I'm in the Adirondacks

Let me start with saying the Adirondacks are beautiful. There are lakes and streams and lakes everywhere and woods are primarily spruces, pines, cedars and various birches. As for wildlife, we have mosquitoes, black flies (the ones that make you bleed), no seeums and today I saw a few toads and a little snake. We live at the William C. Whitney headquarters which is an old logging headquarters in a few houses right near the water. We also have a main house which is where we do most of our cooking and have meetings. There are 20 of us interns, 10 boys and 10 girls from all over the country (Hawaii, California, Atlanta and several from Chicago).

So far we have been in orientation which means a lot of talking about rules, regulations and safety. However, we camped out Thursday and Friday nights and went over leave no trace tactics and camping skills…lighting the stoves, pumping water, pooping in holes etc.

Today, nine of us went for a hike up Mt. Adams which took us wading across a stream, across a pond and up the steepest trail I have ever hiked. There were lots of rocks scrambles and places where the trail was more a gully than a trail. At the top was a tall fire lookout that gave us a panoramic view of mountains and lakes for as far as we could see. It was spectacular. Afterwards we went a little further down the road to a ghost town which actually had one house where Teddy Roosevelt had lived.