After the monotony of the first week of classes, I left Bowdoin behind on Friday afternoon for the four-hour drive to Baxter State Park, home of Mount Katahdin. With a couple of other Bowdoin Outing Club leaders, I was leading a weekend hike up the tallest mountain in Maine—one of the most beautiful in the northeast. Following some sweet driving at speed on the highway up to Millinocket (with a brief stop for urination and the purchase of delicious gummy sharks), we arrived at our campsite at Roaring Brook just after dark. A gigantic dinner of couscous with sausage sent us to bed.

            I could give you the blow-by-blow of our hike, but I think that most people would probably fall asleep if I tried to chronicle the entire day. Some choice moments included:

–Eating a watermelon at the top.

–When I learned how bidets are actually used (you’re not supposed to sit in them–don’t worry, I’d never actually tried this).

–Running into the COC(K), or Colby Outing Club. This may not actually have been the Colby Outing Club, but rather a mindless agglomeration of Colby students. Suffice to say that my disdain for them is at least partially merited, if not entirely.

–When I tried to eat cranberries, and Nick (co-leader and ski team captain), flipped out because THEY COULD BE POISONOUS.

–Eating absurd amounts of pepperoni and cheese, with appropriately minimal quantities of accompanying tortilla.

When we got down, we made one of the most awesome, rad, extreme dinners ever:

ramen bombs. If you’ve never experienced the goodness that is ramen bombs, allow me to enlighten you. The gist of it is, combine cooked ramen with instant mashed potatoes. Season with whatever you want—we used ramen packet seasoning and cheese, though sausage or bacon or some other meat product would have been a welcome addition. It was awesome, and sufficiently high on the glycemic index that we all needed more sugar from brownies and smores to stave off the inevitable crash that would have otherwise followed.

          I’ve been doing much better this year than in years past in terms of being a responsible athlete. Since April or May, I’d only been sick once, and even with some annoying allergy problems, I haven’t had health interfere with training at all.

            Until this week. I think it was bound to happen at some point, as you have like 1600 people all coming from different places with different germs at the beginning of the school year. Looking back, there were probably a few things I could have done differently, mainly drinking water in the 24 hours between the end of the Katahdin hike and the beginning of my specific strength workout the next day. But this is in the past. Monday morning I woke up with one of the most intense sore throats I’ve had ever. The only thing consoling me is that about half of the rest of the school is sick, as is the same proportion of the ski team. I’ve been pounding the Vitamin C and water, and hopefully I’ll be good to go by tomorrow. 

Below are some gratuitous watermelon shots, as well as some other good pictures…

School is finally here, which along with little sleep and lots of work, also brings freshmen. For those unfamiliar with higher education, freshmen are essentially gifts from on high made to more experienced members of the ski team–useless balls of clay for us to shape into handsome, athletic specimens.
Well, sort of. If you thought that this was going to be a post about hazing, think again. (We keep those reports and pictures under wraps.) No, in all seriousness, it’s very exciting every fall to get a new bunch of fresh faces ready and excited to train hard, learn about the sport, and make new friends.
This year, the incoming group of skiers has actually doubled the size of the team. We’ve got something like six or seven new guys and a similar number of girls. They come from far and wide– Utah, Western Mass., Upstate New York, Minnesota, Michigan, and Maine–and they also boast impressive resumes. We’ve got a Michigan state champion, multiple Junior Olympic attendees, and some plain-old all-around solid athletes.
One of the most exciting things about the new freshmen are the rollerskis that they’ve been using during captain’s practices. I’m currently on a pair of V2 920s for classic, which are normally decent speed, but the bearings in them are seriously in the hurt locker. Trying to keep up with some of these new kids on their Proskis, Sharks, and Swenors has been causing me quite a bit of pain; I think I’m going to have to spring for some new wheels at a certain point or I’ll be doing a lot of training by myself.
The other exciting thing that happened this week was the absolute last paddling excursion I’ll be participating in this fall. On Saturday, I cruised down to the Rapid River (near Bethel) with the Bowdoin Outing Club for some solid class IV boating, which apparently results in disaster when combined with canoes. I felt really badass as the only person in our group in an open boat right up until the first four rapids, which resulted in four successive swims (see pictures). I then proceeded to slice open my right palm on a kayak paddle while trying to surf at a sweet play spot. Hmmmm…..
I’m heading up to Katahdin this weekend for a solid hike with a few other ski team members. Hopefully I’ll have an exciting report on that next week, although if it weren’t quite as exciting as the Presi traverse that’d be fine by me…

It’s been two weeks since I’ve last posted–I’ve been busy. First I was home getting all my stuff ready for school, and then I was out in the Maine woods and on Maine rivers leading some incoming Bowdoin first-years on a whitewater canoeing trip. Bowdoin’s pre-orientation sends out some 40 trips of 8-10 freshman out with two leaders doing various exciting activities, including hiking, paddling, surfing, biking, and community service. Training fell a bit by the wayside for a week, but it was worth it in exchange for the opportunity to mold some impressionable youths. The pictures are glamor shots of me and my co-leaders.

But yes, the moment I’ve been waiting so long for is finally approaching: the end of summer. I know it sounds a little crazy that a student might actually be awaiting the beginning of school, but there are actually quite a few things to be excited for–no more 40-hour a week internship, organized practices, meal plan. The meal plan is the only way I can psychologically justify the ridiculous Bowdoin price tag–19 delicious breakfasts, lunches, and dinners a week from the nation’s second (or third, I can’t remember) ranked dining service. Among my favorites are the buffalo chicken burger, Mongolian chicken hot pot, cheese and bean tostada–the list could go on forever. Seriously though, the addition of more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains added to my diet by the Bowdoin dining halls may potentially improve my physical well-being, even if curly fries and bi-weekly ice cream bar does not. Being able to tuck into a huge breakfast or dinner immediately following a hard workout will also be nice, as opposed to having to cook it after I’m finished. Tomorrow’s semester-inaugurating lobster bake marks the beginning of classes, as does the two-mile “lobster run” that takes place directly beforehand.

I haven’t been doing too much exciting for training for the past couple of weeks–I did have a really nice three hour classic ski last weekend, however. One thing that I thought was worth mentioning: I saw two kids jumping on pogo sticks in their driveway, and for the first time while rollerskiing I was pretty confident that I’d seen someone doing something that was actually more odd than what I was doing.

Much excitement comes my way this weekend with the Blue Angels performing in the Great State of Maine Air Show this weekend at the Brunswick Naval Air Station. My room on the fourteenth floor of Coles Tower makes for optimal viewing; give me a buzz if you’re going to be in the area…