Chipper dippers zip into bay – and right out

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All I can say is ya shudda been there! While the lack of temperature kept the faint of heart away, Friday noon’s turnout at sunny Pleasant Point for the fifth annual Polar Bear Dip to benefit the Ronald McDonald House was admirable with 161 brave souls taking the dip.

Washington County Community College students outdid themselves this year organizing the charity event. While the thermometer hovered around 5 degrees and the water around 34, the brisk northerly breezes helped make things feel a bit cooler. But the students had several bonfires burning, there were free hot dogs, and the Beach Boys blared from loudspeakers, making it seem (if you really stretched your imagination) like a summer beach party. Pleasant Point Public Works had pushed back ice and snow on the beach, and sea smoke gave the illusion that we were rushing headlong into a hot tub.

The magic was extinguished immediately upon entering the chilled waters of Passamaquoddy Bay. Gasps, screams, great sucking sounds, and a few expletives deleted broadcast the fact that the experience was pretty darned chilly! I held back a second or two this year, trying a different strategy than the past two. I figured being in the second wave would keep me a bit drier. Last year I forged ahead and was totally soaked by the onrush of humanity when I turned to scramble back to the beach. This year, I figured, I’d wait a second or two and avoid that experience.

I think I should have gone with the adrenaline rush and last year’s strategy. I got splashed just as much, if not more. Brrrrrrr!!!! It felt much colder than I remember the last two being!

Wool blankets that the school provided were a Godsend. After I made my exit stage left from the chilly froth, I toweled off most of the water before it froze on me, struggled into a couple of fleece tops, and wrapped the blanket around myself. It worked great. I was comfortable standing next to one of the bonfires with my red legs hanging out while steam rose from my bathing suit. Neoprene booties kept my feet comfortably warm – until I dumped the water out of them.

I waited for the crowds around the changing trailers (there were two this year!) to thin (it didn’t take long) and leisurely changed into dry clothes for the drive back home. As I was about to leave, two young ladies and their friends showed up, doffed their street clothes (they had bathing suits on), and proceeded barefoot to wade right through the floating ice cakes and dunk under, turn around, and take a few strokes toward shore – no squealing, no muss, no fuss! Clear of the water, their friends swaddled them in towels. You’re a better man than I, Gunga Din!

Next year I’ll be looking for you to join me and colleagues John Holyoke, Aimee Dolloff, and Diana Graettinger as we help the cause. If I don’t get some encouragement, I may take the route former WCCC Dean Dave Sousa took this year. A former dipper, he wasn’t feeling chipper and he told me his wife had pledged $100 to the students for him NOT to dip!

Film festival tour coming

Now that I’ve frozen myself nearly to death, I’m making plans to explore the wild places from the comfort of the indoors. Yes, folks, right here in River City at 7 p.m. on Feb. 11 is the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour that will be shown in Norumbega Hall, courtesy of Epic Sports in Bangor (941-5670).

For those of you outside the Bangor area, the tour will stop in Ellsworth at 7 p.m. on Feb 12 and 13 at The Grand, courtesy of Cadillac Mountain Sports (call them at 667-7819, or The Grand at 667-9500 for more information), and at 7 p.m. on Feb. 14 at Strom Auditorium in Camden Hills High School, courtesy of Maine Sport in Rockland (call 236-7120 for more information).

Tickets for the evenings’ films, some 21/2 hours worth of award-winning footage, vary in price depending on the venue, but generally run from $5 for students to $10 for adults at the door. Be sure to call the sponsors for ticket prices and availability. I know from past experience that these events usually sell out.

From mountain sports to mountain culture and the environment, the variety of films explore the globe.

On their Web site the folks at Banff describe their annual festival thusly: “The Banff Mountain Film Festival, presented by National Geographic and Dunham Bootmakers, brings you the world’s best mountain films, videos and speakers. Experience the adventure of climbing, mountain expeditions, remote cultures, and the world’s last great wild places – all brought to life on the big screen. Films are at the heart of the festival. From the over three hundred films entered into competition, the top 40 are screened throughout the festival.”

Then the best of the best are put on the road tour.

A host organization “selects the films that will be part of the program at each local event. … Every year, the Banff World Tour team chooses about 30 films that feature a range of views and a variety of topics including climbing, skiing, kayaking, biking, adventure, culture, and the environment. When making this selection many factors are considered: comments made by our pre-screening committee, audience reaction to the films shown in Banff, and feedback we’ve received from the tour audience. The hosts try to choose the films that are best suited for their local audience and event,” Banff says.

In Bangor, Epic Sports manager Brad Ryder told me this is the eighth time his store has sponsored the event and this year the showing marks the beginning of Winter Weekend activities downtown (stay tuned to our news pages for details on this celebration).

While the final selection of films for the shows is not made until the last minute, Ryder sent me a list of the more likely ones to be shown, each with a short summary provided by the folks at Banff.

. “Alone Across Australia,” 2003, 51 minutes, the People’s Choice and Best Film on Mountain Environment film, directed and produced by Ian Darling, Jon Muir. In 2001 Muir began a 2,500-kilometer odyssey to cross from the south coast to the north coast of Australia on foot. For 128 days Muir and his dog survived off the land, hunting and gathering along the way.

. “Heavy Fork,” 2004, 3 minutes, directed and produced by Steve Crowe. This video diary documents an enthusiastic 12-year-old’s bruising attempts to create distinctive, unorthodox mountain biking style.

. “Hike, Hike Hike,” 2002, 4 minutes, directed and produced by Anouk Iyer. (Best Short Mountain Film) Clean and crisp as the Arctic it depicts, this animated film is simultaneously lush and lean, relying only on the sound of the dogs and of the runners on the sled that the dogs pull across the snow.

. “The Man Who Jumped beneath the Earth,” Wales, 2003, 29 minutes; directed & produced by Dylan Griffith, Llion Iwan. Five years after becoming the oldest person to BASE jump off Venezuela’s Angel Falls, 66-year-old Eric Jones sets off for Mexico, to BASE jump the Cave of the Swallows. What makes a father of two teenage daughters risk everything to tackle the world’s toughest BASE jump in the 1,400-foot-deep cave, and will this novice jumper achieve his dream?

. Psicobloc,” USA, 2004, 8 minutes; directed & produced by Josh Lowell. On the island of Mallorca, Klem Loskot and his friends establish spectacular routes on overhanging limestone up to 60 feet or 20 meters high. With no ropes and with the ocean as a crash pad, the climbing is unencumbered and the falls magnificent.

. “Weekend Warrior,” Canada, 2003, 5 minutes; directed and produced by Ace Mackay-Smith. This humorous film depicts the hapless pursuits of a male snowboarder who tries his hardest to cruise the mountain for female companionship.

Nature workshops upcoming

Looking for something to do and sharpen your mind at the same time?

How about attending a workshop or five on nature in winter that will be presented on five upcoming dates at the Humboldt Field Research Institute at Eagle Hill in Steuben.

The workshops cost $35 each with discounts available for two or more or for Eagle Hill alumni.

If you’re interested in learning more about the plants and animals in Down East, then these workshops just might be what the doctor ordered. A press release I received said there will be time spent in the field and the classroom, and the skills learned will allow participants to continue to learn and explore on their own throughout the year.

The first workshop is Feb. 5 (storm date Feb. 12) on tracks – “Winter Tracks Tell Stories”- that will be led by Ken and Marnie Crowell of Deer Isle. Ken studied the ecology of mammals of Maine islands for 40 years and taught at St. Lawrence University. Marnie is a biologist and natural history writer.

On Feb. 13, Jacob van de Sande will lead a workshop on “Life Under the Ice.” He will explore aquatic macro invertebrates in a local stream. Van de Sande works with education programs and the salmon hatchery at the Wild Salmon Resource Center in Columbia Falls.

There will be two workshops in March. Fred Olday, who taught at the College of the Atlantic and the University of Massachusetts, will teach “Woody Plants in Winter” on March 5, and the following Saturday, March 12, he will teach a companion workshop on “Forest Lichens.” One may be taken without the other.

“Woody Plants in Winter” will emphasize recognizing trees and shrubs in the field by key characteristics such as bark, foliage, buds, and fruits, and in the laboratory by more detailed examination of the same features.

“Forest Lichens” will introduce you to the more conspicuous macro-lichens found growing in the Down East forests. Emphasis will be on distinguishing mosses from lichens and how to recognize the more common lichens, their ecology and substrate preferences, and how to identify them.

The final workshop date has not been set, but it will be led by Glen Mittelhauser, of the Maine Natural History Observatory in Gouldsboro and editor of the Northeastern Naturalist. The topic is winter waterfowl and it will be held at a location to be announced.

If you want to attend any or all of the workshops, you need to register in advance. You’ll also need to bring a lunch and dress warmly. Hot drinks will be provided.

For more information, call Ann Cox Halkett at 546-2829 or drop her an e-mail at ann@eaglehill.us.

Colby has ski, walking trails

This just in: Colby College in Waterville wants you to know it has a number of ski trails and walking trails on its campus. Area nordic skiers are welcome and encouraged, the college says, to enjoy the ski trails that are groomed for classical cross country and skate skiing.

Walkers are welcome on campus walkways and on those trails in the Perkins Arboretum open to walking and snowshoeing through March 15.

The two sets of trails reserved for skiers are located behind the construction site of the new Schair-Swenson-Watson Alumni Center and atop the hill behind the president’s house and Runnals Field. Signs are posted.

Jeff Strout can be reached at 990-8202 or by e-mail at jstrout@bangordailynews.net.