Author: Eric

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August Adventure Month: Day 24

Sunset, Mt. Holyoke, South Hadley, Mass.

Day 24: Tuesday, August 24
Night hike, Seven Sisters RT

I’d been wanting to do this for a long time: hike up to the Summit House on Mt. Holyoke for sunset (pictured), then hike the Seven Sisters range in the dark. It was a hot, wet day, humidity in the 90s. The sunset was wonderful, then the hiking began. Seven Sisters is not an easy range to hike, even in daylight. It’s a 4.5-mile (one way) stretch of constant steep hills, up and down. This is a different hike than climbing a mountain, with a long uphill followed by a long downhill. Rather, Seven Sisters is a long, steady workout that keeps raising your heartbeat then allowing a little recovery before doing it all again, over and over. For that reason, it’s a good training ground for hiking and trail running, and during weekend days you often run into trail runners training for an event. I’ve used Seven Sisters for years as a hiking training ground, often taking on the round trip with a 30-pound pack to build my trail legs. But hiking this trail at night is a different experience. You hear different animals, the view below is speckled with lights, and you don’t come across any other hikers. It can get a little spooky in the middle where it’s most remote, but mostly it’s a peaceful hike, always recommended.

Adventure: Night hike of Seven Sisters range.
Distance traveled: About 11 miles hiking.
Challenges: Hiking up and down a fairly rigorous trail; maintaining composure while alone at midnight deep in the woods.
Risks: Slipping and falling down a steep embankment; potential run-in with a bobcat, coyote or bear.
Difficulty scale 1-10: 7.5
Highlights: Lovely light-speckled night views of the Valley below; the peace of being alone in the woods at night.

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August Adventure Month: Day 23

Day 23: Monday, August 23
Write a song

As adventures go, today’s was fairly low stakes, though not easy. To write a good song – something meaningful and impactful – requires a dive deep inside, an inner exploration that might bring you to internal places you haven’t been in a while, if ever. It can be a risky or difficult emotional journey. The song I wrote for today’s adventure is a ballad, and addresses ironies and contradictions in the ways people communicate in relationships, the ways in which we verbally dance in order to care for feelings instead of being forthright and honest. It’s not my best, not my worst. Someday I’ll perform it, when it’s refined and ready.

Adventure: Write a song
Distance traveled: An inward, emotional journey, immeasurable distance.
Challenges: Engaging emotions, venturing deep inside where difficult feelings may live.
Risks: Hitting up against hard thoughts, memories and feelings.
Difficulty scale 1-10: 7
Highlights: The feeling of reward when the song is finished; playing the song in its entirety.

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August Adventure Month: Day 22

Mt. Marcy summit, Adirondacks, New York

I declared August 2021 Adventure-a-Day Month (yes, I can do that)! Every day of August, I embarked on some type of adventure, 31 days, 31 adventures, some big, some small, some physical, some mental. It’s my way of making adventure part of everyday life. I write about each adventure below.

Day 22: Sunday, August 22
Climbing Mt. Marcy, NY (high point)

I love the Adirondacks. Mt. Marcy, just outside of Lake Placid, NY, is the state’s highest point at 5,300 feet, so I was able to add another to my ongoing endeavor of standing on the highest point in all 50 U.S. states. This climb is long and meandering, gradually up through woods for more than six miles before an intense rock climb for the last mile to the summit. Then the trees clear and you get this incredible view of mountains stretching in all directions. I heard the crowds swell atop Mt. Marcy, but on this day (as Hurricane Ida thrashed Connecticut and other lower regions) the crowd was minimal. Another high point climbed, this was a good one. And I couldn’t resist getting a shot of these gorgeous wildflowers near the top.

Adventure: Climbing Mt. Marcy, NY.
Distance traveled: About 16 miles hiking RT.
Challenges: Enduring a long hike, scrambling up rocks, rationing water and food because I didn’t pack enough!
Risks: Slipping and falling, turning/spraining an ankle, dehydration.
Difficulty scale 1-10: 7
Highlights: An awesome view and lovely winds atop Mt. Marcy. Great payoff for the long hike getting there.

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August Adventure Month: Day 21

Kayaking Lake Placid, NY


I declared August 2021 Adventure-a-Day Month (yes, I can do that)! Every day of August, I embarked on some type of adventure, 31 days, 31 adventures, some big, some small, some physical, some mental. It’s my way of making adventure part of everyday life. I write about each adventure below.

Day 21: Saturday, August 21
Kayaking Lake Placid, NY

Lake Placid is gorgeous. An expansive lake with an extensive shoreline wending through and among towering Adirondack peaks. It’s peaceful, too, as its name suggests. For my Lake Placid exploration by kayak (Oru folding kayak), I set in on the north shore of the lake and worked my way across through the wind and south through a broad channel, then back north again and near some rocky cliffs, perfect for a swim. I spent about three hours on the lake and could have stayed out longer, but clouds threatened a storm approaching. Dinner in Lake Placid village followed.

Adventure: Exploring Lake Placid, NY, by kayak.
Distance traveled: About 8 miles paddled.
Challenges: Paddling against a strong wind at times; enduring hours in one position.
Risks: Capsizing. Getting lost on the water.
Difficulty scale 1-10: 4.5
Highlights: Drifting on the large lake with spectacular views of the Adirondacks all around.

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August Adventure Month: Day 20

I declared August 2021 Adventure-a-Day Month (yes, I can do that)! Every day of August, I embarked on some type of adventure, 31 days, 31 adventures, some big, some small, some physical, some mental. It’s my way of making adventure part of everyday life. I write about each adventure below.

Day 20: Friday, August 20
Paragliding lesson 2

Today’s lesson was slightly disappointing, though still enjoyable. Because there was so little wind, we were not able to lift off the ground with our paragliders. Rather, we practiced “kiting,” that is, lifting them off the ground and getting them to hover overhead, to get a feel for the wind and how to work it in concert with the paraglide wing. My appetite for paragliding is still whetted, but the ultra-dependence on the wind and weather in order to successfully do this activity give me some apprehension. I want to fly, but I’m uncertain if I want to invest the time and money to become adept at an activity that I can engage in only a handful of times each season. Under consideration

Adventure: Second paragliding lesson
Distance traveled: About 55 miles driving to Morningside, NH.
Challenges: Steadying a billowing paraglide wing overhead in unsteady wind.
Risks: Tripping and falling while running for launch.
Difficulty scale 1-10: 2.5
Highlights: Getting a feel for the paraglider.

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August Adventure Month: Day 30

Day 30: Monday, August 30
4-mile run after a heavy rain

Winding down this month of adventure, following a Day 29 big goal, and having returned to my office for the first time since March 13, 2020, I tapered down the ambition today and did a simple run after work. Four miles. It had just rained so I mistakenly thought it would be cooled off and less humid. It turned into a heavy, soaked run with 85% humidity, but it felt good. I was glad to keep it short. Still high from the goal achieved on Day 29.

Adventure: Take a 4-mile run around Easthampton
Distance traveled: About 4 miles running.
Challenges: Running, strenuous movement, for about half an hour.
Risks: Running risks: injuring something, traffic, slip/fall, ankle turn, dehydration.
Difficulty scale 1-10: 4.5
Highlights: The joy of moving, changing scenery, late-afternoon views of Easthampton after a heavy rain.

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August Adventure Month: Day 28

Majestic Theater, West Springfield, Mass.


Day 28: Saturday, August 28
Took my mother to a play

I’ve been bringing my mother to live plays at West Springfield’s Majestic Theater for at least a decade. She loves the plays, and five times a year the theater stages an impressive assortment of stage stories in a high-quality, professional manner with Actor’s Equity performers, wonderful stage sets and always well-executed stage direction. This is not community theater! Today’s play was called The Pitch, a play by Stan Freeman about failed dreams, dark pasts and deep regrets. We have standing front-row reservations, and always enjoy the Majestic’s shows.

Majestic Theater, West Springfield, Mass.
Majestic Theater, West Springfield, Mass. (image: Frederick Gore)

Adventure: Take my mother to a play
Distance traveled: About 30 miles RT driving
Challenges: Very little challenge. Watching out for my mother as we cross streets, go down stairs, etc.
Risks: That we won’t like the play; always the risk of trips and falls
Difficulty scale 1-10: 2.5
Highlights: Spending an afternoon with my mother; watching a well-executed play.

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August Adventure Month: Day 19


I declared August 2021 Adventure-a-Day Month (yes, I can do that)! Every day of August, I embarked on some type of adventure, 31 days, 31 adventures, some big, some small, some physical, some mental. It’s my way of making adventure part of everyday life. I write about each adventure below.

Day 19: Thursday, August 19
Mt. Tom hike with my nephew and sister

I could almost hike Mt. Tom in my sleep at this point, or at least in the dark with no headlamp. It’s that familiar. And yet, it never gets old, especially when introducing it to someone who hasn’t been up there on the Mt. Tom ridge before. The initial climb gets the blood pumping, then you scramble through the tight rock chute that spits you out atop the ridge. From there, you traverse up and down for two miles of breathtaking views and sheer drops of hundreds of feet off the ridge cliffs. Easthampton and the Valley stretch below and the view, on a clear day, extends to New York in the east and New Hampshire to the north. My nephew, Lee, lives in Texas. In all of that vast state, we agreed, there is no hike quite like Mt. Tom.

Adventure: Mt. Tom hike.
Distance traveled: About 5 miles
Challenges: Moderate climb up and steep climb down through shale.
Risks: Slipping and falling off a cliff with drop offs of hundreds of feet.
Difficulty scale 1-10: 4.5
Highlights: Spectacular views, glorious breezes, the joy of sharing this local landmark with someone who hasn’t been up there before.

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August Adventure Month: Day 18

Float, Easthampton, Mass.

I declared August 2021 Adventure-a-Day Month (yes, I can do that)! Every day of August, I embarked on some type of adventure, 31 days, 31 adventures, some big, some small, some physical, some mental. It’s my way of making adventure part of everyday life. I write about each adventure below.

Day 18: Wednesday, August 18
Floating/sense deprivation therapy

You’re lying motionless in a tank filled with salted water such that you floating, suspended and touching nothing. It’s pitch black so you can’t see even your hand held in front of your face. You’re wearing ear plugs obscuring the slightest sound. This is float therapy, also known as sense deprivation. Floating removes every external distraction, leaving you alone inside your head and, presumably, able to relax and destress. It definitely has that effect, as it forces a kind of meditation, a total relaxation that eventually may lull you into an infantile nap, carefree and lethargic. At first, floating is slightly disconcerting as you are disrobed, alone and out of familiar context. But little by little during the hour or hour and a half in which you recline in the tank, you let go of concerns and allow the total absorption of literal senselessness to enfold your consciousness.

Adventure: Float therapy, first time.
Distance traveled: One mile, to Eastworks, Easthampton.
Challenges: Remaining still, letting go, being present.
Risks: Very little risk, but potential for slight fear of dark and disorientation.
Difficulty scale 1-10: 1.5
Highlights: Total relaxation, meditation, euphoric feeling.

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August Adventure Month: Day 17

Blueberry crepes

I declared August 2021 Adventure-a-Day Month (yes, I can do that)! Every day of August, I embarked on some type of adventure, 31 days, 31 adventures, some big, some small, some physical, some mental. It’s my way of making adventure part of everyday life.

Day 17: Tuesday, August 17
Make breakfast with my daughter, Livvy; bike to/up Mt. Tom

My daughter Livvy snuck in a visit home for a couple days, and we always enjoy cooking a meal together, so we decided to make a massive, delicious protein-packed breakfast of crepes with fresh-picked blueberry topping and egg scramble with cheese and (fake) sausage. So. Good.

Later, after she left to return to the White Mountains, I snuck in a bike ride up over Mt. Tom, wishing she could have stayed longer.

Adventure: Making and eating power breakfast; bike ride to Mt. Tom
Distance traveled: Back and forth in my kitchen; bike ride: ~10 miles
Challenges: Achieving delectable flavor; timing two dishes to be ready simultaneously.
Risks: Runny eggs, heavy crepes, tart blueberry topping, undercooked sausage.
Difficulty scale 1-10: 3
Highlights: Eating amazing crepes and scrumptious egg/sausage scramble, and spending time with Livvy!