Pinder, Eric. North to Katahdin.PINDER, Eric. North to Katahdin Katahdin (kətä`dĭn), mountain, 5,267 ft (1,605 m) high, between branches of the Penobscot River in N central Maine; highest point in Maine. The peak and the beautifully wooded, lake-dotted territory surrounding it constitute Baxter State Park, the gift of Gov. Percival P. Baxter in 1931. Katahdin Mt.. Milkweed milkweed, common name for members of the Asclepiadaceae, a family of mostly perennial herbs and shrubs characterized by milky sap, a tuft of silky hairs attached to the seed (for wind distribution), and (usually) a climbing habit. Forms of this primarily tropical family are especially abundant in South America and in Africa, where many are succulents.. 178p. c2005. 1-57131-280-3. $15.95. SA This is a small gem of a book about a little-known corner of America and its deep appeal to those who are familiar with it. Most first-person mountaineering books deal with the world's truly sublime heights: Everest (of course), Annapurna Annapurna (ən-nəp  r`nə), massif of the Himalayas, N central Nepal, forming a ridge 35 mi (56 km) long, including two of the highest peaks in the world, Annapurna I (26,502 ft/8,078 m) in the west and Annapurna II (26,041 ft/7,938 m) in the east., K-2, and the little-known peaks of Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (tyĕ`rä dĕl fwā`gō), [Span.=land of fire], archipelago, 28,476 sq mi (73,753 sq km), off S South America, separated from the mainland by the Strait of Magellan.. This story is slightly different. Mount Katahdin is located in Maine, is all of 5,268 feet high, and has been "conquered" innumerable times. Instead of existing in sublime isolation among the primeval mountain chains of the world, Katahdin exists squarely at the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail International Appalachian Trail, a 690-mi (1,110-km) extension of the trail north and east from Mt. Katahdin into New Brunswick and Quebec to Cape Gaspé, was dedicated. Sections of this trail pass through Canadian national and provincial parks., and is easily accessible to the generations of Maine natives who claim it as their Own. As picturesque as it is, the granite knob is probably the closest thing to raw nature that most of its visiting hordes HORDE - Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere (music group) will ever know. Thoreau himself was one of the first European visitors to Katahdin's heights, marveling at its primeval beauty in 1846. The mountain has known little peace ever since. Even so, generations of New Englanders have bonded with Katahdin and share warm recollections about the peak and the various people who have embraced the genuine wilderness experience that it can offer. And that is pretty much the whole point of this book. Pinder would probably describe himself as a mountain bum, an outdoorsman who takes various backwoods jobs so that he can stay in his beloved countryside and write about it all. Certainly he has the right background to describe the numerous Mainers and flatlanders alike who over the years have made the peak a treasured part of their lives. It is not a tale of misty sentimentality, either. Katahdin is an ancient mountain (Pinder goes back nearly a billion years to begin his tale of rocks and people) but clearly dangerous to climb around during its frequent storms and fogs. Raymond Puffer puffer, common name for some tropical marine fish of the family Tetraodontidae. The puffers and their allies, the boxfish, the porcupinefish, and the ocean sunfish or headfish, form an odd group (order Tetraodontiformes). The puffers, or swellfishes, named for their ability to inflate their bodies to three times normal size, are found all along the Atlantic coast, e.g., the northern puffer (Sphaeroides maculatus), and in the Pacific., Ph.D., Historian, Edwards AFB, Lancaster, EA |
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