Adirondack Peeks Summer 2025

stream was the hardest bushwhacking I’ve done to date (43 mountains). It seemed like an eternity. After about 3-1/2 hours of slow going, I noticed the stream was heading south instead of east as I would have expected; [I thought] we may have already turned onto Santanoni brook and missed Bradley pond altogether. It was getting late and it looked as if we might have to spend an unexpected night in the woods. Thinking that we were already on Santanoni brook, I checked both sides of the stream in hopes of finding the blue trail. Next, I took a bearing on a peak I saw in the distance figuring that it may be Henderson mountain. If that were the case the bearing put us just below Bradley pond. We then decided to continue a ways downstream in hopes of hitting the marsh indicated on the topo map.

Kate Kreuter DNP, CRNA, #15886 A Father’s Influence: The Road to 46 A short while later we came to the junction with another stream. The ground had leveled off and the woods were not cluttered with blowdown. Crossing to the left side (facing downstream) of the brook which joined with the stream we were following, I found a very indistinct trail. Following this trail I discovered the blue trail which goes to Bradley pond. We were very happy to find this trail to say the least! It was then just a matter of following this trail back to where we had turned off for Santanoni and then back to the parking lot. Because of the extreme difficulty in following the stream down Panther it is not suggested to get down in this manner. As I think back it would have been easier to go back down the way we had come up. The blowdown was the worst I had ever seen, including [in] the Sewards.

”As long as I live, I’ll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I’ll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche. I’ll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens and get as near the heart of the world as I can.” —John Muir

I t wasn’t until my late twenties that I decided I wanted to be a 46er, and although my dad had definitely slowed down, he helped me plan and organize trip after trip to achieve my goal. Hiking changed both me and my relationship with my dad. My dad, Verner C. Kreuter, IV #6571W, started hiking the high peaks with my brother’s Boy Scout troop when I was a child. It soon became an obsession, and he finished his first set of the 46 when I was in my teens. At the time I wanted nothing to do with him or with hiking. Then during the summer before I headed off to college my dad suggested we hike Mount Marcy before I leave. I

was skeptical but agreed to go. It was a hard hike; dad had to leave me to rest on the trail while he hiked tabletop, a choice I would later regret on my 46er journey. Over the years as my dad hiked and hiked, I became aware of the influence it had on him. I was an innate introvert, and I soon discovered that hiking and being outdoors revived my soul, provided the tranquility I didn’t know I needed, and made me feel alive. It took another eight years before I decided to hike my second and third high peak, again with my dad. Two weeks prior to finishing my 46th high peak, dad turned 72 years old. On the top of Mount Colden, he presented me with a 46er

badge, a 46er shirt, and a sign. In tears, I hugged him and thanked him for all the support and encouragement. I am so grateful to have been able to complete my last high peak with him before he retired his hiking boots. In a month from now, I will be married, and I hope that one day I can show my children the beauty of the woods.

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