23 October 2025 (what the mountain does)

what the mountain does

with my subconscious

elk at twilight

6 March 2024 (sentinels)

sentinels

along the mountain pass

saguaro forest

2 February 2023 (each body)

each body

casts its shadow in the snow

mountainside trees

23 October 2019 (rain)

hard rain

washing away the colors

of the mountain

4 October 2019 (Acadia)

Hiked within sight of the U-shaped valleys of Acadia National Park, at the south end of Eagle Lake, today.

a bowl of sky

between the mountains

feeding the soul

11 June 2019 (fog)

morning fog

imagining this world

without mountains

June 26: Mount Equinox

At just over 3,800 feet, Mount Equinox is the highest mountain in the Taconic range in southwestern Vermont. From Manchester Center, there's an private toll road to the top (owned by Carthusian monks) which offers some spectacular views of the Taconics, the Green Mountains, and the valley between them. And the occasional wildlife sighting.

 

Matters of scale:

driving down the mountain

we slow for a crossing vole.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

June 6: Reunion

I'm at my Middlebury College reunion this weekend, in verdant, summery Vermont, tucked in the Champlain Valley between the Green Mountains and the Adirondacks.

 

The only thing unchanged

after 25 years--

this mountain view.

Posted with Blogsy

November 18: Camels Hump

Driving south from Burlington on I-89 this frosty morning, Camels Hump, the second highest peak in the Green Mountains, rose misty blue before me. This familiar peak is so distinctive, and it was so beautiful, that I almost swerved off the road every time it came into view.
 
Misty blue peaks--
so clear, my memories
of hiking there.

Posted with Blogsy

November 20: White Mountains

Drove home to Maine today via scenic Route 2, which winds across northern Vermont and New Hampshire. One of the highlights of the trip is traveling above the Mount Washington valley with breathtaking views across shorn farm fields to a full profile of the Presidentials. Although the sky was gloomy with clouds, the peaks were in full view. As I watched crows gleaning in a field, I wondered what they thought about a part of the landscape that was probably higher than they would willingly fly.

Mount Washington's peak
revealed, conversing with clouds.
Crows lie low below.

January 4: Snowy Peaks

It's amazing how lofty and remote the familiar Camden Hills can become with the addition of a few inches of snow. Although Mount Megunticook is the third highest peak on the Atlantic seaboard, that's not saying much. It's just over 1,300 feet in elevation, behind Cadillac and another Acadia mountain, and just ahead of Ragged and Bald, also in the Camden Hills. Most of the Atlantic coast is just that: coast. As in, sea level. Camden isn't called "where the mountains meet the sea" for nothing--most of the coast doesn't have such a lucky and scenic conjunction of geography.

But after the past weekend's storm, the snow-covered Megunticook ridgeline looks positively alpine. Perhaps it's because the frosting of snow accentuates the craggy appearance of the mountain's open, rocky ledges and spiky summit evergreens. Or perhaps it's that the old landslide scar from several decades ago is highlighted by the whiteness, looking now like a fresh avalanche chute. Whatever the reason, when the sun hit the ridge this afternoon, I caught my breath. There was a mountain! Remote, inaccessible, lofty... and beautiful.

Snow-covered ridgeline--
is that really where we walked
in last summer's heat?