A view from Chimney Pond; photo credit: Bill Steinmetz Katahdin: last winter I learned this name the first time. I was sitting in a cozy restaurant surrounded by my fellow winter hikers, enjoying the early hot coffee with a giant blueberry pancake, I overheard that the hike leader, Bill, was to attempt Katahdin in a few weeks. “Katahdin? What is it? Is it a trail and…where is it?” I couldn’t suppress my curiosity arisen from my adventurous blood. “It seems like some nice place to go,” I drew this conclusion based on the mild commotion observed from the group, “and…it must be a place to go if it requires Bill to train for it.” The second time I heard Katahdin, was on a bus ride to NOLS headquarters in Palmer, Alaska. The bus driver moved to Alaska many years ago from Maine. She described how much she was in love with the mountains in Alaska and she mentioned Katahdin when she laid Alaska and Maine in parallel for comparison. At that moment, Katahdin won its place in my to-do list. But not until I started to plan it last November, did I realize that this trip was to be a great one! Katahdin，第一次聽到這名字，是去年冬天。被眾多冬季健行者圍繞著，我在一個略嫌擁擠的早餐店，啜飲著熱騰騰的咖啡，嚼著暖暖的藍莓蛋餅，耳邊傳來該日的雪鞋健行領隊Bill即將在數週後挑戰Katahdin的消息。「嗯，Katadin？什麼地方？是步道名稱嗎？好玩嗎？在哪裡？」體中滾著冒險血液的我，按捺不住洶湧的好奇心，批哩啪啦地問了自己好些問題。看著群眾因這消息而引起的些許騷動，我想，這Katahdin一定是個好地方，要不然Bill為什麼還要加強體能訓練呢？ 第二次聽到Katahdin這個名字，在去年夏天。前往NOLS在Palmer, Alaska的根據地途中，和巴士司機對話，她數年前，從緬因州搬到阿拉斯加。她談著她是如何如何地愛著阿拉斯加的秀麗山色，比較家鄉和阿拉斯加的對話中，她提及Katahdin。我望著窗外的山景，想像著Katahdin該是怎麼個樣子，那一刻，Katahdin排進了個人要爬的山峰列表。不過，一直到去年十一月，真正開始計畫往Katahdin的行程，我才了解，Katahdin，其實是件大工程。 Read More…