Adirondack Peeks Winter 2023

EDITORS' RAMBLE Kim Morse, #11497, with Sherry Roulston, #12512 A s we embark on our second issue as PEEKS co editors, Sherry and I wish to express gratitude for your support—that of our readers (those who reach out with ideas, questions, and submissions), the membership at large, and our board of directors. We are thrilled to have received your positive thoughts, insight ful suggestions, and words of encouragement. And we hope to share that light with you! We see

In Talking Points, Sherry and I sit down with Suzanne Lance, who discusses her time as coeditor of PEEKS (her editorship, it is thematically appropriate to point out, spanned almost two decades), achievements with the Writers Institute in Albany, and reflections on her grandmother’s diary and father’s letters during WWII. We also feature American environmentalist and author Bill McKibben, whose extensive advocacy for the protection of our planet resonates with the mission of the Forty-Sixers. In this issue we share a poem and newsletter by McKibben as well as a discussion he has with Sherry in which he calls the Adirondacks a “second chance Eden” where, despite climate change elsewhere in the world, “the wild is getting deeper.” We thank our readers for this issue’s selection of Mountain Vignettes, which include genuine stories told by you both in essay and verse form, reflecting on the many aspects of life hiking in the Adirondacks calls into play—from invoking the path toward the Ameri can Dream through the eyes of first- and second-gen eration immigrants (“The American Dream Hike”) to a candid look back at the differences between hiking the high peaks now in comparison to the 1980s (“Then and Now”), you’re sure to find meaningful connections with our authors’ heartfelt recounting of their experiences. Personally, I’m still dipping my toes into the world of winter hiking in the high peaks, but there is an aspect of hiking in the winter that, for me, stirs up yearning for connection and reconnection among loved ones—and that’s the coming home. Whether I’m staying in a small, local motel or hostel or travelling the hours’ drive back home, after a winter stint, nothing feels as warm or com forting or needed as the first step through the doorway. There’s something about stripping away the gear that kept me safe in the cold and stepping back into the fa miliar that inspires gratitude for the bonds I have with those whom I hold dear. May this issue offer you a connection or recon nection—whether relational or situational—that elicits a fond memory or the motivation to plan that next hike. Or, perhaps, you’ll be struck by the humanity found across the generations of hiking recorded here and connect with us to volunteer your time. Indeed, the mountains need you, today, to keep our wild deep for the future. Ramble on, Kim and Sherry

each issue of PEEKS as one of the largest group hugs you could participate in. Where else will you find uplifting stories of family and friends working together to achieve what is, for all, a monumental task of hiking thousands of feet of elevation gain over hundreds of miles and, for many, a practice of regular movement against terrifying, sometimes immobilizing adversity manifesting in injury, loss, or other catastrophe? Yet, here we gather twice a year to celebrate having conquered our adversities or reflect on times when stepping back was either pragmatic or neces sary—but regardless of our reasons for sitting down with this magazine, we join one another in recognizing our shared love for the Adirondacks and the power we have as a passionate group to share that love in meaningful, respectful, and impactful ways with others—for genera tions to come. As we look across the heartfelt written work of those published in this issue, Sherry and I have iden tified a common bond—family—spreading across each page and weaving its way within each person’s words. While we recognize the usual definitions of the word— such as a group of people related by blood or marriage or a group of related things or all the descendants of a common ancestor—it’s also clear from the stories our au thors tell that their most meaningful relationships, those that move with them from decade to decade or affect them profoundly, may include people who fall outside of these traditional definitions. Those we identify as family play integral roles in the story of our lives; and while people in those roles may shift over time, the impact of each relationship leaves an indelible mark on us. Specifically, we see the vitality that hiking across generations has brought our authors as they recount significant experiences they’ve shared with loved ones as they relate to their own lives across time. From the lighthearted—for example S. R. Stoddard’s tale of how the Hitch-Up Matildas got their name—to Dan La due’s personal retelling of his adventures across the NE 111 in which he leans on steadfast friendship and recog nizes transient romance for its place in his journey, each piece elicits something essential to what binds us all as hikers of this special place on Earth.

4 | ADIRONDACK PEEKS