Sunday morning I met the Bowdoin ski team at the Irving station in Augusta for the drive up to Sugarloaf. Not having learned from previous mistakes, I pounded a liter of water and a cup of coffee on the way, and though I almost made it, I had to force a van stop just 2 miles from the mountain for a pee break.

I’d never participated in the Sugarloaf Uphill Climb before, but this is an extremely gnar, extremely sweet event. Though I was hoping to contend with some of the Colby men’s skinny–sorry–ski team, I ended up duking it out with one of their women and a middle-aged man. Bowdoin did place a number of finishers in the top 20, however–check out the photos below.  A tasty lunch of pasta and chocolate chip cookies preceded our descent.

Yesterday, we set out to tame the Long Falls Dam Road, a 20-mile stretch of secluded pavement in the Maine woods. No moose, but fog and fall foliage abounded. We classic rollerskied for about three hours. Final tallies included a whole bunch of funny looks, like five ridiculously jacked up jeeps and other cars, one gigantic camper van that had no business being out there, and one middle finger (not mine, to be certain). 

Since yesterday’s drizzle nixed the epic run-hike the team had planned, we made up for it today with a four hour combo rollerski-running workout. We started with two hours on skate skis, alternating between smooth and unfinished jigsaw-puzzle-like pavement, before packing into the van for a quick drive over to Bradbury Mountain State Park–otherwise known as Radbury. Radbury is where I usually go to shred the gnar mountain bike style, but today we had to settle for shredding the gnar running style. The most important tally from this workout was the number of sandwiches I consumed at the dining hall upon my return, which was six.

Pictures are from Sunday’s Uphill Climb, and the Long Falls Dam rollerski. The photographers are “Outrageous” Ollie Burruss and “Nonstop” Nathan Alsobrook…

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