Had this article emailed to me
More Than Just Lines On A Map
AMC Cartographer Hikes All 1400 WMNF Map Miles
From The Mountain Ear
Sept. 8, 2005
copyright The Mountain Ear
By Tom Eastman
Hiking enthusiast Larry Garland of Jackson is a linear sort of fellow, so to speak — he’s a cartographer for the Appalachian Mountain Club, and it’s his job to measure distances and altitudes. As a hiker, however, he well knows that the shortest distance between points is not what it’s about — it’s more about the journey.
A transplant from the financial world of downtown Boston who used to gaze longingly from his 31st floor office toward Mt. Monadnock, Garland, 54, made the move from the city to the mountains nine years ago — and he’s never looked back.
A world traveler as well as White Mountain hiker, he has visited all 50 states and more than 20 foreign countries over the years. He has also climbed four of the seven continental highest peaks: South America’s Aconcagua, Europe’s Elbrus, Africa’s Kilimanjaro and North America’s Denali (Everest may be out of his reach, financially and otherwise, but Australia’s Carstenz Pyramids and Antarctica’s Mt. Vinson may some day be attainable by Garland).
Never a peak-bagger per se, he recently has added two achievements to his hiking resume, the sum of which may make him unique in the annals of local history:
He has hiked the 175 peaks in New Hampshire measuring more than 3000 feet — and he did them all in winter. Now, as of July, he became the second or third person to have hiked every mile of every trail listed in the AMC’s White Mountain Guide maps.
“As far as I know,” said the ever-philosophical, quiet-spoken Garland in a recent interview, “nobody has accomplished both of these — peaks and trails. I have traveled every mile of every trail published on the AMC White Mountain Guide maps, including the White Mountain National Forest, Squam Lakes region and Mahoosucs. Considering that few people are interested in partaking in these obscure events, much of this hiking has required solo efforts of some distance and odd logistics.”
Garland has hiked approximately 1400 miles of trails in the region, including in the state parks of Crawford and Franconia.
Although some people bag peaks as a compulsion, Garland says that was not the case with him.
“It was not an explicit decision to go out and do all of these,” he explained. “The hikes were conducted over a number of years, both for my work with the AMC and as recreation. I have been hiking in the Whites since the mid-1980s. But I would have to say that part of the motivation and inspiration is exploring new places and discovering those places where I haven’t been before.”
Garland says hiking for him is often a metaphysical journey.
“It’s a personal enrichment for me —when you walk into a particular setting like a stand of old growth forest or a mountain vista and field with the awe and mystery and wonder of it all, it gives me a great respect for the natural order of things,” notes Garland, underscoring that it’s all about attaining a sense of balance and inner peace in the often hectic world we live in.
“Hiking,” he said, “can give you an appreciation of the natural order — a state of peacefulness or calm or balance. It’s not always like that; but to me it’s a parallel with a chosen lifestyle,” said Garland, whose chosen way of life is to live and work in a community where nature is close at hand, and where a sense of sharing is what it’s all about.
“I have a lot of interests that involve the natural community — from my serving on the board of the Upper Saco Valley Land Trust to volunteering to teach Edu-Trips for the Mount Washington Observatory (I teach a winter mapping the Whites course). I also spend time as a volunteer for fund-raisers for groups such as Tin Mountain Conservation Center and Jen’s Friends [Cancer Foundation]. In other words, it’s not all about hiking or recreation, but it is about making a connection to the special place where we live,” said Garland.
A bachelor, he says he has no preference for hiking alone or with friends — each experience offers its own reward.
“Going solo or with friends definitely offer different experiences,” he explained, noting that the solo experiences — especially those undertaken in winter — bring one in touch with that knife’s edge of potential danger that keeps one sharp. “When you hike solo, you have to be totally self reliant. Some of those trips might be very long and remote. I have to be comfortable with accepting the risks that go with that.”
Having taught winter mountaineering at the AMC, as well as map and compass navigating workshops, he says he feels at home in the remote woods.
Ironically, given his vocation as a map-maker, he says he prefers not to use GPS (global positioning system) when he hikes.
“I choose not to use GPS when I am hiking recreationally — as I said at the outset, a lot of personal fulfillment that I get when I hike is from the connection with nature and the landscape, and I like to experience nature on nature’s terms. I also do not carry a cell phone,” said Garland.
When hiking with friends, the fun is often in the joy of discovery together — and in the conversation.
“Solo hiking is about self-reliance; social hiking has other rewards. One of my last hikes I did — the last one to complete the Whites — I did with friends and two children. It was the Boulder Loop Trail, off the Kanc near the Albany Covered Bridge. A good family hike, I had never done it before. Hiking it with kids allowed me to experience it through children’s eyes. It’s an educational trail, with signs posted by the Forest Service along the route. To see their sense of wonder was great,” said Garland.
As the AMC’s cartographer, Garland gets to go out to do trail research quite often. He says a quarter of his hikes in achieving the 1400-mile White Mountains mark were work-related.
The trail experiences, he says, inform his work while enriching his life.
“I like bringing to my job first-hand information about trails, access and conditions. I am in contact with a lot of friends who are out hiking and with trail clubs, too, and all of that collective knowledge is very useful,” said Garland.
The member-supported, non-profit 1876-founded AMC publishes a number of guidebooks and maps. It’s Garland and crew’s job to update them with new additions approximately every five years.
“We use GPS in that work — we use a differential GPS which is industrial grade equipment of higher accuracy than your typical handheld recreational model,” explained Garland.
The AMC recently published a new White Mountain National Forest map and guide.
“It came out in August. It’s a large format map of the nearly 800,000-acre White Mountain National Forest,” said Garland. “We wanted to show a unified integral overview of the whole thing. To do it, we had to take one piece of the Kilkenny Range region north of Route 2 and put it on the reverse side of the paper. The idea of producing this product I floated to the club four years ago. We actually produced it over the past seven months.”
The department is currently working on updating the ever-popular bible of White Mountain hikers, the AMC White Mountain Guide. The 27th edition is due to be replaced in 2007 — the 100th anniversary of the publication of the first White Mountain Guide in 1907.
“We want to do something special with it,” said Garland, ever ready to take to the trails in pursuit of hiking knowledge — and spiritual solace.
More Than Just Lines On A Map
AMC Cartographer Hikes All 1400 WMNF Map Miles
From The Mountain Ear
Sept. 8, 2005
copyright The Mountain Ear
By Tom Eastman
Hiking enthusiast Larry Garland of Jackson is a linear sort of fellow, so to speak — he’s a cartographer for the Appalachian Mountain Club, and it’s his job to measure distances and altitudes. As a hiker, however, he well knows that the shortest distance between points is not what it’s about — it’s more about the journey.
A transplant from the financial world of downtown Boston who used to gaze longingly from his 31st floor office toward Mt. Monadnock, Garland, 54, made the move from the city to the mountains nine years ago — and he’s never looked back.
A world traveler as well as White Mountain hiker, he has visited all 50 states and more than 20 foreign countries over the years. He has also climbed four of the seven continental highest peaks: South America’s Aconcagua, Europe’s Elbrus, Africa’s Kilimanjaro and North America’s Denali (Everest may be out of his reach, financially and otherwise, but Australia’s Carstenz Pyramids and Antarctica’s Mt. Vinson may some day be attainable by Garland).
Never a peak-bagger per se, he recently has added two achievements to his hiking resume, the sum of which may make him unique in the annals of local history:
He has hiked the 175 peaks in New Hampshire measuring more than 3000 feet — and he did them all in winter. Now, as of July, he became the second or third person to have hiked every mile of every trail listed in the AMC’s White Mountain Guide maps.
“As far as I know,” said the ever-philosophical, quiet-spoken Garland in a recent interview, “nobody has accomplished both of these — peaks and trails. I have traveled every mile of every trail published on the AMC White Mountain Guide maps, including the White Mountain National Forest, Squam Lakes region and Mahoosucs. Considering that few people are interested in partaking in these obscure events, much of this hiking has required solo efforts of some distance and odd logistics.”
Garland has hiked approximately 1400 miles of trails in the region, including in the state parks of Crawford and Franconia.
Although some people bag peaks as a compulsion, Garland says that was not the case with him.
“It was not an explicit decision to go out and do all of these,” he explained. “The hikes were conducted over a number of years, both for my work with the AMC and as recreation. I have been hiking in the Whites since the mid-1980s. But I would have to say that part of the motivation and inspiration is exploring new places and discovering those places where I haven’t been before.”
Garland says hiking for him is often a metaphysical journey.
“It’s a personal enrichment for me —when you walk into a particular setting like a stand of old growth forest or a mountain vista and field with the awe and mystery and wonder of it all, it gives me a great respect for the natural order of things,” notes Garland, underscoring that it’s all about attaining a sense of balance and inner peace in the often hectic world we live in.
“Hiking,” he said, “can give you an appreciation of the natural order — a state of peacefulness or calm or balance. It’s not always like that; but to me it’s a parallel with a chosen lifestyle,” said Garland, whose chosen way of life is to live and work in a community where nature is close at hand, and where a sense of sharing is what it’s all about.
“I have a lot of interests that involve the natural community — from my serving on the board of the Upper Saco Valley Land Trust to volunteering to teach Edu-Trips for the Mount Washington Observatory (I teach a winter mapping the Whites course). I also spend time as a volunteer for fund-raisers for groups such as Tin Mountain Conservation Center and Jen’s Friends [Cancer Foundation]. In other words, it’s not all about hiking or recreation, but it is about making a connection to the special place where we live,” said Garland.
A bachelor, he says he has no preference for hiking alone or with friends — each experience offers its own reward.
“Going solo or with friends definitely offer different experiences,” he explained, noting that the solo experiences — especially those undertaken in winter — bring one in touch with that knife’s edge of potential danger that keeps one sharp. “When you hike solo, you have to be totally self reliant. Some of those trips might be very long and remote. I have to be comfortable with accepting the risks that go with that.”
Having taught winter mountaineering at the AMC, as well as map and compass navigating workshops, he says he feels at home in the remote woods.
Ironically, given his vocation as a map-maker, he says he prefers not to use GPS (global positioning system) when he hikes.
“I choose not to use GPS when I am hiking recreationally — as I said at the outset, a lot of personal fulfillment that I get when I hike is from the connection with nature and the landscape, and I like to experience nature on nature’s terms. I also do not carry a cell phone,” said Garland.
When hiking with friends, the fun is often in the joy of discovery together — and in the conversation.
“Solo hiking is about self-reliance; social hiking has other rewards. One of my last hikes I did — the last one to complete the Whites — I did with friends and two children. It was the Boulder Loop Trail, off the Kanc near the Albany Covered Bridge. A good family hike, I had never done it before. Hiking it with kids allowed me to experience it through children’s eyes. It’s an educational trail, with signs posted by the Forest Service along the route. To see their sense of wonder was great,” said Garland.
As the AMC’s cartographer, Garland gets to go out to do trail research quite often. He says a quarter of his hikes in achieving the 1400-mile White Mountains mark were work-related.
The trail experiences, he says, inform his work while enriching his life.
“I like bringing to my job first-hand information about trails, access and conditions. I am in contact with a lot of friends who are out hiking and with trail clubs, too, and all of that collective knowledge is very useful,” said Garland.
The member-supported, non-profit 1876-founded AMC publishes a number of guidebooks and maps. It’s Garland and crew’s job to update them with new additions approximately every five years.
“We use GPS in that work — we use a differential GPS which is industrial grade equipment of higher accuracy than your typical handheld recreational model,” explained Garland.
The AMC recently published a new White Mountain National Forest map and guide.
“It came out in August. It’s a large format map of the nearly 800,000-acre White Mountain National Forest,” said Garland. “We wanted to show a unified integral overview of the whole thing. To do it, we had to take one piece of the Kilkenny Range region north of Route 2 and put it on the reverse side of the paper. The idea of producing this product I floated to the club four years ago. We actually produced it over the past seven months.”
The department is currently working on updating the ever-popular bible of White Mountain hikers, the AMC White Mountain Guide. The 27th edition is due to be replaced in 2007 — the 100th anniversary of the publication of the first White Mountain Guide in 1907.
“We want to do something special with it,” said Garland, ever ready to take to the trails in pursuit of hiking knowledge — and spiritual solace.
