Trail connections

by Anton Zuiker on July 17, 2026

Woman sitting on rock at ocean.

Erin tracking seals off Indian Point, Nature Conservancy's Blagden Preserve, Maine

Last week, Erin and I were back in Maine to celebrate our 30th anniversary.

We had honeymooned on Mount Desert Island and in Boston in 1996, and when a special trip to Portugal seemed too hard to shoehorn into this summer’s busy schedule of Oliver at summer camp, a big landscaping project, and Anna preparing to move to her first nursing job, we landed on a return to Acadia National Park. Our spring break glamping in Zion earlier this year was so much fun that we decided to book another tent at Under Canvas Acadia and then two nights at the posh Longfellow Hotel in Portland.

Seeing things

I have an insatiable need to make connections and find shared interests with others, so, naturally, I was looking not just at the rocky path and stunning views but also at the other people on our first hike up the strenuous St. Sauveur and Acadia Mountain Loop.

A pair of hikers were coming down the trail while Erin and I were climbing and I noticed a familiar design on the woman’s shirt. I instinctively said, “RUN DRM, I have that T-shirt.” They stopped to explain that the man grew up in Chapel Hill and the two live, and run, in Durham.

Erin and I kept hiking.

Where did 30 years go? we wondered. We talked about our travels around the globe, raising a family, developing our careers, “growing up and growing old together” (from our wedding vows). Here we were in Maine again, with time and health and resources to revel in our relationship. As I felt on our honeymoon and every day since, I was grateful, and in love.

Later, we reached the panoramic Acadia Mountain summit marker. Other hikers were paused there, one woman wearing a hat with the word Carolina both upside down and backward. What’s the meaning of that? I asked her. It was a promotional hat for the Carolina Blaze, a professional women’s softball team that plays in the Smith Family Stadium on Duke’s campus. I live in Chapel Hill and work for Duke. Small world, this trail.

I was feeling proud of my ability to notice what I’m noticing and to engage others.

By now, though, I also was feeling hot, thirsty, and a bit light-headed. I worried that I was still out of shape from my six-week recovery from the broken toe, but I’d played soccer the previous week and I seemed to be hiking just fine. The next day, though, I knew I wasn’t well, with a stomach bug that’s still with me a week later (my doctor will run a test for cyclosporiasis). I did my best to push through the rest of our hikes and meals, but I did backtrack, smartly, at the start of the steep Beehive climb because I sensed I was faltering and Erin saw me stumbling.

Photo op at Acadia Mountain summit with Dries Buytaert Anyway, I’m standing off to the side while Erin is asking the group for local dining recommendations, and a tall hiker looks at me and asks if I am into typography and web design.

I was momentarily confused (still hot) but then I realized he was referencing the hat I was wearing, KERN. I explained that I follow the typography work of Dan Cederholm of SimpleBits and I have my own website using Textpattern and one of Dan’s fonts. The tall hiker listened to me ramble, then mentioned he was the creator of an open source CMS called Drupal.

Erin was listening now. “Do you know Drupal?” she asked me.

“Of course! Many of the websites at Duke University run on Drupal.”

I looked back at the hiker. “So you’re ….” I started to ask.

“Dries Buytaert,” he finished.

I was tongue tied (still dizzy!) and as I searched my memory for the first time I encountered Dries on the web, Erin ribbed me about being a fanboy, which was true, because I’ve admired all the developers of the blogging software I’ve used over the last 25 years: Noah, Evan and Meg, Ben and Mena, Matt, Rick, Dean, Dave, Dries, Manton, and others.

Standing there on the side of the mountain, we chatted about blogs, RSS, design, and the World Cup. Belgium would be playing the U.S.A. later that day. Dries is a great blogger with an excellent domain—dri.es; see his photo post, on this page, about how his friends congratulated him on Belgium’s decisive victory. Erin and I watched that game on her iPad in our tent, and I was still smiling about my interactions on the trail.

We watched other matches along the way, including the second half of the thrilling Egypt-Argentina game in the Tap & Barrel Tavern (delicious beet salad and the Amber grilled cheese sandwich) and the France win over Morocco in the Rí Rá Irish Pub in Portland.

So, even through my dizzying nausea, lots of highlights to the week. The pinnacle, of course, was that I was alongside Erin, my hiking and life partner of 30 years.

Extras

  • We also hiked sections of the steep Gorge Path and Cadillac South Ridge Trail, Great Head Trail, and the Indian Point-Blagden Preserve. We ate popovers on the grass at Jordan Pond House, too.
  • At Under Canvas, happy kids ran around as we roasted marshmallows and a momma porcupine ignored the commotion to munch on grass. One night, her baby appeared briefly. A baby porcupine is a ball of cuteness.
  • The Portland restaurants Chaval (‘Spanish and French-inspired cuisine meets the flavors of the Maine coast.’) and Duckfat (‘Belgian-style frites, hand-punched, twice-fried in duck fat.’) were excellent; we even returned to Duckfat a second day for more of the delicious tomato soup.
  • I would have eaten more, and tried more beers, if I hadn’t been feeling so off.
  • In Portland, we took the Casco Bay Ferry over to Peaks Island; Erin saw me struggling so quickly rented a golf cart so we could tour the quaint island. We also went for a sail on the schooner Timberwind.
  • “In Typography, kerning is the process of adjusting the space between two specific characters, or letterforms, in a font. It is not to be confused with tracking, by which spacing is adjusted uniformly over a range of characters.” (From Wikipedia)
  • The description of the KERN hat claims ‘This low-profile, embroidered hat demonstrates some absolutely terrible kerning, and is sure to be a conversation starter.’ Spot on, Dan!
  • See my Wan Smol Blog for more posts and photos from the trip through Acadia and Portland, and then Rhode Island, where I spent a few days visiting my father and catching a show by The Heavy Heavy.
  • See my Duke River of News to read what’s flowing through those Duke websites.

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