Total time spent outdoors on a typical winter day: 160 minutes, ie, 25 minutes walking the dog on Ash Point, 45 minutes walking in Rockport, 90 minutes dealing with wood. Total time spent outside today: 16.5 minutes, namely, 4 minutes walking the dog, 10 minutes walking in Rockland, 2 minutes putting gas in the car, 30 seconds dashing to and from the garage. Reason: wind chill at about 400 below.
There were a surprising number of people out and about, however, real Mainers obviously. It looked like at least half the shop(pes) in Camden were open. (Almost nothing was open in Rockland - enough said?) The parking lot for the Bald Mountain trail was nearly full. A number of couples were walking along Lincolnville Road. There were even two cars parked below the rock-climbing cliff at Megunticook - you don't think....? nah. We, in contrast, forewent our pre-chill plan to attend the Coastal Mountains Land Trust reception at Beechnut House - three-quarter mile walk up an untreed, wide-open trail to end up at the top of a hill in 40 mph winds, are you nuts? - and drove around Knox County in comfort instead. On second thought, maybe the walkers and hikers weren't real Mainers after all, but flatlanders determined to make the most of the holiday, if even it killed them, determined to get the full winter experience of ice and wind, or just determined to prove themselves worthy of their second houses. Real Mainers were hair-of-the-dogging, watching football played among the palm trees, napping, reading, splitting wood. We fall in between.
We should have made the effort, for the woods are lovely in winter, the deep hollows snow-filled, pools and brooks half-frozen and making ice-sculptures, black tree trunks standing straight, knockneed, akimbo against their white blankets. There's a blessed absence of color. Purity of vision is a good way to start the year.
No comments:
Post a Comment