90th Birthday Get Together 2015: Adirondack Mountain Club Blog

By now, anyone who has been following my blog knows that I enjoy writing about how much I love the Adirondacks. I am quite happy if I have been able to communicate that love to you and entertain you with sometimes quirky stories about Adirondack Swim and Trip Camp, fun things to do, mountains to climb or just hanging around White Pine Camp.

Every once in a while, I am reminded that there are others who are more eloquent at sharing their love for the Adirondacks than I. The youtube video series by Ed Kanze and his most recent book are cases in point. Neil Peart also writes with an eloquence that I can only dream of approaching, but he writes about the Laurentians (among many other things), so we will just consider him out of competition when it comes to the Adirondacks. As I mentioned in a previous post, the Laurentians have a very strong geological relationship to the Adirondacks and are located just north of the border in Canada. Recently, another writer has come to my attention who does a great job of sharing the essence of the Adirondacks in prose.

Jacqueline Keating, Photo credit adkmtnclub.blogspot

Jacqueline Keating's post on the Adirondack Mountain Club blog struck a chord with me for a number of reasons. First of all, she is too far away to just hop over for a weekend getaway. Thusly, her post is entitled "Love from a Distance." For me, it has many elements of a great post about the Adirondacks...

…a dramatic opening with a self-effacing sense of humor:

It was love at first sight. When it happened, I was too young to have ever had been in a serious relationship before, but I knew it was the real thing. When we were apart, I thought about nothing else. When we were together, there was nowhere else I wanted to be. I would anxiously count down the days until our next reunion, my heart rate accelerated and my eyes filled will (sic) happy tears whenever I caught that first glimpse after time spent apart.

…she reminds us that the Adirondack Mountains are much smaller than many others on this planet, but still they transfix us:

When I returned to work my second season with ADK, the High Peaks that were a mere third of the size of the mountains I had spent the previous months on were more spectacular than ever.

…and, she conjures up images of places that I have a very personal connection with:

My second-to-last day on the east coast before moving to Kodiak, Alaska, in the fall of 2013, I climbed Mt. Jo for my last look at Heart Lake to reflect on all the places that landscape has inspired me to explore.

Heart Lake viewed from the summit of Mt. Jo

(Here is a link to my recent post about Mt. Jo.)

She also mentions "a framed personal photo of Marcy Dam two weeks after Hurricane Irene," which is (hmm, was?) a dramatic gateway to the most popular destinations in the Adirondacks, including the crowned jewel, Mt. Marcy.

Here are our pictures from the site of Marcy Dam, before and after Hurricane Irene.

Marcy Dam, June 2011

Post Hurricane Irene, August 2013

So, thanks goes out to Jacqueline Keating out there in cyberspace, for conjuring up memories about and emotions for our beloved Adirondacks in your lovely blog post!

Jacqueline has worked for the Adirondack Mountain Club, also known simply as "ADK." When we go hiking in the Adirondacks, ADK is a constant companion in ways which are visible and some which are not. They have interpreters that spend time at many popular locations in the park, including on the summit of Mt. Jo, to educate people about the wilderness and provide help when needed. They have a very strong mission to educate about conservation and safety. They perform trail maintenance, including the erection of a replacement bridge after Marcy Dam was destroyed, and they help mitigate the human impact on the park. Last but not least, they provide a wide range of services for hikers and campers, including maintaining the parking lot adjacent to Adirondack Loj, and they offer information about trail conditions, lodging, supplies and nourishment at their facilities. The five focus areas of ADK are: