Charlotte Snow: [00:00:00] – we were pretty close to it. It was really pretty. Got some nice sounds.

 

Megan Granger: [00:00:08] Cool.

 

CS: [00:00:09] Didn’t get much at the Blue Hill Mountain [inaudible].

 

Unknown: [00:00:17] Mr. Gallagher, where did you get these chairs?

 

Phalen Gallagher: [00:00:21] Amazon.

 

Myles Montgomery:: [00:00:22] I need a chair like this. My chair at home [inaudible].

 

PG: [00:00:25] Yeah. Chairs are tough [inaudible]

 

CS: [00:00:33] This is a lot more comfy [inaudible]

 

PG: [00:00:37] Oh, I see. [inaudible] hear anything. So, before I tell you to go, I’m like, I should probably make sure we’re actually recording. So, you guys just keep talking a little bit while I get this dialed in. This is a classic warm-up question. You can say, “What did you have for breakfast?”

 

MM: [00:00:54] What did you have for dinner last night?

 

PG: [00:00:56] Or dinner last night.

 

MG: [00:00:56] Let’s see. For dinner last night, I had a salad, like I always do, and some pasta. What did you have for dinner last night?

 

PG: [00:01:12] I think that’s good.

 

MM: [00:01:13] I think it was Alfredo noodles. It was the round noodles.

 

MG: [00:01:21] Oh, yeah.

 

MM: [00:01:24] It had chicken in it.

 

MG: [00:01:25] Sounds good.

 

MM: [00:01:26] It was good.

 

MG: [00:01:27] Yeah. How about you?

 

CS: [00:01:30] I had a cheese stick. I didn’t really have anything last night.

 

PG: [00:01:33] A cheese stick?

 

CS: [00:01:34]  Yeah, I went to bed before we made dinner.

 

MG: [00:01:38] You were tired.

 

CS: [00:01:39] Yeah, I was pretty tired. I’m going to be even more tired tonight.

 

MG: [00:01:43] Okay.

 

PG: [00:01:44] Awesome. So, we got levels, so you’ll do the thing. The first thing you’ll do you’ll introduce yourself even though we already did that, but this is for the tape. And then they’ll ask you to introduce yourself at the [inaudible]. This is for the record. Then, the other detail, which I’ll remind everybody, but this is a tricky thing about these interviews is to try – and you’ll forget, we’ll all forget – but when you remember, try to restate the question in your answer. If they’re like, “What’s your favorite color?” and you’re just like, “Purple,” it’s hard for us to put that in the thing. You just say purple. It’s better if you say, “My favorite color is purple.”

 

MG: [00:02:22] Got you. Yeah.

 

PG: [00:02:23] Mostly, we’re going to cut these guys out of the recording, not because we don’t love them, but just because this is about your story.

 

MM: [00:02:27] We’re not as important.

 

PG: [00:02:30] You’re important.

 

MG: [00:02:32] [laughter] You’re more important in many ways.

 

PG: [00:02:34] That’s right. Someday, you’ll be in that chair [inaudible].

 

MG: [00:02:35] Yeah.

 

MM: [00:02:37] I hope [inaudible].

 

PG: [00:02:38] I know you do. Go ahead and introduce – Myles, why don’t you start?

 

MM: [00:02:43] Hi, I’m Myles. I know you know me.

 

CS: [00:02:46] Hi, I’m Charlotte, and I’m from Sedgwick.

 

MG: [00:02:52] Hi. I am Megan Granger, and I’m from Blue Hill, and I’m happy to be here.

 

CS: [00:03:09] If you could describe the mountain in three to seven words, what would those words be?

 

MG: [00:03:21] So, if I could describe the mountain in three to seven words, I don’t know if I could do that because [laughter] it’s just such a beautiful and intricate and huge and relaxing place that it’s tough to boil it down into just a few words.

 

MM: [00:03:54] When creating the Blue Hill Fair posters, do you try to incorporate the mountain and why?

 

MG: [00:04:01] Yes. I always try to somehow incorporate aspects of the mountain. It is tricky to figure out how to do something unique and different every year. If I’m not able to actually get an image of the mountain, I try to make sure that it’s like a specific place in Blue Hill. But most of the posters do have either the mountain or a view from the mountain or somewhere that you can actually see if you’re on the mountain.

 

PG: [00:04:46] Can I follow up right there, too?

 

MG: [00:04:48] Sure.

 

PG: [00:04:48] I’m going to do this, guys. I’m just going to jump in [inaudible]. How did that start? Hopefully, this isn’t a question that you were going to ask next, but how did the fair poster start? How long have you been doing that? Can you tell us a little background about that?

 

MG: [00:05:01] Sure. Yeah. So, the first poster that was made for the fair was back in 2006, and there was just some interest in having an art piece for the fair that would be more permanent. T-shirts don’t necessarily last forever, but artwork does. I had been talking to people on the board with the fair, and they were interested in doing it. Then, oddly enough, I had done an internship when I was going to GSA [George Stevens Academy] with Downeast Graphics, and the owner, Charlie, was still there – was there at that time. I did my GSA internship there, and then we ended up having Charlie do the posters for the Blue Hill Fair. So, he’s been doing that actually ever since, which is cool because I’ll bring in a design. He’ll take the original art and create a poster from it. He’ll do a proof to start with, and then I come back and look at the proof, and we talk about if anything needs to be adjusted. Then, it gets to a point where they run it on the press and then they just do their three-hundred run, I sign them all, and out they go.

 

PG: [00:06:44] That’s so cool. Whose idea? That was a collaboration of people that were like, “Let’s just start this?” How did [inaudible] start again?

 

MG: [00:06:51] Yeah. It was mostly a conversation between myself and the board of fair directors, which there are some of the people still on the board and then they’ve had some new people come in, but everybody’s been really great to work with, with the fair. The nicest part for me is I’m not a commercial artist at all. I enjoy just doing something I’m inspired by. This allows me to keep doing my art and keep challenging myself. But at the same time, I get to pick what I’m excited about or interested in doing. The fair’s been super nice to me about letting me do that. Once in a while, they might have a theme that they want me to work off of, but then I get excited about what the theme is, research it, and figure out how to make it work.

 

CS: [00:08:06] So, you make the art and they work with the art to make the posters? Is that what you’re saying?

 

MG: [00:08:21] Yeah, I’ll bring in a painting, a finished painting, and then, from the painting they will turn that into a print. I think a lot of it is done digitally. They’ll run a design on a computer and do whatever editing that they need to do. Then they have a big printing press that everything rolls out on the day that they’re ready to actually do the printing.

 

PG: [00:08:55] Have you guys seen the posters, the fair posters?

 

MM: [00:08:59] I think I see them every year.

 

PG: [00:09:00] Yeah, every year [inaudible]. We just started buying them. We’re going to frame every year. It’s such a cool part of it.

 

CS: [00:09:05] I don’t think I’ve ever seen them.

 

PG: [00:09:07] You haven’t seen it?

 

CS: [00:09:08] No, I don’t think so.

 

PG: [00:09:14] What’s your next question? [inaudible]

 

CS: [00:09:22] So, we read that you run/hike up the mountain. You wake up early in the morning, and you do it daily. How long have you been doing that for?

 

MG: [00:09:41] Great question. I’m trying to rephrase again. [laughter] So, just asking about running the mountain every day. I love to run in the morning before I go to work because I feel like it gives me energy. It makes me happy, makes me able to help kids because I’m in a good mind space, and I just feel good inside. So, this morning – I don’t know. Every day is a new day out there, which is really cool. This morning, I woke up, and I went outside to load the jeep, and there was frost on the jeep. I was like, “Oh, no, there might be frost on the mountain,” which is slippery, and I fall up there sometimes. So I was like, “Shoot.” But then I’m like, “But I just got to do it.” It was a full moon this morning. Also, the time that I’m going now, the sun is coming up. So, the light was this really pretty red, pink kind of a light when I was going up and down. The nice part is the trees create a little canopy cover for the trail. So, it wasn’t icy at all. When I was running, I was like, “Oh, I’m so lucky. I get to come up here and run, and it’s not slippery.” It was just really pretty light. I was the only one up there, which is very common at that time of day. I also see animals a lot up there. Last week, when I was running, there were a couple of deer near the bottom. They stood there, and they didn’t even move. They were probably twenty feet away, and they blended in with the trees because it was close to dark still. I just ran by them slowly and quietly, and they didn’t even jump or make any noise at all. It’s kind of neat to be – I don’t know. I feel like I’m entering their world a little bit, and maybe they’ve gotten to know me now because they don’t really mind that I’m up there. Yeah. So, I guess for me, running the mountain every day is just a really good way to keep my body and my mind healthy.

 

PG: [00:12:28] Do you feel sometimes –? We talked to Isaac Vaccaro earlier in this project, who’s another runner who runs a lot. He talked about the challenges that the mountain presents as a runner. I think, for him, it was a humbling – it was something that he felt like he didn’t always want to do, but when he got up there – so, is that a part of the experience for you? Are there mornings where you’re like, “I don’t want to do this, but I should,” and then you feel better after?

 

MG: [00:12:57] Yeah, there are definitely – I’ve been talking to some kids about this idea of resiliency and what we can do to keep ourselves resilient. An example that I was using was there was a morning where it was really dark and cold recently. I woke up, and I just had that feeling maybe I would like to relax and snuggle with my dogs this morning and not go for a run before school. But then I was like, “I know how much it helps me and how I just really feel a lot better if I do it.” I don’t know. It just motivated me to go ahead and do it because I could see that long-term gain. But as far as challenge on the trails, I actually feel like running – when we first had the idea, my husband and I were like, “We’re going to try this. We’ll see what it’s like.” I was like, “I can’t do that. You can do it, but I can’t do it.” He was like, “Let’s just try it. Why not just try it?” And I was like, “Alright, why not?” And then I loved it. I have not done any road running since because it’s actually really fun to run on the mountain. The footing is tricky sometimes, especially if it’s wet or there’s acorns, or it’s icy, or that kind of thing. But it’s worth it because it’s really fun. I don’t know. I mostly just enjoy it.

 

PG: [00:14:49] What route do you take? Do you vary that, or is it always the same?

 

MG: [00:14:54] When I have enough time, my preference is to start at the post office and go up to Mountain Road and then straight up the mountain across the ridge down to the field. Then I go up the stairs and take – it’s a connector trail back into the old trail. Then, I go back down to the post office. That’s my preference. But that is a longer run. So, if I’m trying to get a run in before school and it’s dark like it is right now, I go up to the mountain road, so I just do the top half of that run without adding the post office trail.

 

PG: [00:15:43] You guys did that. Have you done that from the post office? No? You will.

 

MM: [00:15:49] I think I’ve gone from the Mountain Road, but I don’t think I –

 

PG: [00:15:51] The whole senior class does that hike. I had never done that, and it was hard. It was long, that additional trip up from the post office, but that’s a nice big loop.

 

MG: [00:16:05] Yeah.

 

PG: [00:16:07] It’s four or five miles probably?

 

MG: [00:16:10] I don’t even know. [laughter] With running, I don’t keep track of stuff like that. People are like, “Well, there’s a race coming up.” Blah, blah, blah. “Are you going?” I’m like, “No.” I don’t really care how my time is or if I am in a race, winning, or that type of thing. For me, it’s a personal thing that I enjoy. The only races I ever do is if a kid wants to do a race and they’d like someone to go with them; I’ll do that. I don’t enjoy running with a bunch of people, I guess. I enjoy the nature of running, which is why the mountain is a better place to run than the road.

 

PG: [00:16:57] I feel like you guys have – number five is a good – I keep interrupting you, but you’re doing awesome. Why don’t you guys go with five?

 

MM: [00:17:09] What does the mountain mean to you personally?

 

MG: [00:17:13] That is a really good question. What does the mountain mean to me personally? I guess it means a part of who I am because I’ve grown up here, and even before I was running the mountain, I would hike the mountain a lot. Sometimes, it would be with a group of friends, a day camp or schools, or family, or people visiting. We would go and do that as an activity. So, in a lot of ways, I feel like it’s just part of – it’s in my soul at this point in time. It means a lot to me. I don’t think I would want to live anywhere else or work in a place where I couldn’t still run the mountain. I don’t know. It’s just a part of my life at this point in time that helps me be who I am and helps me be happy, I guess.

 

PG: [00:18:29] You grew up here?

 

MG: [00:18:30] Yeah.

 

PG: [00:18:31] Was it always a place like that for you? Because you talked about starting this running practice later in your life. How did the mountain, I guess –? How did the meaning of the mountain to you evolve over your life from somebody who’s been here [inaudible]?

 

MG: [00:18:45] Yeah. Well, I think that it’s just – if you grow up in Blue Hill, everybody knows Blue Hill because of Blue Hill Mountain and Blue Hill Fair. [laughter] I think it’s just like a place that pretty much everybody spends time. I’m not sure what else.

 

PG: [00:19:08] Did you go up it as a kid much?

 

MG: [00:19:10] Yeah.

 

PG: [00:19:10] You did? Just with friends and [inaudible]?

 

MG: [00:19:13] Yeah. I think it was one of those things that communities would do, whether it was with a church or with a school, or moms taking their kids up together in a playgroup, or that type of thing. It’s just part of the culture of the town is the mountain.

 

PG: [00:19:41] Sorry guys, I’m hogging it.

 

MG: [00:19:43] [laughter]

 

PG: [00:19:45] There’s so many things I want to know because I know Megan’s been around. One of the things we’ve been talking to Birgit – and we have Jim Dow, Chrissy Allen, and all these folks that have been involved in the conservation, the access, and maintenance of the trails and so forth. Could you talk about that and your impression of how access to the mountain has changed and why that’s important for someone like yourself?

 

MG: [00:20:09] Yeah. Well, I really appreciate land conservation, and we happen to have a pretty big parcel of land ourselves that we use and enjoy. Part of that is we appreciate how much nature is around us in the Blue Hill area. We like that. There’s not like all of these subdivisions everywhere. You can actually still go out and breathe and enjoy untouched lands, which isn’t true for a fair amount of Maine now. I just think it’s really nice that there are so many people that have a passion for maintaining land and trails and putting in the time, money, and effort into preservation. Not many towns really have that access. And the trails, I think, are great. They do a nice job of maintaining trails and clearing up. Because I do run through storms and winter, I do notice that sometimes they’ll be like trees down on the trail that are really blocking significant areas. I don’t know. Within a day or two, usually, the big trees are gone. Somebody is up there with a chainsaw and taking care of it, which is really nice. In the past, I feel like I’ve seen a lot of stewardship people on the mountain hauling stones, clearing and cutting, and doing a lot of that physical work just to take care of the mountain, which is really nice to see.

 

CS: [00:22:19] When you’re hiking up the mountain in the winter, what do you wear?

 

MG: [00:22:25] So, we buy these – I’m not really sure the brand right now, but they’re like cleats that you put over your running shoe. It has a metal grip that holds onto the ice if you’re on ice and that way, it gives you some traction, so it’s not slippery to do that. I definitely go a lot slower in the wintertime than in the summer. [laughter} But it’s not bad once you get used to it. Running in the snow is kind of fun because you feel like you’re walking on a snow cone or something. It’s just nice. I like it. I don’t know. It’s really pretty, too, when there’s snow all over the trees and everything like that. As long as you have those ice grippers on, it’s really pretty safe. If you have the ice grippers and you’re going relatively slow, then it’s not too bad.

 

PG: [00:23:35] That’s a great question, Charlotte. [inaudible] ask that.

 

MG: [00:23:37] Myles, you have a question for me? [laughter]

 

MM: [00:23:44] Has it ever been too deep for you to run through?

 

MG: [00:23:45] Okay. Has it ever been too deep for me to run to? This is a great question. If I don’t run the mountain on a particular day, I sort of feel like I’m not myself. There are very few times when I don’t. The times I don’t are when it’s really heavy pouring rain, or there have been some times in the wintertime when this snow is super deep, and you actually can’t run. I’ve definitely been like the first person to go up the mountain after a big, heavy snowstorm. So, I do it anyway. But it has been sometimes about my knees walking up there, but I get really determined to just do it, and it takes a while. But it’s nice to do it in that experience, too. Eventually, what happens is so many people hike the mountain that within a day or two, it’s packed down because some people do snowshoes, some people bring their kids up there with sleds, and some people snowboard up there. It does get packed down pretty quickly after something like that happens.

 

PG: [00:25:14] Seven?

 

CS: [00:25:18] Have you ever missed a day –?

 

PG: [00:25:20] No, sorry. She did just say that. Sorry to interrupt you. I said the wrong number. Eight. Sorry, Charlotte. I threw you a curveball.

 

CS: [00:25:29] I was going to mention that.

 

PG: [00:25:30] Yeah. Do that one, that you guys [inaudible]?

 

CS: [00:25:32] What is your most memorable experience up in the mountain?

 

MG: [00:25:39] [laughter] One time, I was actually on the Post Office Trail, headed up to the mountain, and all of a sudden, I saw a couple of bear cubs. I had my dog with me at the time. I just froze and was quiet. I had a feeling mom was around somewhere. I just didn’t really know where. I decided I didn’t really want to interrupt whatever was going on. So, I just really quietly turned around. I don’t think that my dog even saw the bear cubs. We just started creeping back towards the post office. I was looking over my shoulder the whole way back. [laughter] Then, when I got to the head of the trail at the post office, some people were getting ready to go up. I was like, “You guys might want to just wait a little while to go.” I don’t know. That was a good reminder that nature really owns the mountain; I don’t. I guess that was maybe one of my most memorable ones. Some other ones that – I just have a lot of cool animal-type memories of the mountain. One time, I saw a barred owl up there, and they just paused and looked at me, and we made eye contact. That lasted for a few long seconds. Then, all of a sudden, the owl just took off, and I got to watch it fly away. So, that was really cool. Then, another time, I saw an owl teaching its young ones how to fly up there. So, that was really cool just to hear the communication of the owls and see that experience was pretty special.

 

PG: [00:28:12] No mountain lions.

 

MG: [00:28:13] No, I never have seen any up there. Not up there, no. [laughter]

 

PG: [00:28:20] Hasn’t come up in this project. I grew up hearing that myth that they were up there, but I’m not sure anyone’s ever actually seen them.

 

MG: [00:28:28] Right.

 

PG: [00:28:31] That’s awesome. You guys are doing awesome. So you can just ask – yeah, what you got, Myles?

 

MM: [00:28:39] Have you seen any endangered species?

 

MG: [00:28:42] Have I seen any endangered species? I don’t think I have up there. That’s a good question. Yeah.

 

PG: [00:28:55] Bobcats?

 

MG: [00:28:56] No.

 

MM: [00:28:58] It could be a plant as well.

 

MG: [00:29:02] I have seen some invasive species up there [laughter] by the name of Bittersweet. But I don’t think so.

 

PG: [00:29:16] What about twelve and thirteen? These are both – you guys wrote some hardball questions here.

 

CS: [00:29:27] Have you ever gotten lost up in the mountain?

 

MG: [00:29:31] That’s a really good question. [laughter] One time, I was up there during one of those days right after a really wild storm. There were trees down, a lot of trees down in key places of trails. I had to walk way around, and the snow was super deep. It was taking a really long time, and darkness was setting in. There were some moments where – because I had to backtrack into the woods for part of it, there were some moments where I was like, “Wait a minute, I should have crossed the path by now, and I didn’t.” There is a little bit of that anxious feeling that happened for me a little bit during that time. But it wasn’t too long before things got back on track. It’s just sometimes you can lose your way, especially if you’re the trail breaker, because after a storm and also the darkness makes it sometimes kind of hard to navigate.

 

MM: [00:30:59] If the Blue Hill Mountain didn’t exist, how do you think the town would be different?

 

MG: [00:31:05] That’s a great question. [laughter] I think it would have a different identity because right now I feel like the mountain is the town. So, if the mountain didn’t exist, I don’t know, maybe somehow, the Blue Hill Park would be more of the identity of the town or a different location.

 

CS: [00:31:36] If anything happened to the mountain, such as a fire or anything, how do you think it would impact the community?

 

MG: [00:31:44] Well, what I notice about this community is whenever anything happens that’s difficult, everybody pulls together to try to fix it. My guess is if a fire happened, during the fire, everybody would pull together and try to help out. If there was damage to the mountain, I’m sure the community would pull together and try to help with things. There have been times when I’ve been up on the mountain and – more so, I would say, in the summertime – but people have fallen up there, and crews have come up to pack people out with a broken leg, or that type of thing, or somebody went up there and had some kind of a cardiac event or that type of thing. So I think if things happen up there, this town is just so supportive and community-driven that you know that there’s going to be help for it.

 

PG: [00:32:55] Do you have any thoughts about visions for the future of the mountain or things that could make it even more accessible? As somebody who knows so much about it, is there anything that you could see in the future being –?

 

MG: [00:33:12] So, one thing that I’ve noticed happening a bit in Blue Hill is some more advocacy for wheelchair accessibility. I love that. I think that there are people who would definitely use it if it was wheelchair accessible. Sometimes, I do see people trying to take a stroller up the mountain, which is a little scary. [laughter] So, it would be lovely if somehow that could happen. There could be more of an option for people that aren’t able to walk up the mountain.

 

PG: [00:34:09] Is there anything you guys – because you’re doing awesome and we’ve sort of jumped all over now and some of the questions that you haven’t asked, she has answered, which is the tricky part, too. We want to be careful not to re-ask something. So, just without looking at your questions, thinking about what we’ve covered – and we are nearing the end of this, too. We have plenty of material, too. We’re not like, “Oh, no, we need …”. That was tons of good stuff. So, now, to me, it’s a little more like, what are you wondering about?

 

MM: [00:34:39] I have – it’s a question.

 

PG: [00:34:41] You can do that. I’m just saying –

 

MM: [00:34:45] The mountain is technically a hill, but people still call it Blue Hill Mountain. Do you think it should be called Blue Hill Mountain or Blue Hill Hill?

 

MG: [00:34:53] So should the mountain be called Blue Hill Hill or Blue Hill Mountain? I love this one. I remember when I was really little, learning that it wasn’t actually a mountain because it was not quite enough feet, I guess, to be a mountain. But I just feel like it looks like a mountain. So, it’d be strange to call it a hill. I don’t know. We already have Blue Hill, so Blue Hill Mountain makes sense to me.

 

PG: [00:35:32] I do wonder if it’s funny to people that aren’t from here. We all hear that so much. But if you just look at Hill Mountain – it’d be like Toddy Pond Lake or something. Is it a pond or a lake? It is a funny part of this history. Denny told us that he remembered there being a cairn up on the top that –

 

MG: [00:35:51] ¥es, I do too.

 

PG: [00:35:53] – allegedly made it a mountain. [inaudible]

 

MG: [00:35:56] Yes, I remember that.

 

PG: [00:35:59] Do you have memories of the fire tower and mucking around up there?

 

MG: [00:36:03] Yeah, I do. [laughter] I don’t know if you know the year that it disappeared – got taken off.

 

PG: [00:36:11] He just told us.

 

MG: [00:36:13] It was –

 

PG: [00:36:14] In the early aughts maybe?

 

MG: [00:36:17] I feel like it was maybe there. I’m trying to think. It was probably not quite twenty years ago. Right? Something like that.

 

PG: [00:36:28] Yeah. I remember climbing it.

 

MG: [00:36:30] Yeah. So, I remember climbing it as a kid and being scared of how high it was as a kid. But I just remember how cool it was to get up there. You could look all around. It was such a beautiful view. I do remember taking friends up there and just spending time up there. When I was in high school, that was a really special thing to do: go climb the mountain and hang out at the fire tower, be with your friends, and have those conversations that kids have when they’re becoming adults. It was neat. I remember feeling really sad when the fire tower left. Even though now, visually, it’s actually prettier not to see the fire tower. But it was sad because I just remembered how nice it was to be able to go up there and that it was actually used in that way was kind of neat. Somebody actually used to be up there and be watching for fires. So, to lose the historical piece of it was kind of sad as well.

 

PG: [00:37:59] You guys don’t remember that. It was gone before your days.

 

MM: [00:38:02] Do you ever take photos when you’re on the mountain?

 

MG: [00:38:08] I do. A lot of times I’ll take research photos for the fair poster [laughter] because I like to have different perspectives and angles from being up on the mountain. So, I will do that. Sometimes, the weather conditions are just really unique and pretty, the way that the fog sets over the harbor, or this morning, the way that that kind of fall reddish-pink light was coming through the trees – I don’t know. There’s just some neat things to see up there in photographs. So, I do. I’m not good at stopping when I run. I like to just run and not stop. [laughter] It has to be something really amazing for me to take a picture of it, or if I’m doing research for the fair poster, I will often just go up, walk up there. My job is to take pictures, so I’m not as likely to do it when I’m running, but there are some really pretty things to photograph up there.

 

CS: [00:39:24] What is your favorite season to run up the mountain?

 

MG: [00:39:29] I would say probably early summer because it’s dry for one, so I can run fast, and I love to run fast. Also, the temperature is nice early summer. It’s not too hot yet. Once it gets into the mid-summer, I really have to run before seven [laughter] because it’s way too hot after seven. So, yeah, I would say probably early summer. I like the fall, too, but I find that I’m always battling with the darkness.

 

PG: [00:40:18] Have you felt like painting the mountain has taught you something different about it? What is that experience like for you, really approaching it as an artist?

 

MG: [00:40:30] Yeah. So, painting the mountain. That’s a great question. I don’t know. I think I’ve just learned about how the colors change so much depending on the season or the weather. All of those things in the shape of the mountain is really different from different angles. If you look at the mountain in North Blue Hill, it’s a very different silhouette than if you look at the mountain from more around the harbor. So, it’s definitely taught me the details inherent in the mountain and what kind of trees are in different parts of the mountain. Sometimes, the overall colors in the mountain, if I’m painting them, are mostly really deep, dark blues. But then, sometimes in the early spring, you see a lot of warm pinks and grays because the leaves are gone from the trees, and the leaves are just starting to bud up a little bit. Then, late fall, you might see more cranberry colors in the mountain. So, it’s taught me that it changes a lot. The color changes a lot. I don’t know. The shape changes a lot depending on where you’re looking at it.

 

MM: [00:42:16] Towards the top of the mountain, is there a view that you can see the harbor and, if at night, the moon rising? Because I know last night, it was the full moon, and the sky was a nice pink color.

 

MG: [00:42:31] Yeah. I think sometimes people will go up during a full moon to watch it from the mountain. I don’t tend to hike after dark, but I think it would be easy to see if you went up there, especially during a full moon.

 

MM: [00:42:55] Last night, the light from the moon was shining through my window. So, I’m just wondering, if you were to hike at night during a full moon, do you think the moonlight would illuminate the area?

 

MG: [00:43:12] Yeah, I think it would depend. So, the moon would illuminate parts of the trail, and then parts of the trail on the other side would probably be covered with trees, so you wouldn’t see it as well. I think if you went up the field path and the stairs and stayed in the open quite a bit, I bet you would be able to see it pretty well.

 

MM: [00:43:44] Do you know how the mountain got its name?

 

MG: [00:43:48] I don’t. That’s a good question. [laughter] I don’t know if you guys have learned this in your research, but I feel like there’s a Native American name for the mountain, too.

 

MM: [00:44:05] Not sure.

 

MG: [00:44:07] Yeah. You might discover that. I’m not really sure how it became called Blue Hill Mountain.

 

MM: [00:44:17] I think I remember in fourth grade, we learned it might have been because of the blueberries. But I’m not sure if that’s the real reason.

 

MG: [00:44:30] Yeah, that makes sense because there used to be a lot of blueberries on the mountain. I don’t see as many blueberries up there anymore. I don’t know if it’s a lack of bees issue or what, but there’s not – it’s rare to see very many blueberries up there, actually.

 

PG: [00:44:52] I had to think about that because we read Blueberries for Sal a lot. You can see where that might have been. But it feels like it was also a different [inaudible] –

 

MG: [00:45:05] Well, the trail was different, I think, back then. It was different. When I was a kid, the trail to get up from the road to the top of the mountain didn’t have the switchbacks that it does now. It just was a straight vertical, and I think it was more to the north. Those areas, I think, where maybe there was more blueberries in that part and even the ledge area – I remember there being a lot more blueberries. As a kid, I would go, and we’d bring containers to collect blueberries. But now, you don’t really see very many blueberries up there at all.

 

PG: [00:45:56] Yeah. You touched on this, but it’s such a cool, I think, unique part of your relationship to the Mountain is – and you guys wrote this question, but I’ll just ask it. How do you think –? What’s the relationship between running and hiking and being in nature with mental health?

 

MG: [00:46:21] Yeah. [laughter] So, being a clinician, that’s really interesting to me to think about the connection with the mountain and mental health. I think what I’ve discovered about myself is I’m definitely happier, healthier, and calmer when I’m running the mountain. It has also helped me to inspire kids to figure out what it is that makes them happier and healthier because it’s an authentic example of what works for me. If kids are trying to figure out, “Hey, how do I get out of this stuck place?,” or “How do I help myself not to worry so much every single day in my life?” – for me to be able to share something that works for me is really helpful because then they think about what things do I love and what things provide me with a release or a way to feel great. Then, we can build on those things. I don’t know. I just think it’s been really helpful. This is why I can’t really imagine myself living in a different place. It just keeps me happy and keeps me able to do my job. Someday, maybe, I’d do a different job – I don’t know – and I wouldn’t need it as much. For me, I think it’s really helpful. And it’s fun. That’s the best thing of all. Sometimes, it’s hard as a kid to figure out what is going to be fun for me to do or what’s going to be fun for me and my friends to do; how can we be playful in life? I always say to kids, it’s so important to figure out how you can have more joy than sadness or frustration. For me, my joy is being able to run the mountain, take my dogs up the mountain, run with my husband. My son grew up going up the mountain. Those things that make life matter and feel good and happy to us are so important. So, that’s what the mountain does for me, I guess in a mental health way. [laughter}

 

PG: [00:49:11] You got one more? Probably your last one, FYI [for your information].

 

MM: [00:49:14] Do you think, for example, someone with depression, would that help – more hiking the mountain or running the mountain? Would it help as a natural treatment other than medication?

 

MG: [00:49:28] I think that’s such a great question. Would hiking or running the mountain be a way of helping somebody with depression more so than maybe a medication? I think that the bottom line is how do we get more of those happy chemicals in our brain. Definitely, running has such a huge impact on being able to regulate your brain chemicals. So, when you’re running, you’re shedding that cortisol that you’ve put too much of in your brain. Sometimes, researchers find that doing those physical activities, running the mountain, being in nature, can actually have a much more profound impact than taking a pill. For me, it makes sense because what would you rather do? Be outside and be in nature and see all these amazing animal sightings or leaves changing or different types of flowers up there, or just take a pill. I think just to know there are ways that we can treat our brain chemicals that are really exciting and enjoyable as opposed to putting a pill in your body, and sometimes, in my experience working with kids that are medicated for those issues, they often end up having to manage the side effects of some of those medications. Sometimes, it’s hard to wean off of medication. So then, you start to become reliant on that, which isn’t something that you can produce on your own. Whereas if you’re running the mountain, you can do that on your own, and you have full control over making a decision to do that every day if you want to.

 

PG: [00:51:45] That’s cool. I heard the bell faintly ring in the background. I don’t know if you guys noticed that. I have the intercom turned off.

 

MM: [00:51:52] Is it the second bell?

 

PG: [00:51:54] I think it’s time [inaudible] –

 

CS: [00:51:56] No, it’s the first one.

 

PG: [00:51:57] I think it was just the first one. But we’ve got to go, and Megan’s got to get back to her job. So, thank you very much.

 

MG: [00:52:04] Yeah. You guys did a great job. I’m so proud of you.

 

PG: [00:52:08] Thanks, everybody. That was great. You guys really did – you rocked it. Great follow-ups. Very interesting.

 

MG: [00:52:11] Yeah, it was awesome.

 

PG: [00:52:13] That’s a long time to sit and do that. But it’s super interesting, too. For me, that time flies because I’m like, “Wow, cool.” Thanks, Megan. We’ll follow up with you and invite you to our events. [inaudible]

 

MG: [00:52:25] All right. I can’t wait.

 

PG: [00:52:29] Yeah. When we get this interview down, we’ll share it with you [inaudible].

 

MG: [00:52:30] Yeah, no, it’ll be fun.

 

PG: [00:52:33] Yeah.

 

MM: [00:52:34] [inaudible]

 

PG: [00:52:36] Yes, I’m going to do that actually –

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