Remembering Bill

History of the Nobles Outing Club

1958-1964: Art Watson

I came to Nobles in the Fall of 1958. Bill Biddle was already there, living on campus in “The Frat” with his first wife, Barbara. Somewhere along there, they started a family and although not a boarder, I remember when young “Bobby” came home to join them.

Funnily enough, the only course I actually remember taking from Bill at Nobles was geography, and that would have been in the fifth class as I remember studying for the “Barrier Test” in his class.

But his influence on me was never principally in the classroom. I soon found out about the Outing Club, and I was very interested because of a curious history that preceded Nobles. I had already spent a summer at a camp in Maine that, in retrospect, had a very ambitious “tripping” program, and went back there after my first year as a sixie. During those two summers, I was introduced to hiking and camping in Maine and New Hampshire, and after a somewhat inauspicious start, I came to really love doing this. Amazingly, one of the counselors at that camp, who took me up Mt. Carrigain for the first time, was Larry Daloz, ’58, the older brother of Charlie, ’65, who would later become a stalwart of the Outing Club.

So I brought this little bit of history to Nobles and was instantly susceptible to Bill’s influence and enthusiasm. I am really vague on the early trips we did, specifically remembering only a weekend at “Robb’s acres,” a wooded property with a cabin on it that had been given to the School by Robb Sagendorph, ’18 (and the owner and publisher of Yankee Magazine).

But Bill always had his sights set higher. Despite the rigors of the regular school schedule, it seems he was always hatching new ideas and new challenges. One of these was a winter ascent of Mt. Carrigain in which we overnighted at the summit. Another was an overnight to the Southern Presidentials, where we drove up to Crawford Notch, probably after a football game, hit the trail in 52 degrees and rain and woke up the next morning just below treeline on Mt. Pierce in a clear, windy 12 degrees. This was before synthetics, and every scrap of cotton and wool that had gotten wet the night before (and was not inside our sleeping bags) was frozen solid. The upper left-hand photo on the main page of this website was taken at the summit of Mt. Pierce, formerly called Mt. Clinton, just before we beat a tactical retreat back to Crawford.

A highlight of our experiences in those days was a 2-week trip Bill planned to Mt. Katahdin after school got out. We spent a few days at Chimney Pond, during which we did a traverse up Cathedral to the Table Land, then up to the top, over to the South Peak, then over the knife edge to Pamola and back down to Chimney Pond. Then, we headed north over Hamlin Peak and down into the Northwest Basin, camping at Davis Pond, then further north to Russell Pond, then all the way out to Roaring Brook Campground.

It is difficult to describe how this seemed to us like a “deep woods” experience back in those days. There was no one else around, it seemed for miles, except the moose. Most of us had probably read by then Thoreau’s “Maine Woods” (perhaps even in Bill’s English class), and must have felt that we were following in his mystical footsteps.

But we weren’t done yet. Bill had thoughtfully brought along a rack full of canoes, so we were then able to spend a few days “running” the West Branch of the nearby Penobscot River, picking routes through the rapids, “letting down” over a few, and swamping in a couple as well. We had little idea (I want to say “NO idea”) what we were doing, but for a bunch of young kids this was heaven!

This Mt. Katahdin experience must have planted a seed in Bill’s mind, because it was not long before he hatched the ultimate Outing Club “caper”: a winter ascent of Katahdin. Even today this seems like serious stuff, but back then it was merely exciting. Bill planned the trip to occur over Christmas break. After the holiday, we drove up to Roaring Brook in the Travelall, and skied and snowshoed in and up to Chimney Pond, accompanied by the obligatory Park Ranger, and set up in a cabin there that had a big wood stove. We waited out a furious blizzard for a couple of days, then went up Cathedral on snowshoes through deep snow, then cramponed up from the Table Land to the summit, wearing our best army-surplus crampons. Coming back down, we practiced our glissading skills through several hundred feet of descent until we hit the trees. It was New Year’s Day. Back at the cabin, Alexander Caskey opened a split of champagne that he had thoughtfully brought up with him and placed in a snowbank – only to have it instantly freeze solid! (Why did it do that – I never can remember.)

Our return to civilization took place about 3 days later than planned, because of the storm that we had waited out. Katahdin Climbers Trapped in the Storm — this was a newsworthy event! We were interviewed by the local newspaper, and our picture appeared alongside the article.

Other memorable trips in this era included ascents of Mt. Osceola in winter, Mt. Washington in winter and spring, Mt. Moosilauke in both fall and winter and at least one hike to the top of Mt. Monadnock, one of which was near the peak of the fall foliage.

During this period the Outing Club continued to grow and prosper under Bill’s leadership. While we students were grinding it out academically and exhausting ourselves on the playing fields every day, Bill kept hatching these ideas, getting them onto our schedules and leading our forays with his inexhaustible energy and enthusiasm.

What great memories!