A few years later, I moved back to my beloved home state to work for Maine Audubon. I moved on to other projects at NPCA but celebrated when President Barack Obama established the monument in 2016. It would be Michael and Ed’s first time in the monument but not mine: In 2012, as an NPCA staff member, I had the privilege of working on the campaign to transfer what was then a massive expanse of privately owned forest and waterways to the public. Rattled but alive, we pulled into Bowlin Camps Lodge, which sits just across the East Branch of the Penobscot River from Katahdin Woods and Waters. I gasped and dug my fingers into the leather-trimmed armrests, bracing for impact, but Michael smoothly slid the minivan at full speed to the right, missing the huge truck by what felt like millimeters.Įd and I shrieked with relief, but Michael was blasé. We were nearing our destination when we careened around a bend in the road and saw a massive plow truck headed straight for us. It had been a long, cold Maine winter on top of a long pandemic lockdown, and we were eager for a break, no matter how haphazardly pulled together. It was not hard to convince Michael and Ed, fellow birders and fathers, to come along on a weekend getaway to Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. The late January trip had been thrown together at the last minute, but when your spouse graciously agrees to watch your 3-year-old so you can hang out with buddies in a national park, you go and go quickly, with gratitude. I hit the button to adjust the lumbar support in the front passenger seat and tried to relax as fresh powder blasted up over the roof and we drifted around corners as if we were in a suburban “Fast & Furious” movie. But there we were, anxiously plowing through a foot of unexpected snow on an unpaved road in northern Maine, hoping our lumbering ride wouldn’t get stuck. ![]() In that moment, we regretted taking the minivan.
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