Teen Wilderness Adventure

I'm so excited...so is H.! We are living vicariously through our Figgy, who is about to embark on a 7-day White Mountain Backpack Experience that begins Friday at Pinkham Notch Visitor Center in Gorham, NH.

She is excited, too. She's going with her friend, H....there will be about 10-12 teens age 14-16 and two/three guides. They'll sleep in tents, cook outdoors, hike 4 to 8 miles a day over mountain ranges, through forests and past bogs. No cell phones, best of all. The adventure is run by the Appalachian Mountain Club, and Figgy has been breaking in her hiking boots on and off for a couple of weeks, per their advice.

On Golden Pond
We wish we were going! We went to New Hampshire on our first trip together to New England...the summer after we started dating, when I first met H.'s big family in Maine. On our way up, we went to New Hampshire and stayed in a rustic B&B that had a canoe and bicycles. One of my favorite photos of H. was of him paddling; I took it from my perch on the canoe. I don't know where that photo is now, but I want to find it...and am glad I found in my mind's eye right now, after midnight on a Wednesday night, the way that moment made me feel. I was trusting, proud, confident. I was adoring.

Road Trip
Tomorrow morning at 7:30, I'll pack Figgy, her camping equipment and Sug in our Honda CR-V and go pick up H. in Montclair. H.'s parents are doing the drive back. I can't wait to see New Hampshire again, and the weather is supposed to be glorious again, like today.

It's 350 miles, I think, from the Tappan Zee. Nothing I can't do with a little help from iced coffee, music and lively girls to keep me from getting tired.

We'll be staying overnight at Joe Dodge Lodge....I had to get two separate rooms b/c I snore loudly and did not want to keep Figgy and H. up the night before they start. Also, Figgy would have woken me up every hour to tell me to stop snoring!

I wish H. could go, but he was invited before this came up to Orlando to speak at the Children with Diabetes Meeting--because of the book he wrote.

Well, the washer is just about through spinning the new fleece jacket and lightweight nylon pants--so I better move them onto drying [automatic or fresh air], send a work email and go to bed.

May the road rise with Figgy and the wind be ever at her back.