First Glow

It wasn't wasn't the kind of sunrise that ends up on a postcard in one of the gifts shops in Bar Harbor. We couldn't see the Atlantic Ocean from atop Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. For that matter, when the sun rose on another year in America, we couldn't see more than maybe a hundred feet. There were about 40 people atop the mountain. With no snow on the ground this year, most hiked. Lili Pew and Carol Bult, my tour guides for the New Year's adventure, decided we should ride mountain bikes (with studded tires for the icy roads). When we left Carol's house at 5 a.m., the skies above...

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Is it 2012 yet? Let the adventure begin

    (Column published in The Florida Times-Union on Jan. 1, 2012) If all went as planned last night, I passed out long before midnight. Passed out because I was tired from following some Maine residents up a mountain to watch the sun set on 2011. And if all went as planned this morning, the alarm went off at shortly after 3, letting me know it was time to join Lili Pew, Carol Bult and some other hardy Mainers in the second part of their annual tradition: snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, hiking or mountain biking to the top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National...

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