5:04 AM this morning, December 21, was the Winter Solstice: the moment of the year when the Northern Hemisphere tilts farthest from the sun. Each day since the Summer Solstice, the sun has set a little farther to the south, daylight has grown shorter, and nights have grown longer. On the twentieth of June, night...Read More
In mid-August, I decided that this would be the year to realize a long-cherished dream: I would spend the winter in solitude at my off-the-grid cabin in the Maine Woods. It’s nestled among fir and spruce, birch and maple, on the shore of First Roach Pond, just east of Moosehead, Maine’s largest lake. As the...Read More
The wild is not limited to remote places far from our everyday lives. Even in towns and cities, the wild is around us, though we often fail to notice it. Our neighbors include creatures who, though they are not human, are fellow beings nonetheless. That understanding makes my world feel richer, more alive, less lonely. ...Read More
Last week, I spent a night at Pemaquid Point, best known as the home of the iconic lighthouse featured on the Maine state quarter. I believe it’s also a strong candidate for the best spot in Maine to watch the sun rise above the ocean. A spectacular sunrise depends on clouds: just enough to provide...Read More
On the last day of May and the first of June, I explored a primeval forest in the North Maine Woods: a five-thousand-acre enclave of virgin woodland, the largest contiguous tract of old growth east of the Mississippi. It’s an anachronistic island surrounded by the younger forests typical of Maine today – regenerating woods that...Read More
The shoreline of Achor, my land on First Roach Pond, is fringed with a typical Maine Woods assortment of second-growth trees. Tall, evergreen spruce and fir. Birch and maple that change from the green of summer to the yellows and reds of fall to the bare starkness of winter. An orange-berried mountain ash here, a...Read More
I spent the last few days of 2019 (December 27-30) at my off-the-grid camp on the shore of First Roach Pond. On December 31, I was back in Internet-land to welcome 2020, and watched the live stream from Times Square as twelve o’clock struck. What a contrast in night experiences! At camp, I stood all...Read More
