Guidebook: Acadia - Wafer Step (5.5), Deep Blue Sea (5.7), Guillemot Crack (5.6), Story of O (5.6), Bartleby (5.8), Yellow Wall (5.8), Recollections of Pacifica (5.9), Brochure Crack (5.9+)

Acadia National Park

Descriptions of a few of the routes in Acadia National Park in Maine.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - The Weird Season: Part 2

The Good

The Bubbles from Jordan Pond
(photo by Melanie Hall)

I waved good-bye to my four-year-old niece and my mom as they pulled out of the parking lot and headed to the airport and back to California. It had been a nice week with filled with lobster cookouts, skipping rocks, ice cream on the Village Green, gossip, and the laughter that comes after old ghosts are drawn out of closets long left open by families who know such things don't matter. An "accident" across the bay that left one lobsterman dead left the town abuzz about motives and the quiet "war" going on over there, while the tourists and locals alike still marvelled that such a small town as Bar Harbor could have as great of a fireworks display as what had been seen on the Fourth of July. I had drinks with "BEC" and "Wonderwoman" the night before they left town, and when we parted, after taking a gentle stroll down a blustery, chilly, dark, and peaceful Shore Path (my favorite place in the whole world), I looked forward to the climbing weekend ahead of me.

The Weird Season: Part I

CCK (5.8)

If you're a regular reader then you'll remember my "retirement" post from a few weeks ago. It's silly to call it a retirement because I never was making a living as a climber, but that trip to Red Rocks did change things for me as a climber. It killed all ambition I had to challenge myself on routes, and it turned my attention to more serious matters such as writing and taking whatever next steps I had to take in life. Because of that decision, I was suddenly confident in the choices I had made, and the direction I was going in seemed obvious for the first time in many years. But it didn't come without worries, the first and foremost was finding and / or keeping climbing partners who continued to push themselves beyond their limits. I still wanted to climb, but who would want to climb with someone who wasn't in the game seriously?

Lack of Posts

Hi Folks,

Just wanted to send an update on things here at the blog. There haven't been many posts lately and there are few reasons for that: 1) I had family obligations for a fair bit in June; 2) I've also been working on some larger projects and; 3) lately I've been sicker than a dog that's eaten chocolate ice cream, and it may take a  real long while to get 100% healthy again.

However, I do have a couple of posts that I need to write up. I may just do one post and combine them, but I'm not sure yet. If separated, one post will be a 'Gunks post and the other about Acadia, which started off great and, if I didn't wisen up five days later and get myself to the emergency room, could have ended much worse than it currently has. At the moment, however, my illness (or better yet the combination of the illness and the medication) is making me rather loopy in the head.

Still, there are posts to come, I promise. Just have patience.

Thanks,

Greg