It's a combination of moose and machine

I've got a pretty unique role at the newspaper, one I'm not sure anybody else out there has anywhere in the country.

On one hand, I'm the outdoors writer. It's not so much a newspaper "beat" as it is a feature writing position, and I'm pretty well free to write about whatever adventures I'm up for. One week it's rock climbing, the next it's off to cruising along at 35 mph on an ATV trail somewhere in the back woods. In between, there's plenty of time for hiking, hunting, fishing, camping, canoeing and whatever else strikes my fancy.

There's also my dual role as auto racing writer -- covering races and events, breaking news, writing columns and keeping up with news and notes. It's a traditonal beat in the newspaper sense: "You're our guy on this, you're responsible for not getting beat to stories."

This was one of those weekends where I really felt pulled in all directions.

Saturday afternoon, while at L.L. Bean's annual hunting expo full of seminars and sales, I felt like a racing wife. I wanted to call Cassius Clark to find out how Hickory was going, and I wanted to call over to Thunder Road to see how qualifying was going for the Milk Bowl. There was a Modified show at Stafford, some supercross stuff at Unity and a little thing -- maybe you've heard of it? -- called the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

On Sunday, I was up a full 3 hours before sunrise -- 3:30 a.m., if you're scoring at home -- and was off into the Maine woods and mountains in search of moose. We logged more than 10 miles of mountain hiking while breaking our own trails for virtually all of it, called in a few bulls and lived off stale donuts, cheddar cheese and fresh apples.

I loved every minute of it. But a voice in my head kept reminding me about the Over the Hill 150 and the Milk Bowl, and I couldn't stop thinking about racing. It only got worse when, being with a guide from the town of Strong, the conversation turned to the careers of Martin Truex Jr. and Tracy Gordon. Gordon's from Strong, and master Maine guide Roger Lambert once worked on Gordon's team.

It's a small world...

It's a small racing world. And, as the best moose guide I've ever known said to me, "Once you get that racing bug... Oh, boy. And I had it twice in my life. That's why I had to stop."