Cadillac Mountain, the Gift That Keeps on Giving

I caught just a glimmer of the Sun today. I’m glad I never have to worry about it maybe NOT being there.

Happiest day, beloved Joy Train Rider! I love you! Bless you! I affirm we are doing well.

If each of us can stay calm and uphold our country’s stated values, I believe we will get through this maelstrom and look back at it in wonder. I emphasize “if” because I found myself at the point of wondering:

“WHAT is even worth saying, that everyone doesn’t already know? WHICH of the myriad abuses is worth singling out?”

I shared the thought with a few close friends, two of whom said they felt the same thing.

Knowing that this is EXACTLY the position the aggressors are trying to push us into, I took several naps to work through it. I concluded that the soldier cannot withdraw from the battlefield until the victory is won. Irrespective of the onslaught, we must do our part and keep spreading truth.

How are you coping, beloved Rider? I’d love to know.

I woke up to this sweet note from my sister in Florida stating:

“Dearest Audrey, good morning. I returned last night from Bar Harbor, Maine for my 75th Birthday celebration . .. The National Park System there is magnified!!! We had tea on the lawn, we walked, we inhaled the beauty of the mountains and lakes and sea and creeks. . .we went to Cadillac Mountain to the very top. I couldn’t stop telling and asking environmentalists I met if they knew of you and Frank . . .I took the time to call your names and thank you for your work in Nature . . .”

Thank you, beloved Sis! That made my heart leap with gratitude. Our frequent guest conductor Bethany also went to Acadia recently and shared similar awe.

It’s great to feel that you’ve contributed to something that feeds joy and makes others think of you pleasurably even when you’re not around. That’s why I consider Cadillac Mountain the gift that keeps on giving: it is accessible, it is wondrous and it never leaves you. It’s past 30 years since I first saw it and the memory still hits with the same effect.

I suddenly felt such gratitude for the President who protected it in 1916, and learned it was Woodrow Wilson. That made me curious about which Presidents made It their priority to protect land for public enjoyment and posterity.

“The Presidents Who Gave Us Our Best Parks” is the one account I found, though it’s dated 2016. In his first term our current president authorized five national monuments. This term his administration is rewriting policies that govern our entire public lands system, putting National Parks at lethal risk.

On today’s ride we take a look at the record, and I’m shocked to find that it was President Andrew Jackson who set aside the first parcel of public lands which is now Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, in 1832. I’d been certain before that it was Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865):

“Although Honest Abe had a lot on his plate during the Civil War, in 1864 he signed a bill establishing California’s Yosemite Valley and its Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias as an “inalienable public trust” to be administered by the state. That protection was an important first step in what would eventually become Yosemite National Park, now one of the most beloved parks in the world.”

Until President Barack Obama, President Theodore Roosevelt was the biggest conservation leader, protecting more than 230 million acres of federal land. President Obama conserved more than 550 million acres of land waters and included places where Americans of color made the difference in history.