Hanging with Heilman part two

My father and I attended our first ADK chapter dinner Friday night at the Queensbury Hotel. We had no idea what to expect but were excited that Carl Heilman was presenting his new multi-media program "I am the Adirondacks". We arrived for the cocktail hour and it was quickly evident that not much mingling was going to take place. I especially noted that there were about 3 other people in attendance who were under the age of 55. I finally approached a woman who looked familiar and she said she lives in the town of day and is on the Hadley Mountain Fire Tower committee. We talked for a while and she invited us to sit at her table. She also made her plug for volunteers for the committee, which I may actually consider. At this point I was introduced to her three hiking partners and the discussion of how they hiked the 46 began. We exchanged a few stories and they were impressed that we were already on number 19. They are about 30 something into their second round! They recommended Hopkins Mountain for snowshoeing as they said they, like us, leave the peaks alone in the winter. One of the husbands joked that when his wife was first doing the 46 he had to "watch out" if there was a weekend that she was not able to hike for some reason. Hmm...sounds familiar. Dinner was your average banquet type meal, but pretty good. The new ADK board was voted in and some other housekeeping stuff was conducted. The director of all ADK spoke about where the revenue has been used and which trails have been upgraded as a result of member contributions and fund raising. He made mention of a clean air act that ADK "won" but is now being appealed by the "Bush Administration"(I think many ADKers are democrats). Finally, Carl Heilman was introduced and he began his program talking about the transformation that takes place in a person when they begin to hike anywhere in adirondack park. He spoke of the spiritual experience of being in the mountains and that often we begin to "think like a mountain" when we're out there. He is a soft spoken, humble man, appearing completely grateful to be happily doing his life's work sharing the beauty of the park with his photography. Seeing his work on a movie screen coupled with music and lyrics composed expressly for each and every picture was breathtaking. The event was a great way to cap off my first hiking season but without Carl on the roster, I probably will leave the annual meeting alone for a while.