Adirondack Peeks Summer 2023

FROM THE VAULT Tony Goodwin, #211

The Future of the Adirondack Forty-Sixers (Spring 1973) Below is a reprint of a 1973 PEEKS article by Tony Goodwin #211: The Future of the Adirondack Forty-Sixers. This article was written in response to a questionnaire that members were asked to complete to determine if the organization should disband after 1,000 members or continue in a new direction. Following this article are the results of the questionnaire, as well as selected responses to the questionnaire that were published in the same issue. A fter reading the Fall issue of Adirondack PEEKS and responding to the Questionnaire, I was prompted to write this article because I feel cant contribution to the preservation of the wilderness. There are two basic enemies of wilderness:

development and misuse. There are many groups in New York State who would like to see the Adirondack made more accessible to their own particular form of use, whether it be snowmobiles, trail bikes or mo tor homes. Whether we like it or not, these groups are organized and can only be fought by equal organiza tion. Because of its larger size the Adirondack Moun tain Club must carry most of the load in protecting the wilderness, but the 46ers have the capacity, as a group, to help lessen or perhaps stop these dan gers. Very often the issue becomes one of actual use of the woods by hikers. The ADK is accused of want ing to "lock up" the woods for their own select few. The 46ers can make a definite claim to wider use of the woods (can even exhibit herd paths as evidence) and thus neatly complement the activities of the ADK. Another threat to the wilderness is misuse by inconsiderate hikers and campers. Their number is bound to increase in the next few years at a great rate and the increase will consist mainly of neophytes who will have to be shown how to behave in the woods. The pamphlet Mountain Manners is an excel lent start at education as are some of the camporees the 46ers have organized. "Ditt" Dittmar in Fall 1972 PEEKS wrote of his hope that regulations such as are found in other areas won' t start in the Adirondacks, but the day may come when the Department of Envi ronmental Conservation will feel the necessity of re quiring fire permits in some of the high use locations. The issuing of fire permits in many areas is simply an attempt to get personal contact with campers and re mind them of responsibilities in preserving the woods ( carry in, carry out, etc.). Guidance given by the 46ers could make sure that these permits remain educa tional and not become harassment. Stringent regula tions are usually implemented as a result of extreme abuse. It would be greatly to the credit of the 46ers if through their educational efforts they could pre vent such misuse from happening in the first place.

that too little has been said about the possible good that the 46ers could do in the future. The emphasis recently seems to have been on expressing guilt feel ings over unleashing a monster (peak bagging) that now cannot be controlled and somehow thinking that all can be made right again if we simply cut our activi ties off at the conveniently round number of 1000. The issue of wilderness use, as all issues unfortunately are, is much too complex to yield to simple solutions. As Steve Allen pointed out at the JBL meet ing in September, the camp groups will probably just create their own club" and continue to lead large groups over the peaks, using the exalted goal of mem bership in the club to give direction to the summer's hiking program. One should not single out the camp groups, however, because the convenient numbers of "46" and "4000” ft.) would doubtless attract climb ers anyway (as the Marshalls were once attracted) and now that these peaks have been described and pop ularized, it is a game that will be hard to stop. If the 46ers were to disband tomorrow, before even reaching 1000, it would still be many years before the expres sion "Forty- Sixer" lost its magic and stopped being an inducement to climb certain peaks. It would be many more years before those rainy Adirondack afternoon explorations of cottage bookshelves would not turn up copies of The Adirondack Forty-Sixers and encour age yet another generation to take a random scoot up Redfield or Santanoni. The intent of the publication of The Adirondack Forty-Sixers was to encourage others to join our particular form of madness and now it seems that we want to call a halt just as we are beginning to attract the sort of people that we hoped to reach. The seemingly large figure of 1000 is only slight ly larger than that of the Town of Keene ( not exactly an example of overpopulation), and at our present rate of growth we will not reach 2000 members for ten or twelve years. I feel that the 46ers in that time can make signifi

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