I am thrilled to be able to share this article, written by Gillian Scott, about Meredith's and my experience hiking the 46 Adirondack High Peaks over a 15-year period. The article appeared in the August 7, 2015 Times Union.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Outdoors-Mother-daughter-complete-High-Peaks
Adventure (Times Union)
by
Gillian Scott
Hundreds
of people become Adirondack 46ers each year, joining the ranks of
thousands who
have
climbed all 46 High Peaks with summits of more than 4,000 feet. The
luckiest ones find
more
than adventure or challenge or even natural beauty — it's the
people they hike with that matter
the most.
Virginia
Boyle Traver and her daughter, Meredith Traver, finished their 46er
quest in mid-
June,
bagging Algonquin and Iroquois on a wet, miserable day. The tough
slog in dangerous
conditions
felt anti-climactic.
"We
were definitely not excited," said Virginia, the outings chair
for the Albany Chapter of the Adirondack
Mountain Club.
"We'd
been looking forward to it for so long," Meredith said. "And
then we couldn't see
anything
and it was so windy and cold and rainy."
So
one bright, sunny weekend in July, Meredith hopped back on a bus and
came up to Albany from
her home in New York City. The women slept in Virginia's car in the
parking lot at the trailhead
and got an early start the next day. They hiked the same mountains
they had done a few
weeks earlier, this time soaking in sunshine and ample views. Then
they drove back to Albany,
and Meredith got on the bus again. A music therapist for Hospice home
care, she was back
at work the next morning. Finally, they had closure.
The
hike was the culmination of a 15-year experience for the two women,
one that started when Meredith
was just 16. Virginia would take the kids — Meredith and her
brother, Thomas — camping
for a week before school started every year. And every year, she'd
take them hiking. Both
Thomas and Meredith were "blown away" by Cascade, their
first Adirondack High Peak, but
it was Meredith that decided, almost right away, that she wanted to
climb them all. "It
was just gorgeous up there and you have that 360-degree view,"
Meredith said. "I was just immediately inspired."
Up
until that point, Meredith said, "I absolutely hated every
mountain we did." So it's
understandable
that Virginia had some doubts about her daughter's sudden ambition.
The two started out with some Adirondack classics, like Marcy and
Algonquin. They took two trips a year, chipping away at the
mountains, and pretty soon they were determined to finish. "As
the numbers add up, you get a little bit hooked," Virginia
admitted. Virginia actually started hiking High Peaks with her father
when she was 14 — they did about a dozen together, climbs she would
repeat for Meredith.
"I
think she thought at some point maybe I would bring my fiance and
maybe he and I would do a hike," Meredith said. "Or maybe
I'd have some hiking friends and we would go and do them. But I was
like no, this is what we do together."
Some
hikes were particularly hard — like when they hiked all five peaks
in the Dix Range in one day — or particularly scary — like the
steep cliffs between Basin and Saddleback. A hike would end on a
summit socked-in with clouds, or the trail would be deep with mud,
and they'd wonder,
"Is it worth it?" But the next trip out would be better,
and they'd be re-inspired.
That
rainy June day on the trail to Algonquin and Iroquois, Virginia and
Meredith talked over their
long quest, discussing what they'd like to do next, which High Peaks
they'd climb again and
which they wouldn't, and what the whole experience meant to them.
Virginia
talked about gaining confidence in her abilities on unmarked trails.
Meredith talked
about
learning resilience, the ability to keep putting one foot in front of
the other, no matter
how
hard things get.
And
both of them talked about how much the time together meant to them.
"For
me, there was nothing like spending that time with her,"
Virginia said. "To spend that
much
time in the woods with your child is an amazing experience."
From
the year Meredith was 16 until she was 30, she and Virginia had those
long days together, twice a summer, to camp and climb and talk and
just be. They worked around Meredith's summer jobs in college, a year
abroad, and her move to New York City and a new career.
Meredith
said in the past few years, she and Virginia have chosen to camp or
backpack to hike peaks
they probably could have done as day trips. "But it really was
about enjoying the woods, enjoying each other's company and making
the most of it," she said. "It really became about the
whole experience."
Changes
are afoot for the Traver family. Meredith is getting married this
month, and Thomas and
his wife are expecting a child. Virginia and her husband of 36 years,
Bill, are about to become
first-time grandparents.
Virginia
and Meredith would like to keep hiking together, at least one weekend
a year, but are not
planning to move onto another list. The Catskill and New Hampshire
peaks will
remain
unhiked. "It really was about the Adirondacks," Meredith
said. "Now it will really be about doing it for pure enjoyment."
gvscott.gvs@gmail.com
• http://blog.timesunion.com/outdoors/
8/7/2015
Outdoors: Mother, daughter complete High Peaks adventure - Times
Union
http://
