Last week as I was cleaning up my excuse for an office (a tiny corner of our bedroom) I came across the obituary of my grandfather Kenyon Joyce. I met him only a few times, as he and my grandmother lived in San Francisco, and he died when I was young. I remember him being formal and ...

Forty-one years ago this week, my colleague Doug Fitzgerald and I started NCCC’s first Winter Practicum. It was a student-planned two-week winter expedition. Unlike this winter we had plenty of snow and cold. How much? How about three feet of snow, with temperatures of minus 37 F? The ...

I spent my first 11 years on the north shore of Long Island. But my formative years were spent in the northern Finger Lakes after my parents uprooted the five kids and 10 Newfoundland dogs and bought a 120-acre farm in Phelps. You never heard of Phelps? It’s a village of 1,883 people with a ...

In the fall of 1977, at the tender age of 28 and struggling to convince NCCC to start a wilderness program, I was asked by the associate dean, Art Clark, to teach a hiking class in Blue Mountain Lake. I jumped at the opportunity. I drove down to Blue Mountain Lake to meet the students, to go ...

I didn’t give decision making a lot of thought until I started leading wilderness trips and realized that quality decision making was the key to good outdoor leadership. First, there are the decisions I make before I leave on a trip. What equipment should I bring? How many miles should I ...

I graduated from SUNY Cortland in January of 1972 and soon had to deal with the reality of having to make a living. Working construction in the summer and fall, and ski patrol in the winter, filled the first year. Spring arrived and I wanted to find something that aligned with my education ...