Adirondack Peeks Summer 2025

to keep doing that. Then I discovered a group that wanted to start a town-to-town trail that became the Jackrabbit Ski Trail. That sounded like something I could manage and earn a salary. That summer, the Adirondack Mountain Reserve held an auction to celebrate their centennial; some of the proceeds from the auction went to ATIS, which allowed them to hire their first executive director. By putting these two jobs together, I stayed in the Adirondacks. SR: In 1986 you founded Adirondack Ski Touring Council (ASTC). You were the executive director for nearly thirty years during which time you built and maintained the Jackrabbit Trail. What or who inspired you to build this trail? TG: It was a German skier who came to the 1985 World Masters Championships in Lake Placid. He wrote that Mirror Lake should be a base for ski trips. He described the kind of skiing that they have in many mountain villages in Europe where trails link multiple mountains and communities. We formed ASTC for the purpose of building a trail that would tie together the towns in the tri-lakes area: Keene, Lake Placid, Saranac Lake, and—we thought—Tupper Lake, so people didn’t have to drive miles just to get to a ski trail. We ended up expanding out to the visitor interpreter center at Paul Smith’s College, because it was more doable than Tupper Lake. SR: Originally the trail was 24 miles and today it runs 42 miles. Did you ever ski the entirety of it in one shot? TG: I never skied the whole way from Keene to the visitor center, but I have skied all the way from Saranac Lake to Keene, including the required walk through the village. TG: Probably about 58 miles when I completed the second day of the Canadian Ski Marathon, the first year that I did it. It was supposed to be 50 miles but when I got to the last 10-mile section I was informed that they had lost access to a private section of land and now it was 18 miles. That was the last thing I needed to hear, but I persevered. I couldn’t walk for a couple days afterwards. The long drive in a poorly heated Volkswagen bus back to New Hampshire where I was teaching didn’t help. SR: It sounds like you did the Canadian Ski Marathon more than once! TG: I did it for two more years. I worked up from skiing it the first year, to skiing it with a weighted pack the second year, to skiing it and camping out the third year for the gold medal. Just like Jackrabbit would go out for consecutive days of skiing and camping. This race was created and popularized SR: What’s the longest distance you’ve skied in one day?

Tony and his father on Pyramid on the day in 1966 that they had completed the Weld Trail to that point.

by the legendary Jackrabbit Johansson.

SR: Herman Smith-Johannsen spent a lot of time in Lake Placid skiing between 1916 and 1928. The Norway native is known for building ski jumps and blazing trails in Canada. Although he might have been quite old at this time, did you ever get to meet him? TG: I just missed him when he came to the camping area to talk with participants. I didn’t realize they were going to have this huge blazing bonfire and ended up going slow on the last leg so I wouldn’t arrive sweating from every pore. It turns out I could have and just taken off my shirt and dried it near the fire. I did end up meeting him later at the finishers’ dinner. It was in this big armory, and because I had completed the gold I got to go up to the podium and shake his hand. By coincidence I was seated next to his granddaughter at dinner. She told us that he’d become hard of hearing but refused to wear a hearing aid. At this point he’s 103, dealing with the thirty of us, shaking our hands, and answering each of our questions. He looks at me and says, “Where are you from?” I figured he would appreciate that I was from Keene, New York, a place he was very familiar with. Remembering he was hard of hearing, I leaned forward, raised my voice and said, “Keene, New York,” not realizing the master of ceremonies had stuck a microphone right next to me. So basically, I shouted into the microphone causing an echoing all over the armory. He had no idea what I said. SR: Oh, no! Was he ever made aware that you named the trail after him? TG: Yes. Through ATIS members who had stayed in touch with his daughters, Alice and Peggy, I contacted Alice—

SUMMER 2025 | 13