Category: Misc.

I remember the first time I saw the White Mountains. It was on a Boy Scout hiking trip—probably in 1970. We hiked up Tuckerman’s from Pinkham Notch, and from there my memory of the rest of the route is a bit hazy. But that trip was the start of a long love affair with backpacking through NH, Maine, the Appalachian Trail in CT and MA, the Adirondacks in upstate NY, and the Sierra National Forest in Calif. In every season. Through rain, snow, and summer heat. But now, 50 years later, I don’t think I have the cardio and the leg muscles for the Whites. Yesterday’s 4.4 mile on the Dickey-Welch Trail near Thornton just about wore me out. I had trouble walking down the stairs this morning. I may be stiff for days. I guess hiking is one more thing I’m going to have to surrender to time.

I was just onboard a replica of Magellan’s 500-year-old flagship, Nao Trinidad. It was one of five ships in the 1519 Armada de Molucca sailing around the world. Magellan made it as far as the Philippines. I may have to re-read Bergreen’s Over the Edge of the World.

Magellan and his crew were not 21st-century men. They were cruel, violent, superstitious, incredibly ignorant about everything, greedy, zealously ideological and theological, and they smelled really bad. But they had nerve. Nerve enough to say across unknown oceans with little more than a compass, bad food, and a rat-infested wooden boat that leaked and depended on the vagaries of the wind to get from point A to the next unknown point. Or maybe they were just idiots.

From a recent NYT piece about my hometown, Old Saybrook: “It’s a place where middle-class people built cottages generations ago and left them to their kids… Now, many of those houses have been winterized. And as people retire, they live in them year-round.” 

Actually, this is true all over the Connecticut shoreline. Former seasonal, cold-water cottages now have been converted to year-round houses. What was once a summer-time vacation home with few amenities is now a McMansion retirement home.

I’m not sure this is progress. 

I haven’t written a word today, but that got me thinking about my book, Shadow of the Moon, which reminded me that there’s another total solar eclipse coming on April 8, 2024. Here’s a map of the 2024 path of totality. Northern New England and eastern Canada should have good, 3-minute-plus views. NASA has a webpage of information about the event as does the Great American Eclipse. Now where to go to watch it? Western NY? Toronto? I’ve never been there. Burlington? How cool would it be to watch it from a peak or ridge in the Presidentials in the White Mountains? Avoiding Mt. Washington, of course, since it’s in the clouds more than 200 days of the year.

My friend and mentor, Susan, recently wrote, “I recommend subscribing to Ed McSweegan’s blog!  It’s wide-ranging, illustrated (often), and always interesting. Leave a comment if so inclined.” Very kind words, but now I feel compelled to be interesting and wide-ranging when before I was just talking to myself. Not every day is an adventure or inspiring. I may have to steal a page or two from Walter Mitty.

Theoretically, last night was a good night to spot all of the solar system’s planets. I saw two. Mars to the east and Jupiter just above the Moon-lit clouds. I missed Saturn, Venus, and Mercury, which were already below the horizon. The view, standing in my front yard, reminded me again that I should invest in another telescope.

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