ken zirkel

Acadia trip with JB
10/4/07 to 10/8/07 (Columbus Day Weekend)
I had suggested this trip to my old friend JB as kind of a reliving of our younger days. We hadn’t travelled together in a few years, and I hadn’t been to Acadia since 2003. A young person I knew spent a weekend in Acadia in late […]

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WHEN we planned this trip originally, we thought we would bring the popup camper. But after Cape Cod, we decided that it might be too much of a strain on the Soob to pull the trailer through the mountains. It was hard enough on the vehicle for it to pull the popup for a short […]

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In what has become an annual rite, we spent Father’s Day on a hike. We chose that perennial favorite, Purgatory Chasm. One of the cool things about Purgatory Chasm is all the little nooks and crannies to explore:

After the hike, we went to a nearby pond for our first all-family canoe trip. All told, things […]

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A great day for an autumn hike, at Blue Hills … the kids look a little tired after climbing up the mountain.

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Today, Labor Day, was our first non-work day at home, with nice weather, for some time. We decided to visit one of our favorite spots, Purgatory Chasm, in central Massachusetts.

Purgatory Chasm is a naturally occurring small rocky canyon. It’s a wonderful hiking spot for kids, because it’s challenging but not too difficult for them to […]

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For Father’s Day, the family took me for a lovely hike at World’s End reservation. It was a coastal hike, and I kind of expected it to be like the coastal hikes I so loved in Maine: rocky, breezy, utterly beautiful. However, I was surprised to find that it was more grassy than anything, and […]

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Cape Cod with college friends, September 13 and 14, 2003
This year’s trip got off to an inauspicious beginning. The date proved to be a poor choice (for which I take responsibility), as MN had to withdraw due to circumstances related to an unexpected job change. My Wife, too, experienced a welcome but unexpected job change, […]

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Hiking and bicycling in Acadia with the Appalachian Mountain Club
My wife had been planning for some time to take the kids and visit her family, several states away. I idly scanned the AMC “Outdoors” magazine looking for something to do while they were away. Bingo! A 3-day bicycling weekend with the AMC for a dirt-cheap […]

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My solo hike along the Gulfside Trail, thru the Northern Presidentials of the White Mountains
Labor Day weekend 2001

DAY ZERO? - Friday evening

I check the website www.mountwashington.org for weather forecast. Fortunately, weather observer Katie Hess gives a detailed forecast. Rain on Saturday morning, turning to fog in afternoon. She predicts Saturday and Sunday to be excellent […]

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Mt. Washington hike with college friends MN, JL, JB: June 16, 17, 18 2001

Living in central Maine has its plusses and minuses. I love my baby Daughter and wife, and my job as a Web guy at a small, exclusive college is fantastic. But it’s lonely up here, so far from my friends and everybody […]

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