Appalachia Volume 70 Number 1 Winter/Spring 2019: Quests That Article 1 Wouldn't Let Go 2019 Appalachia Winter/Spring 2019: Complete Issue Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/appalachia Part of the Nonfiction Commons Recommended Citation (2019) "Appalachia Winter/Spring 2019: Complete Issue," Appalachia: Vol. 70 : No. 1 , Article 1. Available at: https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/appalachia/vol70/iss1/1 This Complete Issue is brought to you for free and open access by Dartmouth Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Appalachia by an authorized editor of Dartmouth Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Volume LXX No. 1, Magazine No. 247 Winter/Spring 2019 Est. 1876 America’s Longest-Running Journal of Mountaineering & Conservation Appalachia Appalachian Mountain Club Boston, Massachusetts Appalachia_WS2019_FINAL_REV.indd 1 10/26/18 10:34 AM AMC MISSION Founded in 1876, the Appalachian Committee on Appalachia Mountain Club, a nonprofit organization with more than 150,000 members, Editor-in-Chief / Chair Christine Woodside advocates, and supporters, promotes the Alpina Editor Steven Jervis protection, enjoyment, and understanding Assistant Alpina Editor Michael Levy of the mountains, forests, waters, and trails of the Appalachian region. We believe these Poetry Editor Parkman Howe resources have intrinsic worth and also Book Review Editor Steve Fagin provide recreational opportunities, spiritual News and Notes Editor Sally Manikian renewal, and ecological and economic Accidents Editor Sandy Stott health for the region. Because successful conservation depends on active engagement Photography Editor Skip Weisenburger with the outdoors, we encourage people to Contributing Editors Douglass P. Teschner experience, learn about, and appreciate the Michael Wejchert natural world. At Large Catherine Buni WELCOME Gene Daniell At the Appalachian Mountain Club, we Jeff Fair believe the outdoors belongs to you, no Robert Goeke matter who you are, where you live, or how you choose to enjoy it. And we want to help Rebecca Oreskes you spend more time outdoors, fall in love Lucille Stott with those special places, and share that love with family and friends. Because with your help, and the help of good people of Appalachia Production all ages and communities, we can protect the outdoors and ensure that everyone, now Production Manager Abigail Coyle and in the future, can experience that same Designer Eric Edstam sense of wonder, spiritual renewal, and Copyeditor Robin Gold love. Wherever your path leads you—to a challenging summit, a quiet river, a sandy Typesetter Brandy Polay beach, or your neighborhood park—we Proofreader Kenneth Krause want to be your connection to the outdoors. Indexer Ezra Freeman © 2019 AMC Books AMC Board of Directors Appalachia is published by the AMC from its publications office at 10 City Square, Chair Rol Fessenden Boston, Massachusetts, 02129. ISSN 0003-6587 Vice Chair Elizabeth Ehrenfeld Third-class postage paid at Boston, Secretary Ann Lesk Massachusetts, and other mailing Directors Greg Agran offices. The journal is issued two times Yvette Austin-Smith a year: Summer/Fall issue (June 15) and Winter/Spring issue (December 15). A Ed Belove subscription (both issues) is $18 for one Peter Bergh year, $32 for two years, $42 for three years. Michael Feldberg Distributed by Ingram Periodicals. Laurie Gabriel The opinions expressed by the authors do Robert Hecht not necessarily reflect the policies of the Imari Paris Jeffries AMC. John D. Judge No part of this magazine may be Scott Livingston reproduced without the consent of the Andy McLane AMC. For uniform binding, this issue Elizabeth Munro constitutes No. 1 of Volume LXX and is numbered pages 1–160. Diane Nordin Dana Pope The interior pages of this journal Stephen Rushmore Jr. are printed on responsibly harvested paper stock certified by The Forest Steve Smith Stewardship Council®, an independent Marty Wallace auditor of responsible forestry practices. Regional Directors Janet Ainsworth For more information, visit us.fsc.org. Thomas Eagan Sharon Foster Jody Inglis John Mullens Appalachia_WS2019_FINAL_REV.indd 2 10/26/18 10:34 AM Hannah Chalufour hikes through The Narrows in Zion National Park, May 24, 2018. MARC CHALUFOUR Appalachia_WS2019_FINAL_REV.indd 3 10/26/18 10:34 AM Est. 1876 America’s Longest-Running Journal of Mountaineering & Conservation Appalachia In Every Issue Poetry 6 The Long Way Home 17 Nov. 25, Madison ROBIN CHAPMAN 98 Letters 47 Prayer Parable 100 Accidents TODD DAVIS 120 Alpina 91 In Cedar Woods 130 News and Notes KAY MULLEN 142 Books and Media 99 Bones and Moonlight ROBERT M. RANDOLPH 158 A Peak Ahead 129 The Meal JOHN SMELCER 141 Names of Lichens MAX STEPHAN 157 Broken October LAURA SWEENEY Title page photo: A tree killed by the salt water of a rising sea level stands in Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge. SALLY MANIKIAN Appalachia_WS2019_FINAL_REV.indd 4 10/26/18 10:34 AM Front cover photo: Scientists collect water samples at the edge of the sea ice on Antarctica. Donette Swain stands behind to make sure the rope safety system works. She and her husband, Todd Swain, worked as search-and-rescue field coordinators last year. See the Swains’ story on page 8. TODD SWAIN Back cover photo: In winter, the screech owl ( Megascops asio) blends in with gray bark in Odiorne Point State Park, Rye, New Hampshire. JERRY AND MARCY MONKMAN/ECOPHOTOGRAPHY In This Issue Quests That Wouldn’t Let Go 8 Working as a Mountaineer in Antarctica: 40 years in the making. · TODD AND DONETTE SWAIN 18 Never Too Late: How not to climb a glaciated peak. · NICholas REYNOLDS 32 Wild Florida: A woman seeks what lies beyond childhood RV vacations. · SALLY MANIKIAN 44 Stubborn as a Mule: Distant thunder prompts self-reflection. · ELISSA ELY 48 Finding an Unforeseen Labrador: From the St. Lawrence to Ungava. · DAVID K. LEFF Waterman Fund Essay Winner 60 On Ceding Control: Motherhood in a pathless landscape. · EMILY MITCHELL HEIDENREICH 70 My Time Is Short: A woodsman shares hidden treasures of the forest with his stepdaughter. · JUDI CALHOUN 76 The Struggle: An injured deer and a dilemma. · BENJAMIN ALVA POLLEY 84 Fall on Big Moose Mountain: A self-rescue on a day hike drives home old safety lessons. · MATT CHABE 92 Fear of Rattlesnakes: On the secret trails of small-time New England poachers. · christine woodside Appalachia_WS2019_FINAL_REV.indd 5 10/26/18 10:34 AM The Long Way Home The Last Few Steps y mother had a goal, which I knew she would not forget, M because she is a very determined woman. She does not want to live in a wheelchair, but her brain won’t let her move in the way she still expects. That day she wanted just to get dressed, so that she could attend a family graduation party for her granddaughter Shannon. We must plan and execute the steps carefully. I coached, and my mother responded as if she were in training. Together we would get her standing. It was just like climbing a big mountain for the first time. Mom was pushing beyond what she normally could do. I would help. I bent over her as she got ready. We leaned together, straining muscles. A few deep breaths. “OK. Let’s do it. One, two, three.” Our objec- tive was that we’d get her higher—stepping up, using all of our remaining energy. I leaned down more and grabbed onto Mom’s right arm and shoulder. I said, “Believe.” In a burst of energy, she moved partway. Almost. “Shannon is counting on you.” And up she went. She stood up. For a moment I could forget that the majority of my mother’s hours those days included frustration, anger, demands that we get her out of there and take her home. Home—a goal less attainable for her than the top of Mount Washington. We often tell her that if she works on getting stronger, then we can see about the next step. How many times have I told myself this on a long hike? I peer up through sunrays on an incline, hoping they mark the trees thinning out and the beginning of the alpine zone. I try not to think about the actual top, my objective. I try instead to take one step and then another. Maybe my own sense of ambition will carry me forward. Or perhaps these assumptions stand in my way, blocking my appreciation of those tiny spruce branches brushing against my right elbow. Usually I reach the top, but my mother rarely does anymore. 6 Appalachia Appalachia_WS2019_FINAL_REV.indd 6 10/26/18 10:34 AM A small rock holds up the big rock on Middle Sugarloaf Mountain, in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. CHRISTINE WOODSIDE “I just have to retrain my brain,” my mother announced a few months ago. “I will walk again. I just have to work on the brain.” I listened politely. And dreamed of getting out onto a mountain. A few weeks later, my sister, Annie, my niece Shannon, and I clustered around Mom at the door to a restaurant where we’d just eaten. Annie opened the car door. Shannon flanked the wheelchair’s right side. I stepped in front of my mother and wrapped my arms around her. I tensed every muscle and together we rose. “We’re dancing,” I gasped, desperately. And this woman who nudged me up my first mountain a half-century ago began singing. “Shall we dance?” “Ha, let’s sing!” I panted. “Shall we then say, ‘Goodnight and I mean goodbye?’” It’s a song from “The King and I.” “When the last little star has left the sky, shall we still be together?” —Christine Woodside Editor-in-Chief winter/spring 2019 7 Appalachia_WS2019_FINAL_REV.indd 7 10/26/18 10:34 AM Working as a Mountaineer in Antarctica 40 years in the making Todd and Donette Swain 8 Appalachia Appalachia_WS2019_FINAL_REV.indd 8 10/26/18 10:34 AM Editor’s note: Todd and Donette Swain wrote this piece together.