Date: 2007-08-25
From: Portland, ME

To: Gorham, New Hampshire, Route 2 
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Although I dressed to hike, today turned out to be a perfect day for a ¢Zero Day.¢ The temperature was expected to reach an all-time record high, and in the valley it had already peaked at 100 degrees in Gorham, according to the local electronic thermometer in town. As it was, by the time sunset came, thunderstorms began to roll through the area accompanied with heavy rain, which would have made tenting and getting organized for the evening¢s dinner a very difficult task if you were in the mountains. I am glad I had decided to stay in town at theTown and Country Motel instead. When I came out of the woods with Jack yesterday, I received a voice message from the brother of a dear friend of mine, who informed me that Bill Drake had passed away on Friday. I have known Bill for over 35 years, and he and I have worked together and been ¢ski buddies¢ for much of that time. Even though the possibility of his passing was foreseeable, it still came as a big shock ¢ a loss. When we were heading to Portland, I was not sure whether I really wanted to go back to complete the portion of the trail between Pinkham Notch and Gorham, which I missed while nursing my sore ankle and waiting for Jack to arrive. But with the news of Bill¢s death, I am now very eager to spend a couple of days alone in the woods and just hike. I think it will be good for me. When I return from the small remaining section in New Hampshire, I will head back to New York and then fly to St. Louis for the memorial service on Friday. I got up this morning with Jack and took a cab with him to the airport, where we said our goodbyes. After he left, I realized that there were only a few other occasions I could remember having this much time with him as an adult was when we did an Outward Bound course together 21 years ago; the other when we went to the Olympics in Barcelona followed by a week in Italy after he graduated from College; and then after he graduated from the Harvard Business School when the two of us went to Scotland for a week to play golf together. Given his huge work and family obligations, I feel very fortunate to have had this special and unexpected time with him. After he left, I rented a car and spent the rest of the day just ¢moseying along.¢ I stopped for a delicious Maine breakfast in a small diner in some town without a name (as far as I was concerned), and then drank coffee and cleared e-mails for over one hour in the parking lot. Around noon I stopped in another small town for a ¢fried clam boat,¢ and later on I pulled into a ¢Cold Stone¢ for a ¢Love It¢ size of Founder¢s Favorite. The rest of the day was spent organizing for the next couple of days in the woods and driving past the golf course here in Gorham where Jack and I played 18 holes last Sunday. It was a very relaxed, easy time, and I enjoyed a one-hour nap before dinner. It is now a little after 10:00 pm, and Bruce (whose name was given to me by the people at Pinkham Notch Visitor¢s Center) will pick me up at 7:30 am sharp tomorrow morning for the trip to Pinkham Notch. It is different being alone after having been with my son for the past week, especially being in the same places where we started our journey, but it also feels good to have time to collect some thoughts and be by myself. As a single person, this is the nature of so very much of my life anyway. I look forward to getting back into the woods tomorrow.