A mountain home away from home
LAKE PLACID — Lisa Crandall became an Adirondack 46er on Nov. 4, 2018, on Skylight. Even then, the thing she was most excited for was starting to volunteer with the 46ers, an all-volunteer organization made up of hikers who have hiked all 46 High Peaks in the Adirondack Park.
The organization’s volunteers maintain trails, pick up litter, hold educational workshops and provide educational resources and much more.
Crandall, now 56, jumped in with both feet. The year after she finished the High Peaks, she started serving on the trail crew on many of her weekends. Since then, she has served on multiple committees with the 46ers, including the Campership Committee, which pays for four students from the high peaks region to attend the state Department of Environmental Conservation camps. Recently, however, her focus has shifted to education.
The Education Committee, among its many functions, helps train volunteers who work to educate hikers about best practices for preparedness and Leave No Trace principles. They also hold workshops and outreach efforts aimed at welcoming people to enjoy the outdoors in the Adirondacks. Crandall said she is passionate about passing on the knowledge she has gained in her years of hiking.
“The more I’ve learned, the more I know, the more I want to pass that knowledge on to others,” Crandall said.
One of the things Crandall has helped with on the Education Committee is training trailhead stewards, volunteers who are stationed at select trailheads, such as Cascade Mountain between Lake Placid and Keene, to educate hikers about preparedness and safety. A big emphasis of this work are the Leave No Trace principles. These include guidelines about planning ahead, staying on durable surfaces, taking care of waste properly and not taking anything out of the environment. This outreach work, Crandall said, is all about teaching volunteers to engage with people in a way that educates people while also inviting them in.
“You don’t want to put people off. You don’t want to discourage them from hiking. You want people out in the outdoors,” Crandall said. “It’s all about delivering a message.”
Crandall said they like to focus on what they call the “authority of the resource.” This means motivating people by teaching them the importance of reserving resources instead of preaching to them about following the law. One of Crandall’s favorite experiences as an educator came from one of these moments at an educational event. A hiker told Crandall she had been considering taking a pretty rock from the driveway, but after their conversation, thought better of it.
“Moments like that, when people learn to think differently, they don’t want to ruin the environment,” Crandall said. “Now, as we taught her, someone else can discover that cool rock, too.”
A native of Rochester who now lives in Syracuse, Crandall spends about two weekends each month in the Adirondacks. She used to spend more time in the mountains but now has to split her travel opportunities with visits with her long-distance boyfriend. He lives in Canada and is a fellow 46er and volunteer. When she’s not in the mountains, Crandall is a caseworker. Her job is rewarding but stressful, she says, so she often finds she needs to get away.
Crandall didn’t consider herself particularly athletic growing up, but when she first moved to Syracuse, she was beginning to blossom into a hiker and an athlete. She was training for her first triathlon when a friend invited her to the Adirondacks for the first time to hike. Soon she had hiked her first High Peak, Macomb, although she didn’t really know what a High Peak was. The 46ers club was set up for people who have hiked all 46 High Peaks (all but four are 4,000 feet or taller). It was around the sixth or seventh peak before she learned what the 46ers were and decided it was something she wanted for herself.
Now, most of her best friends are people she met through the 46ers, like minded people who volunteered with her to maintain trails and otherwise donate their time to a place they all love. And for Crandall, the friendship is only the beginning of what the Adirondacks have given her. She said for her, and for a lot of people, hiking the High Peaks has a spiritual component.
“I had a lot of healing that I was able to do on those mountains. It’s a long day,” Crandall said. “It’s beautiful, and you realize that life can be this simple. Life can be this easy.”
With all of the things Crandall feels she has gained from her time in the Adirondacks, she is constantly looking for ways to give back. The Education Committee continues to expand their outreach and hope to eventually expand their efforts outside the Adirondacks. Crandall loves and cares about this place so much that she is willing to take her vacation time to come volunteer. One of the 46er catchphrases is to keep the Adirondacks “beautifully rugged.”
“That’s my whole purpose in giving of my time, money and resources,” Crandall said. “This is something she’s told people before. “I care enough about where you live to take my vacation time to volunteer.”