Bushwhack Jack's Tracts

In December 1960, at the age of eleven, I moved from Long Island to Phelps, in the northern Finger Lakes. There were a number of things...

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...

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...

When it comes to paddling long distances, one person stands out above all others – the short, barrel chested, full white bearded Verlen...

Anyone who knows me or regularly reads this column knows I have special reverence for Wilderness. Wilderness with a capital W is...

I make maple syrup, which is a relatively simple process. You collect the sap, which is about 2% sugar, and boil it down until it’s 66%...

I’ve written in the past about three people who I’ve been fortunate enough to have as mentors. A fourth, Tap Tapley, doesn’t qualify only...

Last January, I penned a column on an experience I had at SUNY Cortland with the woman of my dreams. ( https://tinyurl.com/3wa3cntn )...

There was an excellent letter to the Enterprise last week from a writer in Remson lamenting that too many aspiring forty-sixers put more...

Not counting Linda Leydon, who I kissed in the back of the bus in 3rd grade. And Crystal Waters, who I sent a love letter to when my...

Back in my day, the 1970s, I didn’t have to walk through snow uphill both ways to school, but I’ll tell you what, backcountry skiing was...

On these subzero winter days reading is sometimes wiser than going outdoors. A reflection of my age, no doubt. To ward off cabin...

The compass has been around for over 2,000 years and is a simple device. If you put a sliver of magnetized metal on a small piece of wood...

Every year, ten or so NCCC veterans of the college’s 33-day fall expedition would plan and then go on a two-week winter expedition. It...

Recently, I heard from my college friend Jim Glover, a regular reader of my column and who drops me an email every once in a while. Jim...

When I woke up Sunday morning hoarse, and with a sore throat, I knew why: on Saturday Phyliss and I had gone to the Syracuse University...

I spent my early years in rural Locust Valley, Nassau County, which though only thirty miles from Manhattan, seemed like a hundred. Our...

As I cruised Facebook the other day I saw a post about Lower Saranac Lake and the efforts by environmental groups to have the lake’s...

If you were a boy growing up in the 1950s you loved at least three things: rock and roll, cars, and rock and roll songs about cars. If...

There’s a great deal of head-scratching going on regarding solitude and its role in Wilderness. It appears that if some people have their...