MAGAZINE OF THE ADIRONDACK FORTY-SIXERS SUMMER 2025 Vol. LXIII No. 1
CONTENTS President’sReport•DavePawlick,#12803. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Editors’Ramble•SherryRoulston,#12512. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 TALKINGPOINTS.........................................5 A Conversation with Tony Goodwin #211 • Sherry Roulston, #12512 FROMTHEVAULT........................................21 Trail Building | And Gladly Guide: Reflections on a Life in the Mountains (Chapter V) James A. Goodwin, #24 MOUNTAINVIGNETTES.................................... 23 High Places • Paul G. Mangiafico, #15995 Adirondack Centuries: Meeting Grace Hudowalski, Jackrabbit Johanssen • John Borel, #4052 Wilderness Adventure and the Bob Marshall Traverse • Aaron Vlasak, #8436 Bozos on the Range Trail • Ed Harstead, #10184 Santanoni and Panther—August 8, 1969 • Jim Anderberg, #549 A Father’s Influence: The Road to 46 • Kate Kreuter, #15886 INMEMORIAM......................................... 47 CLUBNEWS ...........................................50 INTHEPACK...........................................56 LETTERSTOTHEEDITORS...................................58 Photo credit: Sebastien Provost, #14679, Colvin to Blake
I love that period each spring when the forests transition from barren to full bloom. The days get longer, trails get firm, and Mother Nature invites us to experience the beauty all around us. With beautiful mountains, lakes, and easy access to endless miles of trails, many people, including me, would argue that there is no better place to call home. While the leaves are popping out of their buds, a new batch of hikers will be lacing up their boots to learn why so many of us are drawn to the Adirondacks. Other hikers are hoping to complete their 46er journey in 2025. Either way, the year is symbolic, as 2025 marks the 100-year anniversary of the first people to hike all 46 high peaks. It’s hard to imagine how challenging it must have been for Robert and George Marshall, and their guide, Herbert Clark, to travel to the mountains and navigate their way to the top. We hope that you will join us in Schroon Lake August 2–3, as the Forty-Sixers have organized many activities to celebrate the 100th anniversary. Even if the effort and skill required to reach all of the summits is a fraction of what it was in 1925, the pride associated with becoming a 46er is undiminished. In 2024, 766 hikers registered their completion of the 46er journey. Congratulations to all of you! In the Boulder Report, we share personal stories, such as combining a honeymoon with peak #46, a family’s endeavor to become 46ers, and brothers that skied to all of the summits. Also in this issue is an amazing interview with an Adirondack legend, Tony Goodwin, #211. Tony and his dad, Jim Goodwin, #24—in addition to maintaining trails and guiding groups—had a hand in every edition of ADK’s High Peaks Guides from the sixth edition on. While everyone acknowledges Tony’s vast historical knowledge, we also get his view on the current state of affairs in the Adirondacks and his vision for the future. I hope this issue of PEEKS finds you in good health and spirits, and that you will have the opportunity to lace up your boots and hike our beloved trails. I also want to express my gratitude for the many, many volunteers and members that contribute to the successful mission of the Adirondack FortySixers. You are truly making a difference! —Dave Pawlick, #12803 AdirondackPEEKS Volume LXIII No. 1, Summer 2025 OFFICERS David Pawlick, President Felicia Neahr, Vice President Laurie Rankin, Immediate Past President DIRECTORS Brant Schneider, Cindy Palumbo, Bob Harvey, Brent Pierce, Jen Black, TJ Michon APPOINTED OFFICERS Treasurer Philip Corell Recording Secretary Emily Staley Assistant Secretary Debbie Bedard Outdoor Skills Workshop Coordinators Bill Lundy, Dan Auwarter Office of the Historian Lee Nesbitt, Siobhán Carney-Nesbitt Trailmasters Mark Simpson, Doug Varney, Thomas Caruso, Curt Snyder, Brian Hoody, Michele McCall, Tom Armstrong, Victoria Challingsworth adk46ertrailwork@gmail.com Website Liaison and Content Manager Joe Ryan Merchandising Jim Engle-Warnick, Donna Merrill, Brian Coholan Special Orders Coordinator Brian Coholon Membership Jim Houghtaling Editors Kim Morse Sherry Roulston Editorial Offices Manuscript and photographic submissions for PEEKS should be mailed to Sherry Roulston at 24 Layman Lane, Plattsburgh, NY, 12901 or emailed to PEEKS@adk46er.org. Correspondent Program Kristen Peek, adk46ertrailswm@gmail.com Orders and Payments Jim Houghtaling, Membership Coordinator, PO Box 4383, Queensbury, NY, 12804 treasurer@adk46er.org Outdoor Skills Workshop osw@adk46er.org Trailhead Steward Program Joe Ryan, trailheadstewards@gmail.com Volunteer Trailwork adk46r@yahoo.com For additional information on club activities and to register to become a 46er visit the club’s website, adk46er.org, or send an email to officeofthehistorian46@gmail.com. Adirondack PEEKS is published twice a year by the Adirondack Forty-Sixers, Inc., a nonprofit organization. PEEKS is free to members in good standing. To receive a copy, register to become an Aspiring/Contributing member of the 46ers by creating a website account at adk46er.org. Adirondack PEEKS is printed by Walsworth PRESIDENT’S REPORT Cover Photo credit: Sebastien Provost, #14679, Mount Marshall
Photo credit: Jonathan Zaharek, #11171W, spur trail to a campsite on the east shore of Lake Colden SUMMER 2025 | 3
EDITORS’ RAMBLE Sherry Roulston, #12512 This spring, I found myself eyeing the sky and waiting for the snowbirds to return home. I spotted Winnebagos, Airstreams, and Jaycos traveling up the Northway, but no birds! Finally, on the first of June I saw a flock of Canadian Geese high above me flying in formation over Lake Champlain. I might have missed them if not for the cacophony of wild honking, cheering themselves on! They resembled a crack in the sky, like a vein or artery— each bird flapping its wings to provide momentum for the next; the leader dropping to the back of the line when it became weary, letting another bird take over. I pondered the energy they were exuding, the cold-thin air above, and the miles they’d traveled. I couldn’t help but reflect on the times when the collective strength of my friends got us all to the summit; my own exhaustion breaking trail in the snow and later falling to the back of the line, literally lifting each other up along the way. We knew it paid to share the lead and take turns doing the hard job. Much like the geese honking from behind, our volunteers continue to do the hard work of keeping the organization alive—building bridges, clearing trails, paying bills, educating, planning events, cleaning highways— bearing the brunt of the wind with precise navigation, guiding us even in turbulent times in the direction we want to go. We celebrate our Service Award Recipients on page 55. Thank you all for your volunteer service. We couldn’t do it without YOU! We are so excited to share this issue of PEEKS with you. In the Boulder Report, Dave Pawlick shines a light on our newest members of the flock who’ve already demonstrated their team spirit and enthusiasm at our annual Spring Dinner in May. This group knows how to honk and have a good time! We are happy that you are here! In Talking Points, we bombard Tony Goodwin, #211, with questions. If you’ve ever wondered who to thank for the trails, guidebooks, and maps that have gotten you safely to the 46 high peaks, this man deserves a huge HONK! Forty-sixers are there for each other in many ways. Like the geese, if one member becomes ill, two others will accompany them to the ground to help and protect them. We, too, support those who are struggling and honor those who now climb the celestial mountains. In From the Vault, enjoy a chapter from the late icon Jim Goodwin’s memoir, And Gladly Guide: Reflections on a Life in the Mountains. Each rung in every ladder we climb in the high peaks is a reminder of those who came before us and who continue to lift us to greater heights than we thought possible. In Club News, we share numerous ways to join in the 100-anniversary celebration of our first three 46ers, Herbert Clark, #1; George Marshall, #2; and Robert Marshall, #3; who finished their 46 in 1925. Visit the 46er website to register for activities happening in honor of these three hikers. One hundred years! It’s a testament to how cooperation and teamwork can lead to greater endurance, resilience, and overall success. Being a 46er means sharing a common interest and a shared goal. Next time you see geese in the V formation high above, think about our organization and its profound sense of community and collective strength. The high peaks are home for the heart and spirit, a home that provides memories that are not just experienced but earned. Ramble on! In a very real sense, 46ers root for one another! —Eric Galarneau, #16126 4 | ADIRONDACK PEEKS
TALKING POINTS A Conversation with Tony Goodwin, #211 Sherry Roulston, #12512 I f you’re like me, for years I had heard about Tony Goodwin, #211, but I had never met him. I was aware that his father, Jim Goodwin, #24, was one of the first editors of PEEKS magazine and he had helped edit many of the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) guidebooks. After passing a sign on Porter Mountain, I learned that Jim had cut the trail to Little Porter in 1924 at the age of fourteen. As for Tony, I knew he wrote the ADK guidebook that I was using to climb my 46, and he edited the ADK map I was using as well. I knew he was the town historian for Keene, wrote numerous articles in magazines sharing his knowledge of day hikes and ski trails and always advocated for trail access. He also wrote the entertaining “Accident Report” in the Adirondac magazine—a report that I, among others, feared being listed on. “Do that and you’ll end up on Tony’s Report!” was a common message shared among friends. What I didn’t know about Jim and Tony was that between father and son they helped on all the ADK guidebooks from the sixth edition to the current fifteenth edition, covering almost 70 years of guidance through the Adirondack High Peaks region with Tony taking the lead from the eleventh edition on. Both father and son graduated from Williams College, Jim with a BA in English and Tony in History. Jim received an MA in English at Harvard University and Tony an MA in History at Plattsburgh State College. Together the men led the Adirondack Trail Improvement Society (ATIS) over 45 years with Jim serving as President for two terms (1975–1980 and 1982–1987) and Tony serving as director for 35 years beginning in 1986. Jim also took on the newly formed role of trailmaster for the 46ers in the spring of 1978 while Tony was the leader of ADK’s first professional trail crew in 1979. Together, the pair have been maintaining trails throughout the high peaks over two lifetimes. There was so much more I wanted to know. So, on March 21, just days after Tony returned from a three-week jaunt overseas, Kim and I met up with him, seeking to unravel the details of his journey to the high peaks—and most importantly his lessons learned over the years. And gladly would he learn and gladly teach. —Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales Photo by Nancie Battaglia of Tony with a wheel, used to illustrate an article on the publication of Tony’s first edition of the High Peaks guide. Together, the pair have been maintaining trails throughout the high peaks over two lifetimes. SUMMER 2025 | 5
Sherry Roulston (SR): Hi, Tony! Tell us about your time in Norway. Tony Goodwin (TG): We started in Trondheim, which is on the coast about 100 miles north of Oslo, and that’s where the World Nordic Championships were being held. My daughter, Liza, and her sister-in-law, who lives in Trondheim met us there. After the games, we took the bus to Lillehammer and then a bus out to the east to a resort where we stayed last year, which is in the town of Sjusjøen and is surrounded by about 300 kilometers of groomed cross country ski trails. After Sjusjoen, we traveled back to Oslo, got on a plane and flew an hour and 40 minutes north to where our daughter lives above the Arctic circle. SR: What brought your daughter to Norway? TG: Liza skipped a grade in elementary school, so we suggested she take a gap year after high school. A teammate on my son, Morgan’s cross country ski team at Williams College, recommended that she go to a ski academy that he was familiar with in Norway. She was looking to improve her cross-country skiing so that’s what she did; She spent that winter sponsored by American Field Service with a host family. She spent a second winter in the same town. Then after her freshman year at Montana State University, she got on a plane and flew right back to Norway and got herself into the university there. And today she and her husband Sven are the parents of two children, 5 and 3 years old. SR: Your family is made of avid hikers and skiers. TG: Yes, and bikers too! Rob is an avid gravel biker. They’ve got lots of gravel roads in Vermont. He’s also the proud father of a five-week-old! Morgan is a road biker as well as a top cross-country skier. He deferred college for two years while trying to make the US National Team in Nordic Combined, which includes ski jumping and cross-country. He’s currently the senior director of the Los Angeles chapter of the Sierra Club. SR: Your wife, Bunny, #2397, and your three children, Morgan, #3922; Rob, who never registered; and Liza, #5055, all climbed the 46 high peaks. Did you hike as a family? TG: Hiking was just something we did growing up. Our family and others we associated with were always hiking. When I was directing ATIS, my children did a lot of their peaks with ATIS groups and not necessarily with me. Hiking with these groups was fun. Liza ended up needing Cliff and Santanoni at the end, so dear old Dad went out and climbed Cliff for her forty-fifth, and we finished on Santanoni together. At that time the summit sign on Santanoni was spelled wrong: it had two “n’s”; we have a picture of Liza pointing at the sign with the classic, twelve-year-old’s expression, can’t grown-ups ever do anything right. By the time Bunny became a 46er we were married with two kids. There was a surprise write-up about her final hike in the personal column of our local newspaper. Connie Miller wrote, “Last weekend Bunny Goodwin and three other women struck a blow for women’s liberation when they left the fathers behind with the children and climbed Mount Esther—the only peak named for a woman—so that Bunny Goodwin could finish her 46!” I carried the then one-year-old up Marble Mountain. My father was with us, and with a little boosting we managed to get my other son up. We didn’t make it to the summit of Esther, but we had a party part way down. SR: When did you meet Bunny? TG: We met on the summit of Colden. I knew her younger sister, but I hadn’t met Bunny yet. I was thirty-one years old and leading a group of ATIS hikers on a two-week residential program. I had been dealing with young teenagers for the past ten days when here comes this lone woman on top of Colden. I went over to talk to her; she says Tony’s father at the sign, recognizing that he had constructed the trail to Little Porter in 1924 at the age of 14. 6 | ADIRONDACK PEEKS
she’s from Burlington. “That’s a long drive for a day trip,” I tell her. She says that she’s staying at her family’s cottage in St. Huberts. Right away I knew who she was. During the pandemic, in September, we climbed Colden together for the first time since that first meeting. There happened to be a ranger on top who took our picture. SR: Two branches of Bunny’s family tree were founders of the Ausable Club: William Augustus White and William Alderson. It appears that trail building is a family legacy on both sides of your family. In 1897, Bunny’s great, great grandfather, William A. White, along with S. Burns and Felix Aler, formed ATIS, the first trail maintenance group in the state to ensure regular maintenance and consistent marking of the trails in the St. Huberts and Ausable Lakes area. Your great grandfather, Dr. Charles Alton, owned Undercliff, an Adirondack camp in Lake Placid. In your father’s memoir, And Gladly Guide: Reflections on a Life in the Mountains, he states, He [Charles] had built a summer home, on the northwest shore of the lake, called Undercliff. As time went on, he built more cottages, a dining room, tennis courts, and a casino, for what developed into a summer colony of paying guests. Charles also led a volunteer trail building and maintenance program for the Shore Owners’ Association of Lake Placid (SOA). Your presentation titled “From Axe Blazes to Highlines” at the Lake Placid-North Elba Historical Society Winter Speaker Series this January discussed how many of the original trails in the Adirondacks were built by owners of resorts catering to their guests. Was your great grandfather building trails for these reasons? TG: He built enough trails that he was serving not only his guests but the general population of Lake Placid as well. One of his efforts was to cut a trail to Eagle Eyrie, which is a little knob at the north end of Lake Placid. He developed Undercliff as a source of income that would allow him to remain in Lake Placid for about six months of the year so that he wouldn’t have a relapse of his tuberculosis, which is what brought him to the area in the first place. Tony with Bunny on the summit of Colden in 2020. They had met there in 1981, but had never been on the summit together since then. He built enough trails that he was serving not only his guests but the general population of Lake Placid as well. SUMMER 2025 | 7
SR: Are there any trails named after him? I know the Rooster Comb trail is dedicated to your father, and the W. A. White trail is dedicated to Bunny’s great, great grandfather. TG: The only trail that was named after Charles Alton was called the Alton Bypass, which was basically a trail that bypassed Undercliff. There might even be a sign now that says Alton Bypass, but it’s at a junction that probably half a dozen people a year visit. SR: I read in Heaven Up-h’isted-ness, that as a young man, your grandfather, Howard Goodwin, lodged at the Alton Camp and climbed Marcy with Joe Twichell, his Yale roommate. Joe was the son of the Reverend Joseph Twichell who was one of the first summer residents in Keene and the person noted for alerting his Yale roommate, Noah Porter, to the area. Noah was recorded as the first person to climb Porter Mountain, hence the name of the mountain. Noah later became the president of Yale University. I wonder if it was during this stay that Howard met Charlotte Alton, your grandmother, for the first time? TG: I don’t know whether that was the beginning or not of their relationship. SR: In your father’s memoirs, he notes that his mother, Charlotte, and two of her friends took him up Giant, his first high peak at the age of nine years old. He also notes that Howard and Charlotte climbed a number of high peaks. Although there was no list of high peaks at this time, do you know how many they might have climbed? TG: I would say that the total number they climbed would probably be ten at the most, and they may have climbed those several times. I know they climbed Marcy. They might have climbed Algonquin because there would have been a trail up Algonquin in 1909, thanks to Henry Van Hoevenberg. The book also explains that they traversed the Great Range which officially consisted of Gothics, Saddleback, Basin, Haystack—there being no trails over Armstrong and the Wolf Jaws. It was considered a major challenge with ladders on the St. Huberts side of Gothics, its smooth rock on the Gothics west ridge (then minus any cables), and the fixed rope on Basin up a rock chute, now by-passed. SR: Your father also wrote about your mother, Jane Goodwin. Your parents were only married for a short time when Jim signed up for the Ski Troops just ahead of being drafted into the military in 1942. He was sent to Camp Hale, a training Tony with Bunny on Haystack in 2019. 8 | ADIRONDACK PEEKS
facility in central Colorado constructed that same year for what became the Tenth Mountain Division. While at Camp Hale, Jim was recruited by the Mountain Training Center to train troops in West Virginia in need of rock climbing and setting up fixed ropes at night, so troops could assault high strongholds in North Africa and Italy. Jim writes: I returned from work one afternoon, half way through our training session, to be told by Art Argiewics that my wife had just arrived in our camping area! We had been told that we were on a secret training mission. We were not even supposed to write home to say where we were or what we were doing. Jane had returned from Camp Hale to West Hartford by train and I had told her where I was, though I also told her that this was a hushhush situation. What did she do but get into our station wagon, scrape up enough gasoline ration stamps and drive to Natural Bridge! Military Police stopped her. She explained that she was looking for her husband. They let her through the lines. At the Natural Bridge Hotel, she asked for directions to our camp and ran into two Thirty-Fourth Division officers from Hartford whom she had skied with at Pinkham Notch . . . They found her a boarding house to stay in and directed her to our tent site—to which she drove our station wagon in among all those military vehicles. This time I really deserved to get court-martialed! SR: Amazing! And this was after showing up as a surprise at Camp Hale in Colorado as well. What a woman! TG: Indeed. Her father was an MIT graduate who knew about mechanics, this was the early days of automobiles, so he taught her to work on an old Model T, an early Chevrolet. She was the mechanic in our family. SR: I understand your mother was a skilled watercolorist as well and her paintings can be found around the Adirondacks. Was she a 46er? TG: Unlike my father, she was not a great hiker. She always said that her knees were not fit for long descents. But, of course, because she was Jimmy Goodwin’s wife, everyone would say, “you must be a 46er,” and after a while she began to say, “Yes, I was a 46er for one whole year and then I turned 47!” SR: Your father shares so much of his love of the mountains and writes so honestly in his memoir. He describes hearing the news that the Americans had dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The war was over, just a final trip to Fort Devens to be released from the Army. He writes of the morning before departing for the fort: But that morning I was driven to perform a Holy mission. The good Lord, perhaps helped by Old Mountain Phelps, had brought me back unharmed to the Adirondacks. I left our cottage at dawn on the run. An hour and forty minutes later I was on the summit of Marcy, ten miles away and 4,000 feet higher. God’s Grace had allowed me to return in sound physical shape to the place I loved best. SR: I’ve read that your dad climbed Marcy 195 times, and he stopped counting after his fifteenth round of 46. Have you kept documentation of the mountains that you’ve hiked? TG: No, I just know that I have six rounds of the 46 and if I were to climb Seymour, I’d have seven. And if I climb Seymour again, I’d have eight. Tony’s father at ATIS’s 100-year recognition of him in 2010. It was billed as a “wine and cheese” affair, so Tony added some Kraft Velveeta cheese as he was famous for subjecting all those on his camping trip to this somewhat questionable food. Phil Corell is also pictured. Tony in a pack basket—how we were carried before there were true child carriers. “God’s Grace had allowed me to return in sound physical shape to the place I loved best.” SUMMER 2025 | 9
SR: Sounds like Seymour is one that you bypass, why is that? TG: Well, my father was always leading trips up the Sewards and they were never my favorite. I finished my second round when I was 22, my third at 33, fourth at 44, fifth at 55, and my sixth at 66. I’m just going to make sure that I finish once every eleven years. I’m sure I’ll finish my seventh round, however, I’m not sure about my eighth. SR: Anytime you want to hike Seymour, I’ll go! You became 46er #211 at the age of 11 on Rocky Peak Ridge in 1961. Your younger brother Peter became 46er #240 on Santanoni in 1962. Was your father guiding you up the peaks? TG: My father was not pushing us to climb. Again, climbing the mountains was what you did; Peter and I had friends who hiked, so we hiked with them. During that time, my father was the guide for the Healy family and was helping Sandy Healy, #158, become what was then the youngest 46er at age 9. Sandy and I were the same age. I just didn’t have that great of interest in it at that time. However, when I was 10, my father was leading a group up Cliff and Redfield and he told me I should come along. So I did, and on that hike a girl finished her 46 and it motivated me—I finished a year later. SR: How did you celebrate your 46? TG: It wasn’t a big deal—how much champagne can an 11-year-old drink? We did have a party on our porch, and my uncle, who was a long-time legislative correspondent in Albany, gave me a letter signed by the governor congratulating me on my finish; I don’t think Nelson Rockefeller had any idea that his signature was stamped on this letter. It looks impressive though! SR: Who did you finish with? TG: Win Rockwell, #212. My parents suggested that I be generous and finish 15 minutes after Win because if we finished at the same time, the numbers would be assigned alphabetically. Win thought that was a ridiculous idea and, indeed, now the difference between 211 and 212 doesn’t make much difference. SR: Not at all! Which trail did you take? TG: There was still just a herd path over from Giant to Rocky Peak and a cairn on top. It was cloudy and not a beautiful sunny day, but 46 years later, our anniversary climb was a beautiful day. We climbed it from New Russia with a bunch of friends. Mickey Healy, #164, who started Simply Gourmet Deli in Lake Placid with the 46er sandwiches, brought three Rocky Peak Ridge sandwiches for Win, Mickey, and me to eat. SR: Oh, yes, the Rocky Peak—maple honey ham sandwich! TG: For a while, in their original location, there was a picture on the wall of the three of us eating our sandwiches on Rocky Peak Ridge. SR: At the age of 12 you were already helping your father maintain the Hedgehog trail in the summer, a trail he had originally blazed in 1953. TG: And he apologized for it, to his dying day. SR: Why is that? TG: Because it goes up over this totally viewless mountain and down again. It became a trail that no one wanted to maintain so I finally decided that ATIS would do it. SR: At 16, you helped Jim cut the trail from Lower Ausable Lake to Gothics via Pyramid Peak, with a side trail to Sawteeth; you’ve been quoted as saying that it was his best trail yet. Why is that? TG: It added more to the hiking experience by adding an alternate route to Sawteeth. You didn’t have to go up and down the scenic trail or use the scenic trail at all. Also, it tied in Pyramid with its fantastic view. There was pushback from Trudy Healy about this trail because she said her favorite bushwhack was from Gothics over to Pyramid, where she could enjoy the view and know that no one would disturb her. One day when we came down from working on the trail, my older cousin, who was political minded like his father, the legislative correspondent, and my younger brother were picketing on the bridge with signs like, “Unfair to Random Scooters” and “Save Our Bushwhacks.” I have pictures of them marching on the bridge below the Lower Ausable Lake dam. In 2020, ATIS rebuilt this bridge because the two masonry piers had reached the end of their life expectancy. We assumed that the bridge had been there for about 80 years; however, the stonemason who took down the piers said they were 40 years old. I went back to those pictures of the protest and sure enough, as of 1966 it was wooden crib piers that held up that bridge. After a little research, I discovered that the bridge was originally dedicated to Henry Goddard Leach, who served as ATIS president from 1927 to 1937. When he died, his bequest to ATIS paid for the rebuild of the bridge and caused it to be named the “Leach” Bridge. When ATIS replaced it—at no small expense—we changed the name to the “ATIS” Bridge, but only after I had ascertained that none of Henry’s relatives would be offended at the change. 10 | ADIRONDACK PEEKS
SR: After working for two weeks on the Gothics via Pyramid trail you spent the remainder of the summer as a member of the Johns Brook Lodge (JBL) hut crew. In one account you wrote, I saw the whole range of hikers — both those who stayed at the lodge and those who passed by. As is the case today, there were those who were supremely wellprepared and those who had no idea what it meant to hike a mountain trail. Most telling were the hikers who arrived at JBL and asked, “Where’s the top?” TG: I was a hut boy during the summer of 1966 and 1967 and the Hut Master in 1968. Now it’s generically referred to as the hut crew, but we were the hut boys back then. This year is the centennial of the first year that JBL was in operation. I’ve contacted some of the older hut crew members that I know from the years before I was there. The dad of a family that came regularly during the three years that I was there was a hut boy in the 1940s. His daughter and her husband are excited to come back and participate in the celebration. So indirectly we’ll span from the 1940s to the current day. SR: In 1974 you were hired as one of the three ridge runners for the new ADK Ridge Runner Program that was designed to educate the sizable increase of hikers that were flooding into the high peaks. In Adirondack Archangels you write, Modeled after a hiker education program of the same name in the White Mountains, ADK’s effort put three ridge runners out for 10 days at a time to patrol, observe and educate users. This was at a time when no forest rangers regularly patrolled the trails and campsites, and the interior caretakers tended to stay in their “ranger” cabins and then clean up after the campers had left. . . . At the time there was no limit on the size of camping groups, nor were there any restrictions on where one could camp. I and the other ridge runners therefore could only appeal to the better judgment of leaders of camping groups of 40 or those preparing to pitch a tent on the tundra. While the trash can and stone shelter on Marcy were gone by then, there was still trash stuffed into seemingly every little crevice, so a general clean up was in order on each ascent. (p. 140) Your writings indicate that the following year the DEC created the “wilderness ranger” position. These were full forest rangers who had no set ranger district and were expected to hike where there were crowds and educate. Pete Fish was one of the first, and of course the most famous. In 1978 the state funded seasonal “Park Rangers,” now called “Assistant Forest Rangers.” Unlike the ridge runners, they were uniformed with radios and the authority to issue warnings, including those for the newly enacted regulations: no camping above 4,000 feet, and a nine-person camping limit. (After 1978, the ridge runner program was phased out in favor of more attention to trail maintenance — a division of labor that continues to this day.) Soon after serving as a ridge runner, at the age of 29, you became chief of ADK’s first professional trail crew. How long did you hold this position? Were you attempting to bring the White Mountains’ trail maintenance standard to the Adirondacks? TG: Yes. Definitely. I was the first trail crew chief at ADK for one year. During my first week on the job, we had a member of the AMC trail crew educate us on the AMC standards. He may have been a bit behind the times because he never focused much on rock work. We had crowbars, and we did some work with stepstones, but it was more focused on bog bridges, wooden steps, and wooden water bars. It wasn’t until the mid-1980s when one of the periodic bans on doing any tree cutting in the forest preserve was in effect that ADK brought in a fellow named Tom Parker who had done extensive trail work in both the White Mountains and out west. Tom came in and introduced the heavier rock work techniques to the ADK trail crew. Meanwhile, I had taken over ATIS and the prior supervision of the trail crew had been rather lax for a few Tony’s paternal grandmother on the summit of Marcy in 1909. SUMMER 2025 | 11
years so there were several deferred maintenance jobs to do, such as signs, bridges, and ladders. Once I got those items taken care of, Tom sent a crew from the mountain club over with all their tools, and they spent the day with us on the Noonmark trail; I figured it was the most important trail for us to start on. We had quite the learning curve ahead! The ATIS trail crew continued to get better, and their image significantly improved. When ADK started using highlines (a pulley system), it was a year or so before I realized how helpful they could be. I got help from Tim Tierney, then the trail crew chief of ADK, and ordered all the equipment needed including a heavy-duty winch, slings and shackles. Today the highlines technique remains the standard at ATIS as it is at other high-end trail crews. SR: You grew up in Hartford, Connecticut, spent your summers in Keene, and at the age of 26, you transitioned full time to the Adirondacks. What spurred that decision? TG: After the army I was the ski coach at Williams College; it was a placeholder position, so it was temporary. After that I taught for two years at the White Mountain School in Littleton, New Hampshire, a private boarding school. My brother taught at a private boarding school, and my father taught at a private day school, so I thought I was supposed to be a teacher like the rest of the family. The White Mountain School wasn’t a good fit for me, but I loved the mountains, so I came back to the Adirondacks with the expectation that I would teach. I got an MA in history in 1980 and was certified to teach social studies in New York State when I was asked to be the venue manager on the Lake Placid Olympic Organizing Committee for the 1980 Winter Olympics for cross country and biathlon. After the Olympics, I was a substitute teacher and working part-time with a contractor doing carpentry. That’s when I was asked to come back and manage the cross-country skiing and biathlon events at Mount Van Hoevenberg. That sounded more fun than substitute teaching and I had some ideas of how Mount Van Hoevenberg could improve their recreational skiing. So that’s what I chose to do. I spent four years as the venue manager and left in 1985. By then we had started our family, my wife was working, and we really felt comfortable in the Adirondacks. I had edited my first edition of the ADK guidebook and wanted Tony, Win, and Mickey eating Rocky Peak Ridge Sandwiches—taken by Nancie Battaglia. Today the highlines technique remains the standard at ATIS as it is at other high-end trail crews. I thought I was supposed to be a teacher like the rest of the family. 12 | ADIRONDACK PEEKS
to keep doing that. Then I discovered a group that wanted to start a town-to-town trail that became the Jackrabbit Ski Trail. That sounded like something I could manage and earn a salary. That summer, the Adirondack Mountain Reserve held an auction to celebrate their centennial; some of the proceeds from the auction went to ATIS, which allowed them to hire their first executive director. By putting these two jobs together, I stayed in the Adirondacks. SR: In 1986 you founded Adirondack Ski Touring Council (ASTC). You were the executive director for nearly thirty years during which time you built and maintained the Jackrabbit Trail. What or who inspired you to build this trail? TG: It was a German skier who came to the 1985 World Masters Championships in Lake Placid. He wrote that Mirror Lake should be a base for ski trips. He described the kind of skiing that they have in many mountain villages in Europe where trails link multiple mountains and communities. We formed ASTC for the purpose of building a trail that would tie together the towns in the tri-lakes area: Keene, Lake Placid, Saranac Lake, and—we thought—Tupper Lake, so people didn’t have to drive miles just to get to a ski trail. We ended up expanding out to the visitor interpreter center at Paul Smith’s College, because it was more doable than Tupper Lake. SR: Originally the trail was 24 miles and today it runs 42 miles. Did you ever ski the entirety of it in one shot? TG: I never skied the whole way from Keene to the visitor center, but I have skied all the way from Saranac Lake to Keene, including the required walk through the village. SR: What’s the longest distance you’ve skied in one day? TG: Probably about 58 miles when I completed the second day of the Canadian Ski Marathon, the first year that I did it. It was supposed to be 50 miles but when I got to the last 10-mile section I was informed that they had lost access to a private section of land and now it was 18 miles. That was the last thing I needed to hear, but I persevered. I couldn’t walk for a couple days afterwards. The long drive in a poorly heated Volkswagen bus back to New Hampshire where I was teaching didn’t help. SR: It sounds like you did the Canadian Ski Marathon more than once! TG: I did it for two more years. I worked up from skiing it the first year, to skiing it with a weighted pack the second year, to skiing it and camping out the third year for the gold medal. Just like Jackrabbit would go out for consecutive days of skiing and camping. This race was created and popularized by the legendary Jackrabbit Johansson. SR: Herman Smith-Johannsen spent a lot of time in Lake Placid skiing between 1916 and 1928. The Norway native is known for building ski jumps and blazing trails in Canada. Although he might have been quite old at this time, did you ever get to meet him? TG: I just missed him when he came to the camping area to talk with participants. I didn’t realize they were going to have this huge blazing bonfire and ended up going slow on the last leg so I wouldn’t arrive sweating from every pore. It turns out I could have and just taken off my shirt and dried it near the fire. I did end up meeting him later at the finishers’ dinner. It was in this big armory, and because I had completed the gold I got to go up to the podium and shake his hand. By coincidence I was seated next to his granddaughter at dinner. She told us that he’d become hard of hearing but refused to wear a hearing aid. At this point he’s 103, dealing with the thirty of us, shaking our hands, and answering each of our questions. He looks at me and says, “Where are you from?” I figured he would appreciate that I was from Keene, New York, a place he was very familiar with. Remembering he was hard of hearing, I leaned forward, raised my voice and said, “Keene, New York,” not realizing the master of ceremonies had stuck a microphone right next to me. So basically, I shouted into the microphone causing an echoing all over the armory. He had no idea what I said. SR: Oh, no! Was he ever made aware that you named the trail after him? TG: Yes. Through ATIS members who had stayed in touch with his daughters, Alice and Peggy, I contacted Alice— Tony and his father on Pyramid on the day in 1966 that they had completed the Weld Trail to that point. SUMMER 2025 | 13
first to gain her permission to name our new ski trail the Jackrabbit Trail and second to ask her to come and preside at the dedication of the trail at the conclusion of our first year. She had no objection to the naming and wrote back very enthusiastically that her father would love it. She wrote that she was going to Norway at Christmas and he always likes to get news of what’s going on across the ocean. She ended up extending her stay there and on January 5, 1987, he died at age 111. Both of his daughters were the first ATIS trail counselors in the 1930s. They had the marvelous title of “Trail Hostesses” back then. I had the Johansson family associated with both of my jobs. SR: You became the director of ATIS in 1986 and oversaw the organization for the next 35 years. In addition to building and maintaining trails, ATIS leads hikes and camping trips, rock climbing, and canoeing trips. Over the years was your hiking schedule dictated by these two jobs? TG: It’s always changing up. When I was the guidebook editor oftentimes the need to check a trail was how I was planning my hikes. And with ATIS, I set up a schedule. I was not expected to lead trips every day, but I might be called upon to lead a junior program trip, particularly when counselors were going back to college early. At ATIS, I inherited a program called “adult slow trips,” which I thought was an insult, and it’s now just a separate “Adult Schedule.” I guided these slower hikes for a couple of years but then learned through the ATIS president that a member named Harry wanted to climb Allen. I didn’t think there was any demand for an AA-rated hike within the adult group, but I put it on the schedule and ten people signed up. The next year the adult group decided to do the Santanonis. On that trip, this guy Harry says, “This group is great! We ought to have a special name for this program.” I started thinking and came up with AA Trips at a Relaxed Pace. Now, what’s the acronym? SR: AARP! I love it! Did the AA trips become a regular offering each season? TG: Yes, I did another round of the Santanonis last summer, it turned out to be 14 1/2 hours, but we did it. SR: At a relaxed pace! So, are you still participating with ATIS when you want? TG: Yes. SR: How much hiking and outdoors activities do you do these days? TG: I try to get out and do something every day. Unless the weather’s totally gross. We do bigger hikes over the weekends because friends are usually available. Or we’ll go canoeing or skiing. I’ve been summit stewarding, and I still have occasion to go out and do trail maintenance, which gives me a reason to go up the lower lake and do something useful in the process; usually it’s the annoying little jobs like replacing a sign or something that would take a regular trail crew member out of service for the whole day. When I go out for a walk around here, I try to go where I haven’t been for a while to check things out and see if anything needs repairs. I’ve come to the point where I prefer to have a reason to go out. SR: Are these repairs for ATIS or ADK? TG: It’s a combination as I have become the chair of the Keene Valley chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club. SR: Which summits are you stewarding? TG: Last summer, I did five on Cascade and one on Hurricane. I would have liked to do more, but my hips get a little sore after all these years of hiking. I went to physical therapy, and it was determined that I do not have hip problems or need a hip replacement, just some exercises. Before I went to Norway, I had a massage; I think that was the key. So, On skis on Marcy in 1978. 14 | ADIRONDACK PEEKS
not only will I volunteer as a summit steward this summer but occasionally, I’ll probably be paying for a massage to be able to keep doing it. SR: What trail is your favorite for hiking? TG: I would say the East Trail to Rocky Peak Ridge and Giant is my favorite hiking trail. SR: Is there a trail that you’re most proud of over your career? TG: I guess it would be the Rooster Comb trail and the Adirondack Rail Trail. The Rooster Comb trail took a lot of work getting all the pieces together—landowners and DEC permission—and working with the ADK crew to pull it off. That trail has proved to be quite popular while mostly holding up to the use due to the quality of the initial construction. However, because of the number of people and businesses that the Adirondack Rail Trail has impacted, I would say that makes it my ultimate favorite. I worked for 30 years to make that trail happen. SR: The Adirondack Rail Trail is a 34-mile, multi-use trail for hiking, biking, birding, skiing, and snowmobiling that goes between Lake Placid, Ray Brook, Saranac Lake, Lake Clear, and Tupper Lake. Why did this trail take so long? TG: My involvement started when the DOT and DEC formed a Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) for the Adirondack Rail Corridor to determine the best use for the corridor. The options ranged from full restoration of rail service to full recreational use. I was a member of that committee from 1990 to 1992. A study had determined it would cost 17 million to rehabilitate the corridor for full rail service, but there were no estimates for either the cost or the benefits of recreational use. I was the only member of the 25-member committee that favored full recreational use. During this planning process, the state allowed the Adirondack Railway Preservation Society to patch up four miles of rail going south from Thendara and operate a tourist train they called The Adirondack Centennial Railroad. They thought they might get 20,000 people or so the first year. They got, like, 50,000 people. And the next year they got 60,000 people. Then the following year, the numbers started to go down and continued to go down every year after that. Funding was later awarded to extend the roundtrip excursion to Utica. Even though the numbers of riders kept going down, the rail interests became entrenched enough that we, ARTA, had an uphill battle to convince NYS to change course and not to continue expanding the rail service. When the state began to consider expanding the tracks to Tupper Lake to expand the existing Lake Placid to Saranac Lake tourist operation, I wrote to the governor’s office and said don’t spend another $20 million to do this because it won’t work. That letter may have been what prevented that extension, but the rail interests kept insisting that this train was going to help the economy and kept pushing for more rail to be restored. Eventually, the snowmobilers began to realize that there were fewer weeks they could ride because the rails were in the way. SR: So, you started working with your adversary on a common goal? The Jackrabbit’s daughter and 1937 ATIS Group with leader, Alice Johannsen, having climbed Marcy to celebrate the centennial of its first ascent. I was the only member of the 25-member committee that favored full recreational use. SUMMER 2025 | 15
TG: Yes, I started working with my adversary and in 2010 was a founding board member of the Adirondack Recreational Trail Advocates (ARTA). We connected with people who understood how to pull the right levers with local and state governments and get discussions going. Finally, DOT and DEC reviewed the unit management plan and decided on a compromise, which was to restore the rails to Tupper Lake, and remove the tracts from Tupper Lake to Lake Placid for a recreational trail. SR: If you google Adirondack Rail Trail, the history of it credits ARTA for its existence: “A 12-year-old not-for-profit, ARTA has represented over 13,000 citizens, 400 businesses, and six representative governments in the effort to get this world-class all season trail to the construction stage.” TG: Yes. Twelve years later, we changed the business name from Adirondack Recreational Trail Advocates to Adirondack Rail Trail Association, retaining the acronym ARTA. SR: Kudos on all your efforts with ARTA! Earlier, you served on the Citizen’s Advisory Committee to the High Peaks Wilderness Area. A big concern for the Forty-Sixers in the early 1990s was the fate of the trailless peaks. DEC needed to address the degradation caused by the herdpaths on the trailless peaks in HPUMP and the majority of 46ers surveyed agreed they were against marking and maintaining these trails. I read in Adirondack Archangels you proposed that if a minimum amount of clearing and some marking with cairns were done, hikers could be kept on the best route while brush could be used to close off undesirable herdpaths. You wrote an article for PEEKS that was instrumental in gaining the support of the 46ers on this solution. TG: Yes, after the article there were three letters that were written in response and all said this was a workable solution. SR: You wrote your first influential article for PEEKS magazine in 1973 titled, “The Future of the Adirondack Forty-Sixers,” which discussed whether the 46ers should disband or not, and I asked that you write a reflection on that article fifty years later in the Summer 2023 issue. Your father, along with Richard Babcock, #115, and Trudy Healy, #148, published the first edition of Adirondack PEEKS in the winter of 1963–1964. Do you remember him working on the magazine? You would have been 13 to 14 years old. TG: Yes. I remember him having phone conversations with Trudy Healy and writing pieces that she thought needed to be added to the magazine. SR: I received an email from 46er Munier Salem, #12334, inquiring how PEEKS got its name. He wondered if it was a play on words or if Melvil Dewey, the founder of the Lake Placid Club, had any influence on it. Dewey was the creator of the Dewey Decimal System and responsible for changing the spelling of the Adirondack Lodge to “Adirondak Loj.” In Heaven Up-H’isted-ness!, it says PEEKS was a clever homophonic play on words. Do you remember discussing the title with your father? TG: Yes, it was meant to be a catchy title that indicated that you were getting little peeks into the 46er organization. SR: You’ve contributed numerous articles to the Adirondack Explorer, a regular feature article for Adirondac chronicling adventures gone awry; you’ve written extensively regarding backcountry cross country skiing; and you’ve edited five Adirondack Mountain Club guides of the High Peaks Region (11th–15th editions)—the latest of which earned you the most prestigious ADK award, The Eleanor F. Brown Communication Award in 2015, which is given in recognition of outstanding achievement and service as an Tony and Bunny on Cliff in 2018, taken by Nancie Battaglia photo. (Just to show that we didn’t just hike trailed peaks with good views.) 16 | ADIRONDACK PEEKS
editor and writer whose work has increased awareness of the recreational magnificence of the Adirondack Park. This award directly emphasized your contributions to the digitized High Peaks map, which you dedicated to your father. Tell us how the digitized map came to be. TG: My father was the original editor of the High Peak map and revised it until I took over on the 11th edition. After the 14th edition, ADK decided against upgrading the map to a digital format due to budget constraints and relied on the National Geographic to accompany the guides. That’s when my brother and I decided we would memorialize my father by reviving the map and paying for it to be converted into digital format. SR: I love my ADK map! What a great way to honor your father! What were some of the challenges of editing the ADK guidebooks and map? TG: At times the biggest problem was negotiating with the DEC. We’d have debates whether a trail was still being maintained and whether it should be on the map. They might argue, “Yes, it’s still being maintained,” and I would let them know that I’d been on the trail and it truly had not been touched in years, and no one was using it. I never shut out communications with the DEC, but there were some tense moments. I stood firm about what I was putting on the map because of the facts on the ground. SR: When you are editing these materials, do you consider GPS or the measuring wheel more accurate? TG: I still think the wheel is the most accurate because it picks up every single wiggle up and down on the trail, and it never cuts out because you’ve lost the satellite. If GPS loses a satellite and then picks it up again, it doesn’t give you any warning; it just gives the distance by straight lining between the time it lost it and the time it picked it up. Joe Bogardus, #3342WV, an engineer by training, borrowed my wheel and compared it to two different GPS units that he had. As I predicted, the rougher the trail, and the more elevation, the greater was the difference between the GPS distance and the wheel distance. That’s why I still like the wheel. Tony with the ATIS counselors of 2022 at his retirement party. My father was the original editor of the High Peak map and revised it until I took over on the 11th edition. I stood firm about what I was putting on the map because of the facts on the ground. SUMMER 2025 | 17
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