LOCALadk Magazine

Winter 2018 LOCALadk Magazine 57 LOCALadk City in 1901, he came from a family of wealth and frequently vacationed in the Adirondacks as a young boy. His father, Louis Marshall, was a lawyer and conser vation- ist who played a large role in passing the "Forever Wild Act" of 1894, and founding the New York State College of Forest- r y at Syracuse University. Because of his interest in the pro- tection of the Adirondack forest lands, Louis Marshall had a large collection of books and maps written by sur veyor Ver- planck Colvin. Robert and his younger brother George poured over these texts and were inspired to explore the interior mountainous areas because of passages like, "Unnamed waterfalls pour in snowy tresses from the dark overhanging cliffs, the horse can find no footing; and the adventurous trapper or explorer must carr y upon his back his blankets and his heavy stock of fare." Under the tutelage of Herbert Clark, a local guide, and Col- vin's maps, Bob and George began to climb all of the Adiron- dack peaks over 4,000 feet. The trio began the adventure in 1918 on the summit of Whiteface Mountain. Seven years and forty-five mountains later, the journey was completed on Mount Emmons in 1925. Whether or not the Marshall Broth- ers intended to inspire others to follow in their footsteps, the idea of becoming a 46er was conceived, and roughly a centur y later well over 10,000 hikers have joined their ranks. In concurrence with the ADK 46er 100th anniversar y, I de- cided 2018 would be a meaningful year to honor Robert Mar- shall with a tribute hike. And I knew which one I wanted to go for: the traverse. I learned about Robert Marshall while I was an Environ- mental Studies major at Paul Smith's College. It was roughly around the same time that I began hiking in the High Peaks. Instantly, I felt a kinship to Marshall. He was a man of words and mountains. One of my favorite lines came from an article he wrote in 1930 for Scientific Monthly, "There is just one hope of repulsing the tyrannical ambition of civilization to conquer ever y niche on the whole earth. That hope is the or- ganization of spirited people who will fight for the freedom of the wilderness." For the traverse, I recruited Adam Meyer, a Civil and Envi- ronmental Engineering student at Clarkson University. From Clarence, New York, Adam was part of a cohort of Clarkson students living at Paul Smith's College while they participat- ed in a semester-long experience, called the Adirondack Se- mester. I'd met Adam in the Sense of Place course I taught, which introduces students to the Adirondack Park and the intricate web that weaves people into place, and vice versa. Part of the curriculum was a three day, two night backpacking trip to Marcy Dam. On the second day, the group split and I took an ambitious team of six up Tabletop, Marcy, Skylight, Gray, and the back slide of Colden. They were talented hikers and I told them about Bob Marshall and the traverse. Adam said, "I'm in." The day we set out to attempt the traverse broke cold and clear. As we drove to The Garden trailhead, a shooting star with a bright green tail streaked across Marcy Field. Adam and I took it as a strong omen of mountain magic. We hiked in briskly toward Johns Brook Lodge, where Marshall had stayed the night before his traverse. Marshall woke up at 3:30 a.m., hiked Big Slide, watched the sun rise, and then returned to the Lodge for a hearty break- fast to carr y him across the Great Range. About the traverse, Marshall wrote, "The weather was absolutely perfect, one of those cr ystal clear days such as only occurs occasionally in an entire Adirondack summer." Our weather was perfect too. A fall setting instead of a summer one, the dawn brightened to reveal blue skies and changing leaves. On the top of Big Slide, Adam and I stretched and looked at the route ahead of us. It was epic. Wright, our

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