Rosalie and I Conquered Schoodic Mountain

Carolyn’s Online Magazine

ROSALIE AND I

CONQUERED SCHOODIC MOUNTAIN

The ascending begins…Monte pictured

More than 2 centuries—217 years, to be exact—separated the time when the main character in my historical novel-under-construction and I climbed Schoodic Mountain near Frenchman Bay in Maine. When Rosalie climbed it She Saw Her Promised Land—much of the 22,000 acres she had contracted to purchase from Gen. Henry Knox and Col. William Duer, military men turned land speculators.

I chose to climb the same mountain so I could experience some of what she experienced. She ascended and descended the mountain on October 11, 1791. I did the same on October 7, 2010, accompanied by my husband Monte, my niece Erin Ireland, her husband Greg, and their two children Paige and Morgan.

Interestingly enough, I just posted What is Surprising About Mountaintop Experiences? It includes an excerpt from my novel-under-construction, She Saw Her Promised Land, formerly Intertwined Love (visit http://www.intertwinedlove.wordpress.com). It shares some of Rosalie’s experience.

Climbing mountains isn’t what I do—nor, i presume, what she did. However, we both conquered this mountain. Below is a series of photographs of our adventure.

Part way up Monte and Greg study the map

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I believe that’s Hog Bay below. Notice the railroad tracks.

What’s a mountaintop experience without a smooch?

You had to know where the descending trail started.

Part way down Erin and Greg pause with their children.

We made it down. Sweet victory.

NOTE: The WordPress photo challenge for November 13, 2013, is Victory…it’s all about revelling in a win… that moment of glory and pride you’ll remember forever. Of course, the mountaintop experience, the ascension and descension of the mountain, made for a victory to revel in.