WINTER 2023 | 19 FROM THE VAULT William H. Lance First Trip Editors' Note:1 William Lance was a member of the 46ers of Troy, the precursor to the Adirondack 46ers. This article, describing the first trip taken by the 46ers of Troy in 1932, will give readers a brief glimpse into what hiking in the Adirondacks was like in the early days. William Lance also is our father. Although he never completed the 46 (he stands as a 36er) he is responsible for instilling in us a love and respect for the Adirondacks and for encouraging us to become 46ers. 1“First Trip” is reprinted from its original publication in the Spring-Summer 1994 issue of Adirondack PEEKS. I have been asked to go back approximately 62 years to give you my impression of our group's first hiking trip to the Adirondacks. It has been difficult for me to go back that far in time; at times I find it difficult to remember what happened yesterday. But, there are certain events concerning this trip that come to mind vividly and I will try to focus on these. As I recall, it was about 4:30 a.m. when I was awakened by the loud jangling of my alarm clock. I turned it off as quickly as possible so as not to wake the rest of the household at that outlandish hour. I had laid out my clothes and rather rudimentary equipment the night before, so it was just a matter of dressing as quickly as possible to get on my way. My way, in this instance, was to walk two blocks southward to the "Hudo Hangout," the home of Grace and Ed Hudowalski, where the group had arranged to meet. As I lived the closest, I was the first to arrive, but it wasn't long before the rest of the group was assembled. There were six members of this adventurous group—Ed Hudowalski, Charlie Horn, Orville Gowie, Jack Colby, Harry May, and myself. We were all members of Ed's Sunday School class. Our transportation consisted of two Ford Model A coupes complete with rumble seats. We stored our equipment in luggage racks on the running boards and stashed the pack basket, which contained most of our food, in the rumble seat of Charlie's car. That left room for two in the front seat and two in the rumble seat of Ed's car and two in Charlie's car. Thus safely placed, we took off for the Adirondacks and the start of our adventure. Traveling at that time was quite different than it is today. First, we had to cross the river to get on Route 9 and then we headed north on a two-lane highway through Saratoga Springs, South Glens Falls, and on to the Village of Lake George. Upon arriving in Lake George we found a diner open and we stopped for a welcome breakfast. We proceeded on our way going through Warrensburg, Chestertown, Schroon Lake, North Hudson, and finally reached the turn off to Route 73 over the Chapel Pond Road. This section of the trip was over a narrow dirt road and it was here that our adventure nearly ended. As we came over a rise, we were confronted with a car coming the other way at an imprudent speed. Ed, who was leading, pulled as far to the right as possible with Charlie following, and just managed to escape what we thought was certain destruction. "You tell him, Charlie," shouted Ed as the car disappeared in a cloud of dust. After sitting there for a few moments to let our hearts and the dust settle down, we proceeded uneventfully to Keene Valley. We found the turn to the Garden where we parked the cars and started unloading and organizing our equipment. Speaking of equipment, we represented a conglomerate of outdoor styles. Catalogs, equipment houses, and specialty stores were nonexistent in those days. I do remember a sporting goods store catalog from Abercrombie & Fitch who handled exotic camping equipment and specialty items but with prices well beyond our budgets. So we outfitted ourselves through the Boy Scout section of our local department stores and the Army & Navy surplus stores. As I look back at the photographs taken on our trip I can note the differences in individual preferences. Most of us preferred a high top shoe (mine were Endicott-Johnson work shoes at $2.95 a pair). One wore a pair of low tops which did not serve him very well when we came to wet and sloppy sections. Packs were
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