Hiked On May 21, 2023

I am an anxious hiker.  Each big trip gets me worried about all the things that can go wrong.  The list ranges from the practical and semi-preventable (like running out of water) to the possible (like an injury that requires immediate attention) to the statistically possible (bears).  I worry about getting to the trailhead, getting actually lost (as opposed to just confused for a while), forgetting some item, or maybe a meeting back home.

Anyway, these concerns are compounded when the hike is long or complicated.  They are also compounded when the people "in the know" are also worried. Enter the Wildcats.  Wildcat "A" and "D" are both 4,000 footers.  They are connected by an undulating ridge with two more "named" peaks and a number of unnamed prominences.

​We worked our way up to this after the winter and...at least some worries were justified.  Even though we took the smoother route up a ski trail, it was rough.  There was a large, rapidly melting monorail of snow covering much of the ridge.  There were patches of ice and water. Near the end--as we summitted "D" on our return--my surgically repaired back started to give out. I was not a happy camper.  

That said, it was beautiful up there.  The trees did their "tunnel effect" I have written about on Cube.  The views--when we had them--were top notch.  Stretches and food got me back from the brink in the end.  It was a hike to remember...but not in detail.

If you watch the video you will note that I go on about the boring letter-based names and speculate as to why that might be.  Later, it occurred to me that Wildcat Mountain isn't on Wildcat A, which is officially just named "Wildcat."  Maybe that is why?  Does the whole thing need to have the same name for marketing purposes?  Anyway, just a final thought...

Hiked On May 13, 2023

I have been wanting to do this loop for a long time.  It was on my list in the fall but got bumped because Allison and my brother Dan wanted to climb Adams and Madison.  We did that and my knees still hurt today!  This, however, is no walk in the park either.  Sandwich Mountain is the tallest of the 52 With a View peaks and the star of the Sandwich Range.  Noon is more of a ledge than a peak. Jennings is it's own thing--reachable by a spur off the main trail--and counts to the 52 on its own.  This means plenty of elevation. 

Also, there were tons of fallen trees on the trail. This happens sometimes.  A storm will hit the side of a peak and chaos will ensue.  Down below we hardly notice but up on the slope...wood starts swirling.  This appears to have occurred some time over the winter.  At times the trail was concealed and we needed to bushwhack a bit to find our place again.  Still, the degree of difficulty did not conceal the beauty of the trip.  It will be one of the most memorable and enjoyable hikes of the year I am sure.

I will let the video tell the story.  That said, it was part of our slow increase in degree of difficulty after the winter.  Allison had to take a break for graduate school stuff.  I hiked alone in the snow during that time. Mostly I did smaller peaks. With snowshoes on I tend to be interested in high-satisfaction-for-effort hikes like Watatic.  Of course, it has all been a workout for me!

Hiked on May 5, 2023

One of the ironies of our current hiking project is that I don't get out to western Massachusetts very often.  Part of the reason is that it feels so far away from our home in the east.  While it is closer to us than many of our New Hampshire hikes, it still feels farther.  That said, we finally got out to hike the famous Mount Greylock.  We had driven up--because that is a thing--but it was special take the slow route.

I am glad we did it.  Greylock is the tallest peak in the state and, while it doesn't break 4,000 feet, it has the atmosphere of something larger.  Our primary reason for choosing this particular day had to do with flooding in the north.  All these big mountains release massive amounts of melted snow this time of year.  Greylock does too.  However there had also been massive amount of rain in northern New England making both hiking and driving difficult.  The southerly position of our hike today meant that not only did we not have much rain, we also were on a peak where the snowmelt had already occurred.

So...  here is our hike!  I highly recommend it, particularly if you live in the Bay State.  We have many pretty and impressive natural sights that sometimes get neglected for what is right above us on the map.  We should be proud of what we have!

HIKED ON APRIL 29, 2023

​Stinson is considered one of the easiest hikes on the 52 With a View list.  It is also one of the closest to where we live.  It made sense as a half day trip on a busy weekend as we prepare for bigger things.  As I note in the video, lots of people don't particularly like it.  It is a common compliant on multi-use trails that the hikers become a bit of an afterthought in winter.  Also, mountains like this lose a bit of their "wild" feel when they are super-accessible.  This is even more true on the famous mountains like Washington, so it isn't Stinson's fault.

That said, it was a lovely day for a walk. The leaves hadn't really even begun to appear, leaving the greens of moss and small flowering plants to distract us from the browns and grays.  I go on quite a bit in the video about skunk cabbage.  It is usually one of the first plants to appear after the snow. Finally, on a frustrating note, I lost my poles on Stinson and still haven't quite relaced them...

Hiked on April 15, 2023

It is fun to get to make a new post!  Through the late winter I was mostly revisiting old hikes that I had already written up.  Of course I made videos for most of them--which was different--but I just placed those vids with the older weblog entries.  This hike, however, was a new one.  Also...it was about a week late.  We tried it the week before and the water was high.  Instead of risking advanced wetness, we turned around and hit Hedgehog instead.  Hedgehog is always a winner.

We changed strategies for this attempt.  Instead of parking in the Hedgehog/Potash lot we pulled over next to an access road that avoids the stream.  We were not the only ones, either.  There weren't many of us on the trail, but those that were took this little detour.  It isn't "cheating" of course. It feels a bit strange to be off the regular route.  That said, when we have done this in the past--as with Carter Dome--it made the journey more interesting.  In this case--having hiked a bit of the other way--I think it was a lateral move.

There are a number of Potash Mountains in northern New England by the way.  The wood on this and other similarly named mountains (and lakes and streams) was used  to produce a variety of potassium salts that were--and still are--used in products we use today.  When I was in high school I was taught to pronounce this word with a long "o" sound.  Of course, since the word derives from one of the earliest methods of obtaining these salts--soaking then burning wood in a pot--the short "o" is fine.  My US History teacher Steve Morris would not approve of me going rogue like that. Therefore it's the o-sound of potassium in his memory for me.
​

This video is one of the shortest I have done.  This is not a reflection of how I feel about the walk!  The hike was lovely and the view was excellent.  It is just that I didn't have much to say.  I didn't have any special insights.  Nor were the views all that different from what I had seen in other places.  Allison and I have hiked quite a few mountains now. I, in particular, have been exploring the Sandwich range and its environs.  Many of the peaks in the distance seem like old friends.  I could see Hedgehog, Chocorua, the Sisters, Passaconaway, and Whiteface, among others.  All of those were good memories.  Some new mountains appeared--like "the Captain" and Green Cliffs.  Both of those require bushwhacking to the summit.  So I think I will enjoy them from afar.

I would recommend the trip to Potash.  Just don't climb it right after Hedgehog.

In my previous post I wrote a bit about the "whys" of the process of making youtube videos.  You should probably check that out for more information.  That said, the reasons  are pretty basic.  One is that they provide a creative outlet for me. They are a way to generate a dialogue with nature and with others who might be interested in the experience.  Also, this experience is a bit of an experiment into the possibilities for spiritual communities, who will increasingly find themselves in need of creative ways to reach out beyond their doors.

In addition to the previous post, you might be interested in the reasoning behind the initial project or my attempt at a method for sabbath walking, which underlies a lot of this work.  

However, what I would like to do in this post is share some videos, talk about my motivation to make them, and discuss a little about what I have learned from them.  I will be going in reverse chronology--most recent to least recent--as it may help to set where I am now before talking about where I have been.

Mount Watatic in Winter:
​This video is fairly typical of what I have been trying to do.  The format is fairly well established at this point.  It opens with a description of why I am hiking the trail and what I--or we--hope to see.  I also talk about my relationship with the walk.  In this case I am climbing my favorite mountain. Earlier hikes up Mount Watatic helped me to refine my thoughts on mindful walking.

Technically there are still problems.  While the music has improved a bit, I am still not a great musician.  There are compression issues and sound issues, too.  These are all problems that could be fixed with money...which I do not have.  I am using my phone for all the elements of recording.  I am using a fairly basic editing platform (Filmora) which is probably best suited for end-of-year high school slideshows.  The musician is free.  Also, I was not terribly satisfied with much of the footage I recorded initially.  It took quite a bit of work to tell this story.

Mount Kearsarge (South) in Winter:

This video was fun to make because I had the company of my wife Allison!  She did some recording of me and I could also record her.  The addition of people--including an anonymous fellow traveler--gives the video more motion to carry the story.  Also, while Watatic is important to me, one could argue that Kearsarge has more general importance. There were a lot of human (historical and artistic) resources for this video, which helped.  The view from Kearsarge is also one of the best in New England.  

By the time I got to this video I felt I had hit a wall technically.  The music needed to be updated. You will hear some of these same cuts in every video as we go back in time.  Why bother with music?  It helps to move the story along.  There are walks-and-talks that need a little something sometimes. There are moments when the view is the story and some framing is necessary. That said, it went together fairly quickly, which was nice. 

Tecumseh in Winter

This was a fun one.  I recorded it just a couple days before the Kearsarge hike so many of the points in that video are relevant here.  I had a friend with me--Andy Linscott--and we knocked out one of our favorite 4,000 footers.  Here we had the challenge of too many people, which made recording awkward at times.  For some reason editing was a BEAST.  You will note a couple spots where the sound gets clipped a bit.  I will say that after this video I tried to develop a method for layering the various elements together; completing one layer before starting the next.  The system is imperfect but having one was probably the adjustment that made the Kearsarge and Watatic edits go more smoothly. 

Finally, this marks--I think--the ideal length for one of these videos.  Keeping it Between 8 and 9 minutes tells the story before tedium sets in.  I feel this way about sermons, too.  However, it seems easier to stay tight when you have another hiker with you.  My solo climbs are all a bit longer.

Poet's Seat, Deerfield, MA

I had the most fun making this video.  It is different from the others in that the hike, itself is relatively unremarkable.  Instead I spent time talking about the poet Frederick Tuckerman. He is relevant to the walk.  Things don't always work out that way so I took advantage of the opportunity  You will note there is no music in this.  My one assignment from my son was to record voice overs instead of leaving long stretches of relatively silent (or scored) walking. Thankfully Tuckerman had enough poems to fill things in.  

Also, this was the first time I used a tripod mount for my phone.  This enabled me to film myself sitting and walking. It feels ridiculous while you are doing it.  However, it does help to give motion to the narrative.  This is a worthwhile practice...if you can avoid other people.

Starting Seeds and Hiking High Ledges

Before these videos--and you are welcome to look--my channel was mostly either panoramic views of mountains I climbed, sermons I wanted to share, or music from our various music ministries.  I think one can also find some of the earliest pandemic worship services hosted here before we got the church youtube page updated.  That was fun too.  The services were even necessary. I do feel, though, that the two videos below mark the beginning of something new. 

Like the pandemic worship videos, they are self-contained and internally consistent.  The goal is not to record something and say "look what is going on out there." Instead they say "look what is happening right here."  That is an important distinction between, say, an edited youtube worship video and a recording of a live-streamed worship video. The first has an immediacy.  The second is a document of something that happened in the past.  With these nature vids I am looking for immediacy. They differ from the pandemic material in that while they may be spiritual or even worshipful in some ways, they are not beholden to the traditional ideas behind those concepts.  They are meant to have their own patterns and pacing because both the media and the context are different.

I am putting these two together because they show some of the same challenges.  They are both too long,  The planting video in particular drags in the middle and is saved by my cat.  There are too many musical interludes in the hiking video and there is a sort of "reflection" bit that goes on too long at the end of both of them.  I think that somewhere in my subconscious was the form of a traditional worship service.  I wanted a "sermon" of some kind. 

​Still, I like them.  They are watchable and they represent an effort to do something creative and new.

Professional: This process obviously impacts my professional life. These skills are not what they taught me in seminary! Back then we were preparing for the 20th Century church. We even paused every once in a while to look back to the 19th Century with its battles both intellectual and literal.  I remember being vaguely discontented much of the time.  We were prepared for a world that was already over, but people didn't really believe it.

These are different 21st Century skills. There are plenty of areas for growth as we realize some of the "old ways" left the stage a while ago. In this case, I am learning about sound, picture, lighting, and technology. Also, I am learning different ways to put together a story. Since the life of a clergyperson has a lot to do with living into and interpreting stories--personal and scriptural--this is no small thing. We can become stagnant, after all. The new techniques and new lenses have influenced how I use the many remaining familiar tools of my trade.

​Congregational: This interest of mine is not new. I have had some kind of weblog for decades. I have made YouTube videos for years. Most of these were of sermons or the performance of various iterations of our music ministry. If you want to know who took this work seriously, just look at who is in the music vids. Otherwise it seemed that most people thought of this as a "hobby" that detracted from more sober activities.

Then March of 2020 occurred. On March 11 we decided to cancel in person church for March 15 of that year. Yep. That first online-only worship service was exactly three years ago today.

Things changed then, didn't they? Our little side-ministry gave us the ability as well as the confidence to pivot immediately. It took us minutes to form the plan that became the foundations--or the spine, or the trunk--of church life for the next 18 months. Within a couple days we had our first service "in the can" and ready to go live that Sunday morning.

We kept learning through that period, but we did not scramble. We didn't need to. Now we have moved back to "normal" and it is easy to forget what we did.

​However, we should not forget. It was our finest hour.

​These podcasts, videos, and blog posts are insurance against another time where we need them.  Yet they are more than that.  They are an imperfect window into what will come next. Increasingly, in fact, we will find that spiritual seekers will start their quest online rather than in person. These interactive technological tidbits are our front door.

Spiritual: Yes, I am doing this for spiritual reasons, too. Partly the needs are my own. However, I believe that the sharing of my own quest and questions helps to enrich a ministry. Each "platform" connects to the others in order to form a whole:

In person worship feeds our souls in real time and brings us together as a community in ways that are just not possible otherwise. Our services and events are designed to create both formal and informal settings to gather, to explore life's questions, and just to hang out without the demands of a busy world.

The Sabbath Walks Podcasts are designed to augment this experience. Most of them are under half an hour long. The goal is to put them on headphones or a speaker in order to connect once again to the spiritual element of life. We can take time for these topics while driving to work, or cleaning the house, or (even) hiking or walking around town.

While The Sabbath Walks YouTube videos are relatively new, this technology has always been a popular extra for us. We used to share the musical performances quite a bit in the before times. Most of them did double duty as hymns during the plague. We reached the peak with weekly worship. Now I am trying out some other topics and styles. Each is an attempt, though, to reach out and show how the spiritual interacts with our everyday existence.

Finally, we are steering our way toward workshops and walks. These will be--and have been--in person. There are many ways to worship and be worshipful. The "future church" whatever it may be, will need all the ways we can muster.

That is all for now. Feel free to explore the links to our online resources. In the next few days I will try to curate them a bit for another post here. I have no illusion as to how often they now are or ultimately will be visited. The various counters and measuring sticks tell me that even when they get "liked" in a Facebook post, they aren't always interacted with.
​
They are there, however, for when you need them. Perhaps that isn't today. Just remember that they might help you out some time. The Sabbath Walk isn't just for Sunday, after all.

It really was snowing and raining for most of the time. However, the gray moodiness for this hike worked well. The trail along the long ridge undulated and the the snow shifted slightly under my feet. The rain and mist rising up from the warming snow was atmospheric, creating the sort of atmosphere that must have inspired a writer like Tuckerman. He preferred to keep to himself, after all. In 1860 when he published his first and only book--perhaps unimaginatively named "Poems"--he received a confused response. Many of his friends and acquaintances among the New England Literati didn't actually know he was a serious writer before their complimentary copies arrived. Tuckerman's book was only a mild commercial success. The response from his transcendentalist and romantic friends like RW Emerson, Jones Very and the Longfellows indicated that he had potential. However, only Nathaniel Hawthorn seems to have actually enjoyed it entirely.

That said, most saw moments of brilliance, particularly in his collection of sonnets. They praised his close observation of nature. Later he would be described as a writer of herbariums. His focus on the minutia of the natural world could--when his writing was on point--create an immersive effect prized by readers of the day.  His description of beans--in a poem ostensibly about coffee but really a story about some local characters--is typical of that work;
"The bean, the garden bean I sing--
Lima, mazagan, late and early
Bush, butter, black eye, pole and string
Esculent, annual, planted yearly"

He was also known to make up place names and allude to people he invented as if they were from the Bible or ancient literature.  The dude could create a world, which is something that--as a gamer and reader of speculative fiction--is something I can get behind.

That said, not all was happy in his life.  Most of his poetry is dark. His later poems--after the death of his wife--are even more gloomy.  As a young man he retreated out to Deerfield to be away from society and from the many connections cultivated by his family.  He was the brother of a famous botanist, Edward Tuckerman, and a composer, Samuel Tuckerman.  Henry Tuckerman--another writer--was his cousin. Far from Boston, apparently, he could be his romantic self. 

​In the early 20th Century, Tuckerman was rediscovered...or...in some ways discovered for the first time. But the discovery was brief. At least it got him a monument, right? Now you can find his work in some anthologies of poets from the era. However, the easiest way to read him is to get his one book for your e-reader. After all, it is free online.

There is more about Tuckerman and about the hike in the video below.  Also, I turned it into a podcast

​This sabbatical year is a good time to experiment with these things. In fact, we have already started. There are lay readers and guest preachers who change the sound and look of who we think a worship leader can be. We have experimented a little with different forms and rituals, too. Still..there is more to do.

As you know, I am a big fan of inclusive language, for example. During my time away from leading worship I will be looking at some of the words we still use in this place. How can we broaden the Lord’s Prayer so that everyone can see themselves in God? How can we find and sing hymns that speak to our own experience? How can we pray our prayers, responsive or otherwise in a way that reflects our own broad theology?

We must also ask how we include people whose busy lives do not fit the time or form of Sunday morning.  We are ​not going to “win” a battle against youth sports and family ski trips. People are busy.  They feel the pressures of the lives they–we–have fallen into and a change of lifestyle or schedule that frees up Sunday morning is too much to ask for a first step.  Our job is not to close doors through our perceived judgment and disappointment–and that is how many see it–but instead to open doors that they can find their way to enter. Therefore, we will be thinking once again about Dinner Church, Sabbath Walks, and Pub Theology.  We need to find a path for ourselves to understand that these are not “add-ons” we do as well as worship, but forms of worship themselves.

So... promised some links.  Here is this sermon in the form of a podcast.

This sermon worked of the previous one.  Here is the podcast for "The Church is Dying...and Being Reborn"