Adirondack Peeks Summer 2023

Our Personal Trail Angel Joe Cascio, #13893 O ver two years and many long drives from Cen tral New Jersey to the Adirondack mountains on little sleep, Paul Danner, #13980, and I searched for our “Fountain of Youth.” When COVID-19 hit, we laid out a plan to complete the high peaks by November 21, 2021, Paul’s forty-seventh birthday. For all the bad COVID brought, it allowed us these trips that might otherwise have been compromised by work and life commitments. Throughout all the experiences we had—the remarkable views, the overnights spent camping, the floating logs, the Couch bog—nothing compared to the day we completed our 46er quest. With Esther and Whiteface left, we decided to include our families on the trip so we could complete our forty-sixth peak on Wednesday and celebrate Thanks giving and our 46er finish all together in Lake Placid. Many variables had to play out just right for this to hap pen, and of course the weather was a big one. Wednes day, November 24, was a bluebird day: crisp and cold with little wind. The drive out to the trailhead at Marble Mountain Road was perfect. As the sun perked up, we parked—the only car in the lot—and were off! After smooth sailing up Esther we headed toward Whiteface to become 46ers, carrying the small flags our wives made for us to celebrate with on top. Even though there were only a few inches of snow on the trail, we were happy to see a clear path to Whiteface. About a half mile from the Whiteface summit, we noticed a lone hiker coming down the trail and, as always, we welcomed the chance for a short break and chatted him up. He was an older gentleman, maybe 65 or so. He informed us that his pants were held together in places with duct tape from butt-sliding down mountains in the snow—one of his favorite things to do. I told him Whiteface was our forty-sixth peak! He asked if we had the 46er patches

celebrating their finish.

We scooted up to the summit with renewed pep in our step, very grateful for having run into this man and having the patches to celebrate with. On top we met an extremely fit woman who had hiked up the mountain and was now planning to ski down. We told her of our chance encounter and the patch story and without hesitation she said, “he’s the legendary Gary Koch, ADK grid finisher, trail volunteer, 46er extraordi naire!” We snapped our summit pictures and headed back down the trail to spend some time at Lookout.

As fate would have it, there was Gary with a huge smile on his face, almost as if he was validat ing our quest. Paul and I hiked back with Gary. It was the easi est trek back ever, having this legend by our side and hearing his

yet, perhaps testing to see if we knew the 46er rules. To our surprise, he dug into his pack and presented us with two 46er patches and said, “pay it forward.” He told us in the future to keep an extra patch in our packs so that maybe someday we could do the same thing for another 46er

stories and an swers to our endless ques tions. When we got back to our families and tried to explain the day, words could do it no justice. I cannot think of a better 46er storybook finish. Paul and I sent Gary a personal letter of thanks. I truly believe Gary Koch, #1137W, is our personal “Trail Angel!” * * *

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