what we have here is a failure to communicate

Four days in a row now I have played outside, walking between 2.5 to 3 miles each time. On Tuesday I slipped and slid down the Ocean Path, looking for new ways of seeing Otter Cliffs through the lens of my camera. On Wednesday I tromped through the woods beside Hunters Brook, photographing fantastic ice details there and then along the carriage road that skirts the Triad. Thursday my roommate and another friend and I ventured out into the howling wind tunnel that was the Jordan Pond valley, braving frost bite and waves that were freezing almost as quickly as they got kicked up, and making it only as far as the Carry Trail before cutting back. Today I returned to Jordan Pond to capture the ice sculptures that the tempest had created all along the shore, and in spite of the snowy trail, made it all the way around the pond in an hour.

I started a little journal, to write down what trails and routes I follow on each adventure, and am continuing to mark them down on my map of the island. I’ve been marking the map since last January. There are still a few trails I have never done before, and quite a few that I didn’t hike in 2008, but I intend to finish all of them this year.

The idea is to complete the trail and carriage road system on MDI, and make something out of the piles of photographs I have and continue to obsessively collect, that documents my time here. Then I will move. I love this island, and I love Maine – increasingly so the longer I live here – but I am ready to spend time and energy exploring a new place. Fall of 2009 is my projected departure date – where I go has yet to be decided. Meanwhile, I have work to do, the last corners of the Park to explore, and a book (or two) to put together.

It’s going to be a great year. I’m certain of it, and excited to be alive to experience it.