“Decided to sleep in lean-to, floor like C-ment. To those who come behind us, bring a mattress. – Griffin Rapids.”

Tuesday night Kathryn & I went to the local ADK chapter meeting. I have been and ADK member for several years and participated in ADK classes and outings, but I have never attended a club meeting. They had Stuart Mesinger the author of No Place I’d Rather Be: Wit and Wisdom from Adirondack Lean-tos as their program speaker.

We have all read the lean-to registers. Stuart took several years and read hundreds of registers to compile his book. Stuart received permission (and sponsorship) from the ADK to go through the register archives. Stuart flagged the interesting entries, had a High School student type them up and then organized the book into themes: love stories, tall tales, partying, complainers, weather, critters, bugs, food, the privy, the campfire, the long walk, adventures, culture clashes, hunting and fishing, companions, religion and solitude.

Stuart read excepts from his book for 30 minutes and was very entertaining. Unfortunately he ran out of books at his signing and we did not pick one up to read. I plan to remedy that in the future.