In Issue 3 of Amateurs Magazine, writer/photographer Reggie McCafferty and athlete Julia Querida explored the arctic-alpine zone in the Adirondack Mountains. Covering 23 miles and 6,200 feet of elevation in our Seek trail runners, they identified multiple rare plants and flowers to raise awareness about this fragile ecosystem.
Text and photography by Reggie McCafferty
Stillness is not the antithesis to movement, but rather its companion. The artist Jean-Luc Mylayne speaks of radical deceleration, a lifestyle guided by the rhythms of nature. Radical deceleration asks us to do the unthinkable – to just stop. To unplug all your things and immerse yourself in the world, to simply exist. It takes time to embody, but eventually an awareness begins to settle and movement itself takes on new meaning. With this in mind, we travelled to the Adirondack High Peaks to contemplate how we move through the arctic-alpine zone.
The arctic-alpine is New York’s most fragile ecosystem, an environment that only exists above 4,000 feet. Its terrain is dominated by rock, thin soil deposits, and extreme weather patterns. Silence is broken by the calls of dark-eyed juncos and white-throated sparrows. The plants in the zone; bog bilberry, labrador tea, alpine goldenrod, mountain sandwort, sedge, mosses and lichen amongst others, are remnants from the last ice age and are adept at surviving in some of the harshest conditions on earth. In New York State they exist only amongst the highest peaks, covering a total of 173 acres across 21 summits and are an integral part of the surrounding ecosystem.
"We are temporary visitors, both to these summits and to this planet."
In the '70s and '80s scientists and activists realized that the populations of these plants were being decimated, due in part to climate change but also over-use. The High Peaks were seeing hiker traffic in unprecedented numbers and the fragile plants were being trampled under foot by the oblivious visitors.
In 1989, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Edwin Ketchledge and Kathy Regan, the Adirondack Mountain Club established their Summit Stewardship program to teach the public and combat the destruction of this precious ecosystem. Their goal was to instill a new ethic by focusing on education over enforcement to build an enduring hiker etiquette that prioritized conservation. This program has been a resounding success. Summits that were nearly barren in the late '80s have recovered significant growth, and the ecosystems are once again thriving.
Here, awareness was everything. Observation led to practical solutions that actually altered the course of the planet. The power of running is that it gets us to these places. It gives us the chance to decelerate, to focus and meditate on life and its transience. We are temporary visitors, both to these summits and to this planet, the least we can do is to try to learn a little something while we’re still here.
Visit the Adirondack Mountain Club website to learn more about New York State’s fragile alpine ecosystems and get involved with the Adirondack High Peaks Summit Stewardship Program.
