Adirondack Peeks Winter 2025

Gary wears a custom yellow baseball cap with a purple beak and a pinkish purple “46” on the crown. He received the hat as a party favor over 20 years ago while attending a gala event at the Ausable Club celebrating a 46er milestone. Phil Corell, #224WV had guided the 46er while Gary hiked with the aspirant’s family and friends who were tagging along. Phil adds, “He has outfitted himself with clothing and equipment found on the trail or at the trailhead for years. It’s amazing what perfectly good items will randomly appear where least expected.” Gary didn’t start climbing the high peaks until his early 20s. He thought they were beyond his skill level and that the 46ers were crazy. When he did eventually hike Cascade Mountain in July of 1973, he was all in and finished on Nye in October the following year at age 24. Fourteen years later he finished his second round. By that time, he had adopted the Ouluska lean-to from the newly formed Adopt-A-Lean To Program, founded in partnership by ADK and DEC. One year later he acquired the Seward lean-to along with two others, Cold River #3 and #4, located by the cable-strung suspension bridge a half-a-mile from Shattuck Clearing. Gary was known to paddle 14 miles on the Cold River over three days to inspect his lean-tos in the spring and fall. Motivated by a logbook he saw in a lean-to along the Ward Brook trail, Gary followed suit and left one in the Ouluska lean-to so that hikers could document their visits. And did they ever! Later, ADK embraced this practice, and logbooks became the standard within all lean-tos. At the Ouluska lean-to between 1986 and 2008, logbooks detailed hikers’ trials and tribulations. Once the logs were full, Gary took them home and transcribed the handwritten scribbles into a typed booklet. He typewrote three booklets, over two decades of hiker communications. Gary recites one entry where the hiker is wet. He says, “I’m wet, I’m wet, I’m really, really, wet.” Gary took it upon himself to remove swear words and even one man’s phone number from the books, as the entry was soliciting “close company.” These were the days right before social media! Below are a few quotes from the Ouluska logbooks: 8/31/1986 — “This is day 9 of 10 of our Northville to Placid trek. . . . We’re really going to make it! Joan Robertson, #2233V.” 9/14/2001 — “The post-terrorist attack world seems quiet. We have only seen 1 or 2 planes in the sky. . . . It is good to be away from all the bad news. Hope all is well in the world when we get out.” 2003 — Daniel Cleveland wrote, “I wish my teacher [Carlton West] was still alive so I could tell him that I visited. He hiked in here in 1976 and died of a heart attack in his tent with a camera on his chest.” Gary also preserved herd paths. “He was the unofficial herd path adopter for every trailless peak,” Phil Corell recalls. “Each spring on his first seasonal round, brush would be

picked up, routes would be re-established if blowdown had occurred, and possibly a little brown sign with yellow writing would appear to mark a summit or a little arrow at a confusing point on a path.”

Tony Goodwin adds, “There was a time when Gary was known as the ‘Mad Marker’ because he would add trail markers where he felt they were lacking. At first these markers were carefully hand-painted to look like the other markers on that trail, and he even produced a few ATIS markers along with the DEC markers.” DEC is a very hot topic along the trail. Many stories are recounted, such as, who’s been warned, who’s been ticketed, who’s even been rescued. Spicy indeed. Gary’s been ticketed for hanging unauthorized signs — signs the DEC gave him to hang. Since the trail they asked him to mark was flooded out and had been so for a while, Gary marked the work-around trail. Soon after, DEC phoned, requesting Gary meet up at this trail. Upon arriving, he was ticketed and instructed to remove all the signs. Gary quickly adds, “Tony Goodwin was ticketed for an unleashed dog, and the ranger requested that the judge inflict the maximum penalty on Tony due to his bad behavior.” “Dogs should be off a leash whenever possible so that they can be happy just being dogs,” Tony responds. Oftentimes when he is in an area where leashes are not required, he informs hikers that no regulation requires them to keep their dog leashed. Tony calls himself the one man CLO. Phil tells me Gary had to be rescued once. Gary explains that when hiking Bear Den Mountain one Sunday, he started having back spasms. When his friends asked if they should call for help, they were surprised when he said yes. “They thought I would rather die than ever call for a rescue,” he says. “I told them I would rather live.” Charlie Platt was the first ranger to arrive. Gary says, “Looking down at me he said, ‘I knew someday I’d be coming for you.’” Phil Corell #224WV and Gary Koch #1137WV on Klondike trail to Phelps -Photo Credit Dave Pawlick #12803

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