{"id":947,"date":"2012-01-05T18:38:13","date_gmt":"2012-01-05T23:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromthecreek.com\/blog\/?p=947"},"modified":"2012-01-07T20:50:52","modified_gmt":"2012-01-08T01:50:52","slug":"sloaf-john-doyen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromthecreek.com\/?p=947","title":{"rendered":"SLOAF John Doyon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"John<\/a>
John Doyon, loafer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are 365 days in a year. John Doyon skies one hundred or more of those days, and he skies them at Sugarloaf. His vanity plate is SLOAF1. He lives at the mountain from Labor Day until May, and he skis whenever he can. He skis Early Tracks, that special time before the mountain opens to the public, sometimes starting down before daylight. He skis before work, and he skis every weekend. He skis in the rain, in the wind and in the cold. He is, in short, obsessed.<\/p>\n

John was born in Maine, but lived away for many years, returning 15 years ago after watching The Big Chill, and feeling the call to reconnect. College memories of the Carabbasset Valley drew him to Sugarloaf, and here he found his passion. He also found a circle of friends that share this passion, and form a core group of \u201cLoafers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife and I have more friends here than through work or family,\u201d John says. \u201cThis mountain is a bond.\u201d He mentions the mountaintop dinner parties, complete with china and linens, and parties where everyone shares three of their favorites songs creating a musical timeline of the group from the 70\u2019s to the present. John selected \u201cStairway to Heaven,\u201d which he used to listen to when he skied here in his college days. This generated groans and good-natured ribbing, according to John. \u201cThey said it was too long!\u201d he exclaims, shaking his head and laughing. \u201cBut it is a classic, what memories.\u201d Most of this group grew up in the same era as John, and share a lot of similar memories. \u201cThe Sugarloaf culture\u201d John calls it, a tight bond of skiers and skiers\u2019 families that have their lives, activities, and social events orbit around the mountain.<\/p>\n

John says this group, this friendship circle, is an important reason for choosing to live here, but it clearly takes second place to being on the snow. <\/p>\n

John starts his day before full light, taking dog, paper and coffee to the foot of the mountain to assess. He checks the conditions\u2013the weather and the snow, and decides which skis to use. Racing skis, carving skis, skis for powder\u2013 there are skis for different conditions, and it makes a difference. So does keeping equipment in shape. \u201cI do a mini-tune every day, and a major tune-up every ten days,” John says casually, blissfully unaware that he is reinforcing his reputation for obsession. He also keeps a chart of which skis he uses on each day, to be sure not to stress them. He keeps meticulous records of the days and hours he skies to be sure he gets his one hundred days in each year, and to push for as many more as possible \u201cOne hundred and four is the most I\u2019ve skied\u201d he says, \u201cMaybe this year I can top that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But May fourth is the cut off. That is the day the mountain closes. \u201cI start getting bummed out in April,\u201d John says, \u201cIt is a dark feeling, I hate to see those first brown spots.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes even in June you can find a patch of snow in the woods,\u201d he says wistfully. But John is upbeat, even the sadness of contemplating summer is momentary. His natural good nature and optimism reassert themselves. May fourth isn\u2019t here yet, and John has skis to tune, and a mountain to ski. <\/p>\n

Excerpt from <\/em> Maine Vanities, a collection of essays about the people and stories behind vanity license plates.<\/p>\n

These short portraits capture Maine individuality. There is quirkiness, compassion, and humor. While passions range from skiing to solving Mensa puzzles, and ages from 14 to 91, enthusiasm, curiosity, and delight in sharing the story behind their plate and their bit of Maine is the common thread. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are 365 days in a year. John Doyon skies one hundred or more of those days, and he skies…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[72,71,104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-day-trips","category-destinations","category-maine-vanities"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3djTm-fh","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromthecreek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromthecreek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromthecreek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromthecreek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromthecreek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=947"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/fromthecreek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":960,"href":"https:\/\/fromthecreek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947\/revisions\/960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromthecreek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromthecreek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromthecreek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}