When it comes to traveling, things
have always been a little unbalanced in our family. While I seem to go on one
trip after another, year after year, my wife Lauren is always left at home to
watch after the kids and pets. So I’ve always felt deeply indebted to Lauren, because
without her, I never could have gone after my dreams of grand climbing
adventure. In a way, she’s been a
team member of every first ascent I’ve done. But as I am passionate about
mountains, so is Lauren about animal welfare. She has a degree in wildlife
biology and has always had a tremendous gift for taking care of animals. Somehow,
the chief of police in our tiny town of Jackson, NH (population 800) recognized
Lauren’s passion and recently hired her to be our animal control officer. It is
truly her dream job, and it’s exciting to finally see her so fully engaged with
her passion.
As it turns out, being an
animal control officer is serious business, involving, among other things, regular
encounters with rabid animals. So as part of her training for the new job,
Lauren has been attending various certification courses and conferences. In
July, she left for a five-day conference at the University of New Hampshire,
and so for probably the first time since we had Will 13 years ago, I was left
in charge of all three kids for the next five days.
For sure, there were many
people who were worried for the children’s welfare, most especially Lauren -- but
I had a plan. Not long after Lauren pulled out, I had the three kids -- Will
(13), Matt (10) and Lilla (6) -- loaded up in the Suburban with camping gear, bikes, fishing
poles, and climbing gear. Destination: the coast of Maine. I’ve always felt
drawn to the Maine coast, probably because I spent a lot of summers there when I
was a kid. One of my dreams has always been to have some kind of a getaway on
the ocean, and so in 2004 we purchased a piece of land in a small fishing
village (pop. 1200) called Steuben. Steuben is further downeast than Bar Harbor
and the Acadia region and so has almost no tourist activity. It’s a place where
you can experience what I call the “real” Maine - where everyone is involved,
to one degree or another, with making a living on the water.
For the past eight years
we’ve been building a small house and this spring we put up the drywall and
painted the walls. The kids have been part of every stage in the Steuben
project’s evolution, from camping in a giant bug tent on the raw land, to our
1986 33’ travel trailer that I parked in our driveway for six years, to finally
an almost done house. To be honest,
the kids don’t always relish their trips to Steuben, mainly on account of the
drive, which is close to five hours.
As could be expected, they
usually complain that there’s nothing to do once we get there, and there’s always
a group freak out when it really sinks in that there’s no Wi-Fi, no cell, and
not even a TV. To help ease the pain of being disconnected from their
electronic devices, I did break down and buy them a trampoline. We spent the
first two days and nights of our trip hanging out at our place and exploring
Steuben and the surrounding area. The coastline in this part of Maine is
amazingly beautiful with long peninsulas separated by all shapes and sizes of bays,
inlets and islands. Our property borders a 40-acre organic farm, and the owner
allowed us to create a trail down to a small cove off Dyer Bay. We can walk
five minutes down a beautiful footpath and we’re at the shore. I usually keep a
kayak or a skiff down there and we’ve also got a mooring where I used to keep
our sailboat. Steuben is home to the famous Petit Manaan lighthouse and wildlife
refuge, where we hiked out to a remote beach and dug up some clams that made
for a great dinner.
On day three we packed up and
headed for Acadia national park, which is about an hour away by car, but only
20 miles due west as the crow flies. Will had been texting with one of his
school friends who also happened to be on vacation in Acadia, and so we met
them at Long Pond for an afternoon swim. That night we camped on the banks
Somes Sound, one of the only fjords in the country. The campground is the site
of an old quarry where you can paddle boats and fish. They also have a pool and
a seaside dock where we caught tons of mackerel. After dinner we roasted smores
– which I think might be the real reason the kids like camping so much. That night
I bent the “no screens” rule in the tent, and let them watch the old Planet of
the Apes movie on my computer.
In the morning I rallied
everyone early because today was the main event of the trip, a rock climbing
excursion at the south wall of Mt. Champlain. I had invited our friends from
Jackson and my climbing buddy from Steuben, Shaun Pinkham. Shaun is one of
Acadia’s pioneering climbers with many first ascents to his name and some very
colorful stories from back in Acadia’s glory days. The great thing about Shaun is that he just loves being out at
the crag and is as happy to help a little kid have their first climbing experience,
as he is to get on the rock himself. Shaun and I were lucky to find the south wall’s central
slabs, a popular beginner area, totally wide open.
As a so- called pro climber
and long time mountain guide, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked
if my kids climb too. The answer, to people’s surprise, has always been “no.” I
did get Will out climbing a fair bit when he was young, and in fact had him
doing multi-pitch routes at age 4. But I probably pushed him too hard, and by 4
½ he was already burned out. Because of climbing’s inherent danger, I felt it
was important that I let the kids decide themselves if they wanted to be
climbers, so I adopted a hands-off policy: if they wanted to climb they would
have to ask. The only problem was that they never asked, and so I really never
took them climbing. Finally, I realized that climbing would be a good
experience for them, whether they realized it or not.
All of the kids, seven of
them from ages 6 to 15, did multiple laps on the two routes we set up, and they
had Shaun and I belaying like crazy to keep them all satisfied. I have to admit
I felt some strange emotions while belaying my own children, part dread that
I’d somehow messed something up and part joy to be sharing an experience that
has meant so much to me and essentially shaped the course of my life. When it
was all done and we were driving back to the campground in the car, my son Will
said something like: “You know, I’d always thought climbing was something I
didn't like, but actually it’s really fun.” We are already making plans to get
out again.
That night back at camp we
caught some mackerel down at the dock and we kept one and put it in our cooler
to use as bait for catching some stripers. We fried up some haddock for dinner
and the kids roasted smores again over the fire. The next morning I had the
kids up at 7am because it was our last day, and I wanted to climb Acadia
Mountain before the long drive home. The hike to the top is only about 1.5
miles, but it seems like a long way when you’re with a six year old. Every time
we passed a turn in the trail and another section unveiled itself above us, I’d
tell the kids, “just a little ways more.” Even I was surprised by home many times
I had to use that line before we finally emerged onto open rock slabs on the
summit.
One look at the view and
everyone knew instantly that it had been well worth the effort. It would not be
an exaggeration to say that it must be one the most dramatic panoramas on the
east coast. We gazed down the
length of Somes Sound, past the exclusive communities of Northeast and Southwest
Harbor and the outlying Cranberry Islands to the stunning immensity of the
shimmering Atlantic Ocean. I was especially proud of Lilla, as it was her first
“summit,” but surely not her last. The hike down was a breeze in comparison,
and I’m pretty sure the ride back didn’t feel too bad after climbing a mountain
and packing as much fun as we possibly could into five days. Now that we’re
back home, the kids keep asking me when we can go camping again. The only
bummer about the whole experience was that Lauren wasn’t along to enjoy it with
us. The kids our calling the Maine trip the highlight of their summer, but the
truth is that no one had more fun than good old dad.
~ Mark Synnott
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