Adirondack Peeks Winter 2025
carried it on her back to the put- in. Evelyn’s canoe was a Hornbeck; she told me she had a couple of them. She was good friends with Pete Hornbeck.” Shepherd’s Tooth. I bet you never heard of such Adirondack Peak. Shaefer and Zahn are shepherd and tooth in German. The Schaefer and Zahn families and their children hiked together way back in the 1950s. So, in their honor Don named a previously unknown peak Shepherd’s Tooth. Don had a particular sense of humor. He was an immigrant himself, born in the Caribbean in a British family. Evelyn and Don met at University in Boston. They did a lot of hiking together. Don fell in love with the Adirondacks. Don even mounted on Shepherd’s Tooth a metal can with a summit log inside. It was closed circuit, only for friends and family. It was on a ridge west of Lake Colden, a nice scramble from the marked trail. I went there a couple of times, last time with Don and some others. Finally, the rangers discovered it and made Don remove all the paraphernalia. I still have a Shepherd’s Tooth patch that Don made on my bookshelf. In his days Don was a tremendous hiker. He knew his peaks.” RECOLLECTIONS OF EVELYN GREENE John Borel, #4052
W hile attending the Centennial Celebration of the Adirondack 46ers in August at the Paradox Brewery in North Hudson, I learned of the death of Evelyn Greene, #110, the legendary Adirondack naturalist and a member of the well-known Schaefer family. I met Evelyn back in my hiking days and hiked with her a couple of times. Evelyn pointed out to me some lichens and talked about mosses on our hike, which is something I have always remembered. I had also met her mother, Carolyn Schaefer, #104, an intrepid outdoorswoman, at her store in Keene. Carolyn had told me about a campaign to have a mountain named for Grace Hudowalski, the first woman and the ninth person overall to summit the 46 highest Adirondack peaks. (In fact, East Dix was renamed Grace Peak in 2014.) Thinking about Evelyn Greene, I remembered that an old friend of mine, Dan Golopentia, also an inveterate hiker in the Adirondacks and member of the Keene Valley chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club, had introduced me to her. Dan returned to his native Romania a few years ago, where he lives with his wife, Rodica, in Bucharest. I wrote Dan to let him know of Evelyn’s passing, and I received interesting information from him about Evelyn in several communications that I felt deserved retelling. Dan replied, “I knew of Evelyn’s death, may she rest in peace. Pat Terry, a high school classmate of Evelyn, kept me posted. Evelyn and Don [Evelyn’s husband] were great friends. They introduced me to the idea of the Adirondacks. They lived in a log cabin, without electricity, in those days. Evelyn and Don’s cabin was on Crane Mountain. When David had to go to school they moved to a house in North Creek. Don was an excellent bushwhacker, totally different business than trail-hiking. Once we skied from the Garden to Ausable Lakes and Marcy Swamp. Evelyn was a teacher of natural science. She had a tremendous understanding of the land around her. She hiked, skied and paddled on small ponds. She had a small light canoe, built in the Adirondacks, and
Shepherd’s Tooth Patch – Photo Credit Dan Golopentia
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