Natural Habitat

The first time I went up an Adirondack mountain was Mount Jo, right from the Adirondak Loj. I went with a coworker, an experienced hiker. Not me—I was in Timberland work boots and jeans. We got blown off the mountain a few hundred feet below the summit by a June storm that started whipping rain through the trees, then snapped lightning just west of us. I saw his eyes get wide, and we got hopping down those big erratics.

Back on the ground we laughed and ate jerky at the Loj. It was filled up with hikers waiting for the storm to pass before heading out. There were college kids with torn boots and older ladies with their hair tied up in wild gray nests, a few people popping out of Audis looking like mountain guides, a guy with an old external frame pack and his grandkids skirting circles around