LOCALadk Magazine

30 Winter 2017 LOCALadk Magazine LOCALadk High Peaks from Broughton Ledges, Hammond Pond Wild Forest Visiting named features is the best way to fall in love with a piece land. We tend to fall in love with people we know best, and the same can be said for certain regions within the Adirondack Mountains. Within both such relationships, qui- et alone time with the object of one's love proves most pro- ductive and cherished. For example, while throngs of hikers were having flings with Treadway Mountain in Pharaoh Lake Wilderness Area, I was spending days climbing disregarded peaks such as Goose Pond Hill, Thunderbolt Mountain, and Ellis Mountain. As groups ran up and down Sleeping Beauty in Lake George Wild Forest, I spent my time slowly plodding across untrammeled Morton Mountain, Eddy Mountain, and Catamount Mountain. Campers huddled near each other in- side the lean-to at Murphy Lake in Wilcox Lake Wild Forest as I crossed Cr ystal Brook, Kibby Creek, and Twin Brooks – fea- tures they had probably never heard of. Hikers sunned them- selves in droves near popular Bass Lake in Hammond Pond Wild Forest while I tiptoed around the shores of Triangle Pond, Eagle Lake, and Schofield Pond, and it was impossible to guess the last time a human had stood where I then was. I got to know the lovely, inviting personalities of these four pieces of land well – like when the sun set at remote But- termilk Pond and the sun rose beyond trail-less Bald Peak. I experienced their mean, selfish sides begrudgingly – like how Sharps Ridge enjoys being choked with blowdown and thickets, as if in willful attempt to stop bushwhackers. There was no joy in meeting the loose boulder fields that surround Ash Craft Pond, which like to grab boots and twist ankles, especially when it's raining. Mother Nature, like so many oth- er lovers, can be kind one moment and cruel the next. But as in relationships built with humans, relationships with wild land are all about the duration – the long haul – and not the fleeting moments of love or frustration we tend to remem- ber best. Fleeting moments are what hikers experience when they visit the features ever yone else is visiting, especially during meager day hikes. They'll usually enjoy good weath- er, and maybe encounter no biting bugs if they're lucky, and they'll chalk it up as a good day. Or perhaps they'll endure some rain, and maybe be harassed by lots of biting bugs if they aren't lucky, and they'll deem it a bad day. I, conversely, was incapable of noting specific good days or bad days since I was chasing a collection of landmarks that runs 431 features deep and took years to tackle. Week after week, backpacking trip after backpacking trip, and season after season, each named feature was checked off each of my lists, until there were no more left to check. No worries though. Another list was composed and off I went into the wilderness.

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