Girl Power!

Lots of time with girls the summer.  Some of that time was spent volunteering for Carrabassett BackCountry Challenge (CBC) with Alison.  She runs all of registration (I have helped her since the first year; this was year three) - and THIS year she took over Pre-Race breakfast.  So guess who got up and helped her out at 4:30 am?  This girl.  Race started at 7am, so breakfast was at 5:15.  The best part of being up that early?  So pretty up there.  Took this after we got breakfast all set up - probably around 5am or so.

Every Monday I ride with the women's mountain bike group up in Carrabassett.  This was the ride after race weekend.  We rode what we call the Houston Brook Loop.  17 miles - fast - and hot.  But the coolest place to be is in the woods around Sugarloaf on a bike.

Karen just after crossing Stratton Brook Pond.

Liz and Carrie crossing.

Sweet spot for a snack break - Stratton Brook Pond.

While Al and I waited for the others, I had to snap a pic of the now-limp Black-Eyed Susan.

Stashed the bikes for the swim at the end of the ride.

A nice, deep hole.  It was a true pleasure to be here JUST with these girls - no one else was there except us.  Al and I did not bring dogs either because the ride is a fast one, and again, what a pleasure to just swim - no responsibility of husky-dogs - just responsible for myself and cooling off.  Awesome.

I will miss the ride this week, as I will be in the Northeast Kingdom of VT for AP Camp.  Learning how to teach another AP course - AP Literature.  But one reason I wanted to go there for camp is because the biking is so good up there.  That is where The Kingdom is - so I will be bringing my bike and getting out there for sure.  We always have from 3-6 off before dinner, so I will jam up there, get some miles in, and think about what I have learned that day.  I will miss the women of the Monday night ride, but will be back.

On Wednesday EmJay and I hiked the new Black and White Trail - this is a trail that runs from White Cap over to Black Mountain.  As someone who has hiked a lot of everything around here many many times, I get excited about new trails.  I wish this one was going to be more of a go-to, but sadly, it will not.  First problem, it does not go over the summit of White Cap.  Second: one has to use the orange trail at the big, busy trailhead to access the trail to Black Mountain.  Third: the summit of Black Mountain is LAME with towers.  There are FIVE up there - the place hums.  There was trash - go figure, it IS Rumford - there was a guy who drove up there to work on one of the towers - the views were okay.  The best view for me was the one looking back at White Cap - definitely a vantage point I had not seen before.  The trail itself, from White Cap to Black was really pretty.  Lots of rock features, lots of nice roley poley trail.  On the way back we did go back up to White Cap to see the summit, and that is a must in my opinion.  It was about 15 minutes to the summit from the junction of the Black/White trail.

White Cap from Black Mountain.

Big ol' rock along the trail.

'Nother big ol' rock.

And another - they were the highlight.

Ferns along the trail.

Cairn and lichen.

Achilles cools off.

Summit with EmJay on left.

Me and my dogs - forgot to mention that this was one of the hottest most humid days of the summer - it was brutally humid.  But the woods ARE the place to be when it is that hot.  Thank goodness for that, because I would be there regardless.