Bush wacking up Whitewall Mountain with Andrew Reily July 12, 2008

My first piece for my new blog is a tribute to Andrew Reily who inspired it with his own blog: (http//gullivers-nest.blogspot.com). Andrew was the naturalist this summer (2008) at Zealand Falls Hut and has worked in the hut system for a few seasons. He’s a great naturalist with great insights. In fact, everything he does he does well. Andrew personifies the superb 2008 summer croo at Zealand that also included Ben, Lindsey, Nick, and Anna . In fact the croos in all of the huts the past few years have been excellent. I worked in the huts for many years several decades ago and I know what the job entails and I know that the croos today have a much tougher job than we did and they do it well. I have great admiration for them.

Having said that I want to point out Andrew to you. That’s him in the photo above on July 12, 2008 standing on the summit of Whitewall Mountain with the wind lifting his shirt. Andrew is an excellent writer as you will see if you visit his blog and read his own version of the story I am about to tell.

Andrew and I were inspired to bush wack up Whitewall early in the season, in June maybe, and we both know how quickly summers go by in the mountains, so we didn’t want to procrastinate. Not that it’s a huge climb. It really isn’t. It’s more like an hour up, a half hour to fool around on the summit looking at things, and three quarters of an hour back down.