Some of the new species we viewed were Steller’s sea lions, Dall porpoises, fin whale, humpbacked whale, tufted and horned puffins, and sea otters.

7. Wildlife in Denali National Park. About a week after seeing the Kenai Fjords, we took an all day wilderness bus tour in Denali. Again, the scenery was spectacular, as was the wildlife viewing. We saw Dall sheep, caribou, grizzly bear, moose, and wolves, along with a few less impressive species. Our day included seeing three wolves chasing Dall sheep across a sheer cliff.

8. Beta Testing the DeLorme PN-60 GPS. From March through August, I was a beta tester for the new DeLorme PN-60 GPS that synchs up with a SPOT satellite messenger, along with DeLormes impressive Topo USA 9 software. I did a variety of tests all over the place, including Washington State while I was there. It was fun to participate with this, and as a reward, I recently received a production PN-60, the SPOT, a year subscription to the messaging service, and the Topo USA software. I recommend you check this GPS out. DeLorme has received national awards for these products.

Remembering my First Backpacking Trip

With Fathers’ Day approaching, I thought I would write, in part to remember my Dad, a very short story about my first backpacking trip. It was in August 1969 in the Adirondacks. Now technically, my first real backpacking trip, to mystical Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior, would not occur for two more years after that point. My grand and unforgettable misadventure to Isle Royale was precipitated when three seemingly unrelated things - an ex-girlfriend, a car magazine, and a football - somehow came together and colluded to send me on my way to Lake Superior. But that is much too long of a story to tell here. So I will tell this one instead, and will include a “few trips down memory lane” at the very end.

So, then, my first “sort of backpacking” trip was this camping trip with one night of “backpacking” in the Adirondacks with my father. I say “backpacking” in quotes because my Dad had a real backpack and carried most of our gear – I should say his gear. His pack had an external frame and the big padded hip belt, and I had never seen such a thing before. It was an amazing piece of equipment! I had the old style canvas “Army – Navy” surplus rucksack, and carried my clothes and some personal gear. Who knows, maybe I had my heavy hatchet and knife along for that trip, too – something sure kept digging into my back despite the relatively light weight of my pack! At the time, I felt like a true outdoorsman when I carried those two objects around with me while camping out! Hey, cut me a little slack! I had turned 18 just weeks before, on the exact date that Apollo 11 lifted off for mankinds's giant leap to the lunar surface.

My parents were a few months away from finalizing a most bitter divorce, and I had the chance to spend a week with my Dad. When he asked me where I wanted to go with him, I immediately said that I wanted to camp in the mountains somewhere. My little brother, two years my junior, had picked the Woodstock Festival of Rock and Roll lore and legend, and I could have done that with them. But I wanted to camp out. So we headed out to the Adirondacks, a good drive from where my Dad lived in North-coastal Jersey, and an even longer trip from my home in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

I can’t remember a whole lot about the specifics about what we did each day of the trip, other than these four (1) we hiked up Mt. Marcy, the tallest mountain in New York; (2) we camped in campgrounds around the Adirondacks most of the time (3) one night we hiked up Mt. Whiteface and camped out on its side; and (4) it was the last time I ever went camping with my Dad. After that point, college, grad school, job, family, distance, and life always seemed to conspire to get in the way of a camping trip together. So I am really glad that I had this opportunity, and that I took it.

The “backpacking” part of the trip was the most memorable. We had hiked only a couple of miles up to a lean-to on Whiteface Mountain, where we cut some spruce branches and made a comfortable bed in the lean-to. From there, we had hiked another mile or so, sans packs, to the summit of Whiteface. An auto road allowed cars to drive up, and there was of course a decent restaurant, where my Dad bought us dinner. Such luxury! So there was no need to carry a stove or a lot of food on that trip, or eat deviled ham out of a can. The other nights in the Adirondacks were based on driving to a campground and setting up my dad’s 500 pound canvas umbrella tent. I’m exaggerating, of course – it only weighed 487 pounds – but my purpose is to show how clueless I was about backpacking in general and going light in particular. That lack of knowledge and skill came back to bite me in the butt many times when I encountered the triumvirate of the football, the car magazine, and the ex-girlfriend that propelled me on a truly serious backpacking trip in 1971!

Now cut me some more slack! I know that today, unless one was desperate and freezing, one would never make a bed of spruce branches high on a mountain. But we did then, 40 years ago this summer, and I still remember how good those boughs smelled as I was falling asleep that night. I remember the quiet and stillness of being alone, just the two of us, on the side of the mountain. The silvery crescent of the moon hung like a beautiful pendent of God's over the side of the mountain. Even though I have only managed to go backpacking perhaps a dozen times or so since then, it was at that moment that the difference between a noisy, car choked campground and being away from all that, carrying what you need with you, and exploring the outdoors on foot first truly crystallized as a concept in me. For that moment of revelation, and for this one last trip to the outdoors with my father, I am grateful.

Here are few old photos that I scanned in from the past...

Me at 18 in our lean-to on the side of Mt. Whiteface

My Dad on the summit of Mount Whiteface

Me on some rocks in the Adirondacks, two months out of high school and a month away from college

Five Year Tumbledown Anniversary!

Five years ago, August 24, 2003, also on a Sunday, I was standing on top of Tumbledown Mountain in western Maine. Now, we are not talking Mount Everest here, so why should this be a such big deal? People climb mountains like that all the time, and in fact on that day there were dozens of folks that we encountered during the hike. But for me, it was a very big deal - it fulfilled a pledge that I'd made to myself more than a year previously and symbolized my victory over cancer. Here is a brief story about how that all transpired, using a note that I emailed to friends after the trip.

Here I am on top of Tumbledown Mountain in Maine, August 24, 2003 - about 8.5 months after finishing chemotherapy for lymphoma:



It was a beautiful day but extremely windy on top. A year before nearly to the day of this photo, I was in the hospital feeling about as ill as I can ever remember with what turned out to be temporary lung damage from bleomycin. Climbing this mountain with Mary and some exceptional friends was a goal that I set near the start of chemotherapy, so reaching the top was a very special moment for me. To me, it symbolized victory over cancer and a return to good health, and the power of friendship.

Before I got ill we had planned on climbing this mountain, in western Maine, with some great friends during the summer of 2002. With the lymphoma, that could not happen, but in July of that year, my climbing friends sent me a beautiful framed photo of the mountain for my birthday with a note on the back that we would still climb it together. Seeing the beauty of the picture, reading the note, appreciating the thought of “bringing the mountain to me”, and realizing that I would not be climbing it that year – and perhaps never - hit me in an extremely emotional way for some reason. I looked at the photo with tears pouring down my face, the only day I cried during my entire cancer saga.

We hung the photo in our kitchen and every day I looked at it. I resolved that by the summer of 2003, I would be well and strong enough to climb Tumbledown. And that is what happened! Even months after finishing the chemotherapy in early December, I was still not back to full strength, but I gradually got strong and healthy enough to make the trip up Tumbledown Mountain with our friends, even though I was a bit pokey at times. We are only talking maybe 8 or 9 miles, but to me it symbolized victory over cancer and a return to good health. Standing at the top looking out over the forests, mountains, and lakes of Western Maine was just an incredible feeling. Many thanks to Mary, Gordeen and Tom, Chip and Amy for climbing it with me on that August day. It meant more to me than I could ever express.

So if during my cancer year, if you paid me a visit, sent me a card or email, called me to talk, helped with chores around the house, visited me in the hospital, thought good thoughts about my recovery or said a prayer for me, then you helped me get up Tumbledown. If you gave me chemo drugs or mixed them for my treatment, provided oncology or medical services, did X-rays or CT scans, nursed me in the hospital, participated in surgery, conducted lab tests or pulmonary tests, then you too were on that hike with me to the top of the mountain. So to all of you, more thanks than I can express.

To expand upon what I wrote to friends back in 2003, this is a great hike. It is near Mount Blue State Park in Weld, and is very scenic. There is a beautiful high altitude pond near the top. Here is a photo of me near the top with the pond in the background.


After seeing the pond, Amy, Chip and I continued to the top. We had to hike down to the pond, losing quite a bit of elevation, then hiking steeply back uphill. I remember being really tired, and thinking that getting to the pond was enough. It was Amy who gave me the determination to keep going. She essentially said "you set this goal, you are so close. Why not keep going another 20 minutes and see how you feel?" So we kept going, and eventually got to one of the summits (there are two or three) where the photo at the beginning of this post was taken. Amy was so right - if I had turned back, it would have really bothered me later not to get to the top of Tumbledown Mountain.

The photo that my friends gave me still hangs in my kitchen, and I look at it often, always feeling inspired when I do so, and thinking of a very special hike on that August day.