Obsession with the Adirondacks, and why the Adirondacks are in Good Hands

A trend that I have noticed throughout the class is the obsession of individuals with the Adirondacks. It's always the same story: someone makes a single visit to the region, falls in love with it, and ends up living and working there for their whole life.  John Apperson ends up devoting his entire life to the Adirondacks: "Appy was a pioneer. He knew nothing about the constitution or the Adirondacks until he made that climb up Mount Marcy on skis. Then he saw all this fantastic country... and decided to spend the rest of his life fighting for it" (Schneider 292). Paul Schaefer grew up in Schenectady, and visited the Adirondacks as child during the summer months; he spent his whole life fighting for the sake of the Adirondack wilderness. At dinner with Phil Terrie, he mentioned that he grew up in Virginia, and fell in love with the region after working at a summer camp there. Verplanck Colvin, and many others had similar experiences.

Personally, I fell in love with the Adirondacks after an early winter hike of Giant Mountain. It was a bluebird day with fresh snow; rime encrusted the spruce trees up high on the ridges, and there was an undercast, so only the loftiest peaks were visible above a sea of clouds. It amazed me that such an awe-inspiring natural wonderland existed so close to home on the east coast. While I will likely never have the impact on the Adirondacks that any of the aforementioned characters have had, I had a glimpse into the unmistakeable pull that these mountains tend to have on people. I would assume Janelle has surrendered to the same pull, since she is now going to be living and working full time in the Adirondacks.

The day that got me hooked...

This all leads into why I think the Adirondacks are in good hands for the future. While there will be quarrels over issues like the NYCO mine and the Big Tupper resort, I find it hard to believe that these will create major trends. It seems that the Adirondacks have a very dedicated core of conservationists fighting to maintain the wilderness character of the park, and likely always will. This is not to say that some battles will be lost, however I think that on the whole, the Adirondack forests will continue to be preserved. In the readings this week, the voters of New York have fairly constantly voted against industrial interests in the park. I think that this trend will continue, and while the Adirondack Park may be a bit different in a hundred years, it will certainly not consist of rampant strip malls, highways, and parking lots.