My good friends and colleagues Joe Dadey and Tim Keyes recently spent a weekend hiking in the High Peaks Wilderness Complex and couldn’t wait to share their somewhat bizarre experiences with me. They hiked up Mount Redfield, one of the 46ers. From the summit, they made a short yet ...

In the early part of the 20th century, every red-blooded American knew who Pancho Villa was. Many thought of him as a brutal villain, yet to just as many, he was the poor man’s hero. He was known to be an excellent leader and a great battle strategist. While Pancho Villa was in Mexico ...

Be prepared. It’s the Boy Scout motto and the first principle of Leave No Trace, and when ignored, is the most frequent cause of backcountry emergencies. A perfect example is Aron Ralston. You may remember Ralston: He’s the mountaineer who survived a canyoneering accident by cutting off ...

In December 1960, at the age of 11, I moved from Long Island to Phelps, in the northern Finger Lakes. There were a number of things that were radically different from Long Island, but one stood out: All my classmates were eager to get their green work permit to earn money as soon as they turned ...

I came to Saranac Lake in the summer of 1966 to visit my great-aunt and enjoy the Adirondacks. I dreamt it was going to be a great summer of outdoor fun, boating on the lake with my little 10-horsepower Evinrude, fishing, going up the lake to hang out with the Cantwell family and hanging out ...

Last week, I received a text with a photo from an unknown number. At first, I had no idea who it was from, but after seeing the photo, I realized it had to be from my college roommate Gene. It was the first time since the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics that I’d heard from him. The photo ...