Dann the Mann

Me and Dann were friends from way back in high school, probably ninth or tenth grade, and we continued to be friends for a dozen years beyond that until I eventually moved away to Boston. We started hiking together in 1985. Our first big hike was on Mount Lafayette on Columbus Day weekend in 1985. We almost made it to the top, not quite, but that hike changed something. After that we started hiking almost every weekend in the winter for the entire next year.

We almost died a couple of times, or at least I almost died a couple of times from hypothermia. Dann definitely saved my life both times by forcing me to get out of my sleeping bag, get in front of the fire, and eat some hot food. Both times we were soaking wet and cold from rain, with no camp stoves, so we were totally reliant on a fire to keep us alive. I owe Dann my life times two for that. Those are two of my nine lives, which can be seen on another page.

Me and Dann did tons of things together, including camping with our wives several times. One of those trips, and some of these pictures, were out on the Boston Harbor Islands, where we took a ferry out, camped on the shore, had a big fire, and had a heck of a lot of fun. Another time with our wives, Diane and Marty, we went camping at Muddy Pond on the Midstate Trail in the middle of winter when it was freezing cold and snowed hard overnight. We got well over a foot of snow and had to trudge back across the frozen pond to our cars.

Dann and I went up to Baxter State Park several times and did some incredible hikes there. Later on, Ricky, who was Dann's friend from work, joined us, and the three of us started hiking together and camping on summits all over New England. One incredible time up on Madison near Mount Washington, we were all in bivy sacks when a fog rolled in. Even though we were only about six feet away from each other, none of us could see the others.

I eventually started hiking more with Ricky, and Dann got busy with his van called Otto. But Dann was also a musician through and through. He was a guitarist, played flute, played all kinds of instruments, and was a really good singer. He was in many bands over the years and had some big tours around Massachusetts. I was lucky to see him a lot during those music years, but even luckier that he was into hiking for a stretch when the band was not active.

When I first met him in high school, Dann lived with his parents, and behind his house there was a trail through conservation land that went up to a bald mountain we called the Cliffs. There were two cliffs, and from there you could see Boston, about 30 or 40 miles away. We camped up there all the time, had campfires, and stayed up all night. One of those mornings after staying up all night, we went to Howard Johnson's, where they had bottomless coffee, to see how much coffee we could drink. We were in there for almost two hours, and I drank 11 cups. I am not sure what everyone else drank, but we were pretty spaced out from all the coffee.

We got in a little bit of trouble too, me and Dann, but nothing really illegal or anything that got us into too much trouble. Mostly it was just having lots of fun. We used to take his truck up to the mountains all the time, leaving around 10 o'clock on a Friday night and hiking in as far as we could get. Often we brought plastic sleds in the winter so we could sled back down on Sunday afternoon and get to the car more easily.

One Easter weekend we went up to the Adirondacks for four days. Our packs were incredibly heavy, and I took a bad spill and busted up my ankle badly enough that I ended up in a lean-to with my leg up for three days. Dann went off hiking every day, climbing the high peaks of the Adirondacks, so at least we did not lose the whole trip because of my ankle. These are some of the adventures and times with Dann, and I will definitely add more photos as I get to them.