Adirondack Peeks Winter 2025

ASSISTANT FOREST RANGER BRENDAN JACKSON, 1983-2025 Tony Goodwin, #211

W hen Assistant Forest Ranger (AFR) Brendan Jackson died unexpectedly in his sleeping bag at the Duck Hole this past summer, the Adirondack hiking community lost one of the most knowledgeable and helpful individuals who ever set foot on a High Peaks trail. Jackson had worked as an AFR since 2008 and more recently complemented that seasonal job as a winter caretaker at the Lake Colden cabin. What set him apart from other AFRs, however, was both his extensive knowledge of nearly every corner of the vast Adirondack Park and his willingness to share that knowledge with other hikers. Many only knew Jackson from his numerous long, detailed posts on several hiking forums. He posted with the screen name of DSettahr, which was an acronym for Death Star (“a” used twice) from the Star Wars series of movies. It seemed that he had explored every valley and followed out every random trail just to see what it might lead to. Not only that, but he also kept careful notes of what he found. Brendan Jackson came to my attention in 2015 when I was working on the new edition of ADK’s High Peaks map. He had recently posted about the errors and omissions that he had found on the series of National Geographic maps for the Adirondacks. I had checked out the errors that he had noted on the maps (#742 and part of #746) that I had helped ADK to update for the National Geographic and found that every one of his comments was correct. So, when my editor at ADK, Andrea Masters, suggested that maybe he should be asked to see a proof of the High Peaks map, I quickly agreed. Equally quickly, Brendan agreed to help, and our partnership began. Most of our collaboration was via email, and I must have exchanged nearly 100 emails with him before I ever actually met him. Sadly, I only saw him three more times on the trail before his passing. Brendan never asked for any more than a few copies of the finished map, and it was only after the first printing that I belatedly added his name to the “Overlay of trails roads, and shelters…” line. By the time of the most recent printing, his name should have legitimately come first. One example of Brendan’s observations and interest in checking obscure trails was his report that the Moose Pond

Horse Trail between the Cold Brook Horse Trail and Moose Pond had become more like a herdpath. By that time, I had no reason to doubt his report, but I still decided to check out the Pine Point Trail up the Cold River to Shattuck Clearing and then hike on through to Newcomb. Sure enough, after the junction with the Cold River Horse Trail, the Moose Pond Horse Trail was indeed a herdpath most of the way to Moose Pond. At two points where there were sharp turns, I found fresh red flagging to call attention to the turns; and sure enough I learned later that it had been Brendan who had placed that flagging. Brendan had graduated from Paul Smith’s College with a degree in forestry and later earned a master’s degree in forest resource management from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. Before he started working winters at Lake Colden, these degrees had him working to assess needed tree cutting on power lines and once working to assess hurricane damage in Florida. The details of his death are that on June 7 he hiked to Duck Hole where he spent the night. Friends reported that in the days before the 7th he had seemed to be in his usual good health and spirits. That evening, he radioed to the DEC dispatch that he was “out of service” but never radioed back the next morning. Despite his missing what would have been expected radio calls for the next week, it wasn’t until a friend contacted the DEC to express concern about the fact that no one had heard from him that two forest rangers found his body on June 15, still in his sleeping bag in his tent. The long delay apparently prevented a detailed autopsy, so his exact cause of death may never be known. Since it appears that he likely died that first night, even an immediate check that first morning when he failed to sign in would not have altered the ultimate outcome. Nevertheless, DEC has been criticized for their failure to keep better track of their employees who work in remote locations. This criticism led to a petition with reportedly 3,500 signatures asking for better accountability in the future; and the DEC has taken steps in that direction.

WINTER 2025 | 35