Sunsquatch Sighting: Katahdin
For the sake of my reputation I’ll keep my identity secret. But of course you’ll want to know: how did a sensible person like myself end up searching the woods and fields of New England for a mythical creature, glimpsed only by few, and rumored to have come from the sun itself?
I’m a bit of a . . . planet earth enthusiast, let’s say. On this day, binoculars in hand, I braced against the wind near the summit of the “Greatest Mountain” as it was named by the Penobscot: Katahdin. I scanned the glorious alpine landscape for sights of wildlife only found in the U.S. near the peak of this very mountain. I’d spotted Star Saxifrage but the Katahdin Arctic, a mottled brown butterfly found only in Baxter State Park, still eluded me. I don’t like to think cynically, but with climate damage accelerating and its effects on isolated alpine areas like this still unknown, I hoped to see one soon.
Loathe to leave the trail lest I squash anything underfoot, I hunkered down with my sketchbook and camera at the ready, scanning the jagged granite landscape in 360-degree swaths, searching for a flutter of movement. A few hikers passed by me to reach the summit and take their photos to prove they were there, some cheering as if they’d just hiked multiple thousands of miles. Melodramatists.
And then when finally all was still and quiet around me again, save for the wind, and I’d decided to give my eyes a rest, I saw it! Just a flicker, a bright flutter at the corner of my eye. I grabbed for my binoculars, raising them to my eyes . . . and promptly dropped them. It’s a good thing they come on a neck strap.
Friends, I’d never seen anything like it and I don’t know if I ever will again, but I’ve got to try. Needless to say, it was no butterfly. Just for a moment it stepped out of the scraggly woods at tree line before turning back. I fumbled for my camera only to see a Katahdin Arctic sitting on it, pumping its speckled yellow-brown and white wings, but by that time I barely even noticed it. The best I can do is offer this sketch in the hopes that one of you may be able to help me find this majestic creature again. Until then, I keep up the search.