Adirondacks in detail
worth of photography,” he said. “So it was a nice review of all the places I did.”
Because Schlimmer was a dedicated bushwhacker, hiking to remote areas off-trail, photos include images hikers may be familiar with — wildf lowers, birds, lakes, ponds and peaks — but often from unfamiliar locations. For instance, there’s an image titled “Birch Glade,” from Van Dorrien Mountain in the High Peaks Wilderness Complex and “For Jack Green,” along Jack Green Creek in the Silver Lake Wilderness Area. Though I’ve hiked in both areas – on trail – I’ve never heard of either feature.
“There’s something about traveling off-trail where you go to the special places that nobody has been to, perhaps forever,” Schlimmer said. “You develop this relationship with the land where you’re seeing these rarely visited places.”
He said because there are no roadside destinations in the book, he didn’t hold back any special places (as I might have) for fear of them being overrun.
“A few people may see a photo in the book, and say, ‘ Wow, that ’s really cool. I’d like to go there.’ And so they start consulting their map, and they find out it ’s way out in the middle of nowhere. You have to bushwhack through this horrible terrain for it,” he said. “I think the people who are going to take the time to do that have a pretty strong wilderness ethic.”
Schlimmer’s latest outdoors projects have involved hiking all the named features in a specific block of land, such as a wilderness area. He wrapped up three different pieces of land before leaving New York.
With those complete, Schlimmer has now hiked all the named features in the Giant Mountain, Hoffman Notch, Pharaoh Lake, Siamese Ponds and Silver Lake wilderness areas, as well as in the Hammond Pond, Lake George, Shaker Mountain and Wilcox Lake wild forests.
Schlimmer said he’s planning to tackle Colorado the same way — one wilderness area at a time. First up is the Lost Creek Wilderness about an hour from his home. He even has an Excel spreadsheet ready, listing all the named features. Could another book be far behind?