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Signage
Our Cabin
Mother Knits a Scarf
View of Sommes Sound from the Top of Acadia Mountain
Fall Foliage, Up Close and Personal
Beech Mountain Trail
Bah Hahbah at Low Tide
Brrrrrrr! It Gets Cold In Maine
Throwing Rocks at Eagle Lake
Ethan on the Rocks
Penny at Thunder Hole
Ethan Models His Jaunty Cap
Homeward Bound
Where: Hadrian’s Wall, Northumberland, England
When: July 2003
What: Two thousand years ago, a 10-foot-tall and 70-mile-long stone wall loomed over the undulating hills of northern England, built at the order of the Roman Emperor Hadrian to keep the savage Scots from raiding and pillaging Roman territory to the south. Today, the remains of Hadrian’s Wall form the largest ancient structure in all of Northern Europe. This photo shows the path alongside the wall as it winds toward a series of crags called the Nine Nicks of Thirlwall, seen here in the distance towering above the pond.
Here’s how I described the experience of walking here in one of my American Adventurer columns from last year: “A ragged mist swallows the rolling hills and checkerboard farmland ahead of me. An icy wind whips at the hood of my jacket. I’m alone today, a solitary hiker following in the footsteps of history, and this is just what I came for: a bleak and breezy walk along the ruined skeleton of England’s most impressive ancient monument.”
I’ve never been wholly satisfied with that description, though. I think it’s because I wasn’t able to use my column to talk about why I really chose this walk. I mean, who among SmarterTravel’s bargain hunting readers would actually care about the personal crisis I was going through in 2003?
But here I can talk about it all I want, and this is what I wanted to say: I was at a crossroads in my life in the summer of ‘03, and Hadrian’s Wall is one of the places I went in search of the proper road to take next. Penny and I were separated and I was living on my own for the first time since college. I took six weeks off from work and went to Europe that summer to find myself, and I was drawn to Hadrian’s Wall because it gave me the opportunity to take long, solitary walks in the moody countryside near the Scottish border.
There was something wonderfully anonymous about “following in the footsteps of history.” I took comfort in the idea that 2,000 years ago there might have been someone else standing near that wall, feeling homesick and confused, and wondering what to do with his life. It helped me keep my own problems in perspective. Melodramatic, probably, but it is what it is.
Anyone who knows me today knows that Penny and I eventually got back together, moved to Cambridge for two years and then to Beverly, where we now own a house and have started a family. But back in 2003 that outcome seemed improbable at best.
This is the trek that began the long process of helping me work through what was going on in my heart, and I think I’ll always look back on it with a kind of bittersweet nostalgia. It wasn’t a straight line from there to reconcilation, after all, and things would only get worse between us before they’d eventually get better.
So yeah, bittersweet, for sure. But it was still a hell of a walk.
The Mighty Climber
Ethan climbed his first mountain on Saturday. Granted, it wasn’t much of a mountain, and granted, he didn’t actually do any hiking himself, but he did offer encouraging words like “Up! Up!” as we carried the little critter up and down the trail on our backs.
… I was freezing my ass off in Iceland.
Love that icy water
Even colder than it looks
A good time was had by all
Happy Fourth of July!
Just got my advance copy of Britain and Ireland’s Best Wild Places from Penguin UK. It’s a gorgeous doorstopper of a book with photos and descriptions of 500 of the most spectacular places in the United Kingdon.
This is the kind of book I’d want to own even if one of my photos weren’t featured. Fortunately, that’s a moot point because the editors selected this photo from my Tuesday Traveler series for the entry on Skellig Michael.
Learn more about the book at Penguin’s website or Amazon UK. There’s also an article about the book over at the Guardian UK’s website, and they used my Skellig photo in one of their online slideshows, too.
I almost feel famous.
Where: Lookout Mountain, Tennessee
When: September 2005
What: Yep, that’s me hang gliding 2,000 feet above Tennessee. I’m flying tandem with an instructor from Lookout Mountain Flight Park about 20 minutes from downtown Chattanooga.
There are at least two ways to launch a hang glider. One is to climb to the top of a mountain and jump off the edge at a full run. The other—and this is the approach I took—is to tie your glider to the back of an airplane with a long bungy-like rope. When the plane takes off, so do you. Once you’re a couple thousand feet in the air you let go and float gently to the ground like a leaf on the wind. All in all, a thrilling yet mildly terrifying experience.
Things you can’t see in this picture: 1) The Vulcan death grip I’m employing on the crossbar, and 2) The wide-eyed exhilaration on my face. This is probably not something I’ll ever do again, but I am happy I did it at least once. Happier still that I lived to tell the tale.
Photo taken at Mystery Hill, New Hampshire, circa 1985. Note my authentic Indiana Jones hat and somewhat-less-authentic pleather jacket. How long have I been looking forward to Indy 4? Only all my life.
I just sold this photo of Ireland to Penguin UK for use in their upcoming book, Britain and Ireland’s Best Wild Places.
We’re back from our midweek getaway, and we’ve learned a valuable lesson: Vermont is too far to drive for just one day. But still—what a day it was!
The Wildflower Inn
Dinner
Skiing
Ethan’s one-horse open sleigh
He’s so heavy!
His Royal Highness
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