On Friday my wife Jaime and I went hiking in Acadia like we’ve been doing once a week on one of our days off. We decided to do the Orange And Black Path along the slopes of Mt Champlain and from there take the Precipice trail to the talus field and go to the unmarked Great Cave since last year Jaime didn’t quite make it all the way. The trail was insane, Rudoplh Brunnow sure did know how to make them, over rockslides, up stone staircases, dangling off cliffs by iron rungs. Not realizing what we were getting into, Jaime threatened physical harm while ascending a stairway literally on the ledge of a cliff with not even a railing to hold onto, but she had fun by the end of it. We found an easier way to The Great Cave than straight up the rockslide and took some amazing photos that she has dubbed ‘calfies’, yes, cave selfies. It truly is an amazing place and I’ll never figure out why Acadia no longer maintains the trail to it. We also found the old abandoned trail leading away from the cave, leading you back to the Precipice trail higher up on the ledges. After a hundred years of being forgotten, the trail was still easy to follow thanks to all of Brunnow’s remarkable stone stairways. We have decided to call ourselves the Hiking Douchebag Klique because we have to look fresh even when we’re out on the trails, I wear bandanas that match my outfits to be photo ready and she puts on makeup, not to mention we have the exact same hiking sneakers, sort of like old folks in their matching track suits. And the Klique part is an ode to the behind the scenes wrestling stable of Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon, Diesel, Triple H and 123 Kid, which is why its spelled with a K like their Klique, however, we’ve decided to change it to the regular C spelling of the word so it’s easier to find online. It was only 1.5 miles round trip but man were we sore after, that was one grueling trail. I still managed to run 0.3 of a mile back to the car afterwards though which means I’m getting in shape.
I’ve also been working on designing my own clothes, something that I started back in 2000 but never got around to really doing until a few months ago. I started simple with shirts and am now onto pants. My latest creation is an old pair of black jeans I have that ended up with some holes in them around the pocket area. So on one leg I sewed on, by hand, a strip of camouflage material I cut out from a bandana that goes halfway around the leg and will eventually wrap all the way around it. On the other leg I cut out Proph in the same material and used it to cover the hole on that side and balance out the design so its not heavy on one side, nothing on the other. They’re actually coming out great. I’m working on another pair which as of right now has my P logo on one back pocket, the Crown logo on the other.
The forest I’m beginning to grow in my yard is doing great, however, one pine tree I planted last year has died. All the other trees are thriving, some having grown one to two feet this summer. After all my hard work, I got my first wildlife, a woodchuck has moved in under our shed. Most people want to get rid of the rascally rodents, but they’re my favorite animal so I’m honored one of them is calling my forest home. Now I get to watch him from my windows every day. We’ve named him Linky, short for Lincoln, our home away from home in New Hampshire and where we are striving to move to in the very near future.Aside from the novels I’m writing, I’ve also decided to do a trail guide, ‘The Acadia You Haven’t Seen’, in which I discuss all of the old abandoned trails of Acadia and the cool places most people don’t know about. There’s lots of research that goes into it and lots of exploring, all for a page worth of writing, but if I can get it published, it could be huge. I also began work on a self help book about finding yourself and learning to be the person you truly are as well as one entitled ‘The Mountains That Made Me’ where I relate pivotal moments of my life to the mountains I hiked while making those life altering decisions, a memoir of sorts mixed with a hiking guide.
We’re getting closer to leaving our home in Bangor Maine, a place we no longer belong. We belong in the mountains of New Hampshire. For the past few years our goal has been to get our books published and move out there. However, without anything published yet, we’ve decided maybe we should move there anyway and just find new jobs. We’re looking at condos and houses but aren’t really sure which we’d prefer. The first step in leaving is paying off all of our credit cards, a task that within a year and a half we have almost completed. That’s well over $12,000 of debt now gone. We’re getting there. We’re beginning the downsizing process already, figuring we’ll most likely be getting a studio size condo that won’t fit most of our stuff.
We’re both trying to lose weight and get healthier, especially for all the hiking we have ahead of us. I’m doing good but not good enough. At my heaviest I weighed around 230. I started working out about a year and a half ago, I’m now down to a little under 210. That was with exercise and eating smaller portions. Now I’m trying to eat healthier as well, usually having a salad for lunch and one with supper and staying well under 2000 calories a day. My workouts have been getting less intense as the heat's been picking up but when its tolerable I still get a good one in, as well as an insane hike every week. I don’t know what my goal weight is but I’m getting there, slowly but surely. I definitely notice the changes, especially from the weight lifting and leg exercises. Everything is so much easier to lift at work now, I’m slinging 120 pound gazebo boxes over my shoulder, and on the trails my legs don’t get nearly as sore as they once did. It’s a good feeling. I just need to keep working at it.
I realize I do too much and spread myself too thin, never being fully able to dedicate the time needed to any one thing in particular. If I focus all my attention to just one aspect of my life I’m sure I can succeed at it, I just don’t know how to put all my eggs in one basket. Do I even want to? I don’t know if I can do that again. I did it once with my music career. When that didn’t pan out, I was left with nothing except for what I’d gained from my years as a rapper. I damn near had to start over. I needed to reinvent myself, or at the very least redefine who I’d become. That was ten years ago, now, at almost 32 years old, I’m not sure I’d have the luxury of starting over. I like to think I give my all to everything I do but the fact of the matter is, I do too much to truly devote myself to any one of my many hobbies. Which to be quite honest are more than hobbies, they are lifestyles that require a lifetime of dedication. If only there were more hours in a day.
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