Adirondack Peeks Summer 2023

* * * SR (Sherry Roulston): Mary, tell us about your career path which led you to become an Adirondack guide. MG (Mary Glynn): I started working for ADK in 2014 while still in college. I was a seasonal member of the Loj crew, so I was making salads, changing beds, taking drink orders at dinner, and loved that experience mainly because I was living on the Heart Lake property. After finishing college, I worked for a wilderness therapy program in Vermont for four years. It was through this job that I began backpacking and some winter camping. While I was living in Vermont, I also became a volunteer trip leader for the Northville Placid Trail Chapter of ADK, guiding trips on sections of the NPT. And then in May of 2019 I came back to ADK to be the Outdoor Skills Coordinator as a New York State licensed guide and currently I’m the Education Programs Manager. SR: When did you start hiking mountains, and what or who influenced you? MG: I got started on this all on my own. I ran cross country in high school, which got me into the woods. And a funny story is I went to a running camp at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid when I was in high school. There were a couple of days while at camp that we would go hiking in the high peaks. Those were my favorite days! I just loved those hiking days so much that I probably should have gone to a different camp where we hiked every day. I just didn’t have anybody in my life that got me out in the woods as a kid. I didn't grow up hiking or camping; it's something I discovered and grew into on my own. And I like that; it's something about myself that I know to be the most true. At this running camp, they split up the sixty kids into four different groups. I was assigned to one

something and wanting to prove I could. SR: Well you have climbed the high peaks and a lot more! I’m glad the running camp motivated you to do more hiking and prove your capabilities. Anne LaBastille wrote that the day she began to rebel against the unfair standards and prejudices against women was the day her mother told her that she couldn’t go hiking in the woods! MG: I loved reading Anne LaBastille’s Woodswoman books. Her personal story of building her own cabin in the Adirondacks with the help of two local carpenters is inspiring. It had no electricity or plumbing so she bathed in the lake, chopped logs for her wood stove, and carried groceries from town in her boat or her sled if the lake was frozen over. I’ve started reading Martha Reben lately. She is near and dear to my heart. I went out to Weller Pond this fall to find her campsite and had a magical weekend there. I live in an old cure cottage in Saranac Lake too. These women didn’t get me started but they've gotten me to love the Adirondacks more. SR: I love Reben, too! Her book, The Healing Woods, is a favorite. I discovered her while I waited for a ride after hiking Seward and was sitting on a bench beside Flower Lake. I saw the bright blue historical sign in her honor: Wilderness Lady, Martha Reben! I took a picture and later bought her book! MG: I’m fascinated with Adirondack history and thinking about what the mountains looked like long ago. What was it like to summit mountains wearing a dress or a leather suit or without Gore-Tex or trails? I would love to go back in time and see the woods before the logging and fires and clear cutting. The Adirondack history is rich, and it’s protected because people saw what was happening to it. I also like to think of Herb Clark, the first 46er, and guiding the Marshall brothers. I would love to see what those trips were like and just how different they were compared to today.

I didn't grow up hiking or camping; it's something I discovered and grew into on my own. And I like that; it's something about myself that I know to be the most true.

coach’s group who told us we would be hiking some big mountains. After he overheard me telling another camper at breakfast that I hadn't really hiked before, just Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain near Plattsburgh, this coach told me I would be better off in another group. This other group was led by an older coach who liked to shuffle up to Indian Head or some of the smaller mountains, not a high peak though. And that was it—I was moved to the “slow” group. They didn't give me a chance. I still had fun and loved it, but I was really mad. I won't say this all started out to spite that first coach, but, you know, I did start hiking more with that in mind and then it just snowballed. I guess a little bit [of my motivation] has come from being told I couldn't do

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