Dear Adirondacks
Jen Kretser
Director of Climate Initiatives, The Wild Center
At 5:30 a.m. the sky brightens around the corner of Moody Pond to the Baker Mountain trailhead—a mile down the road and through a grove of white pines from my house in Saranac Lake. I spot my sister, Heidi, with Skye, her sweet golden retriever. It’s a cool, misty spring morning. Hopefully we will make the summit and back before the day warms and the blackflies rule.
Off we go—the mostly south-facing trail quickly rises and a carpet of spring beauties and trout lilies unfolds before us. We know the sunny spot where Dutchman’s breeches pop up. In the distance, the haunting song of a hermit thrush and the zippy black-throated blue and black-throated green warblers. I always forget which one is which but Heidi always remembers—that’s what sisters are for. Our pulses quicken as we hit the steeper, rocky section of the trail. Skye bounds ahead and we scramble up the pine needle–strewn rocks.
I could probably climb Baker with my eyes closed. I grew up in Vermontville and
