July 2007
My Lost Leatherman
My tale begins with the ending of the spring semester of 2007 at Paul Smiths College in the Adirondack Mountains of UPSTATE New York. The Adirondacks is a 6 million acre park that is located in Northern New York State in which I reside and go to college in. In preparation for the summer practicum, a 24-day hiking/backpacking and canoeing trip in the backcountry of the Adirondacks, my parents helped me purchase the gear that this college course required. Amongst this gear was a brand new Leatherman Blast Multi-Tool with a leather sheath. This was something very special being as my Dad had picked it out and had wanted me to have a "Leatherman" on this trip.
Well....I survived my backcountry trek along with five other students and two instructors. Unfortunately my "Leatherman Blast" did not. My "Leatherman Blast" accompanied me up several of the high peaks...including...Mt. Marcy, Mt. Haystack, Emmons, Redfield and Skylight. It was an extremely handy tool to have on this backpacking excursion. We hiked approximately 100 miles and did another 30 miles of canoeing and during one of these ascent/decent trips the brain fell off of my backpack and took a tumble down the mountain. In picking up the brain of my pack I didn't realize my "Leatherman Blast" had fallen out.
I did not find this out until later that evening when we set up camp for the night that it was gone. I was extremely upset at losing this tool. My dad had picked it out for me and now I had lost it and I was worried how he'd react knowing I lost something that he had specifically picked out for me. No need to worry though my Dad understood being an outdoorsman himself. You walk in the woods things get lost! Well to make a long story short I came out of this wilderness experience loving the outdoors but sad in the fact that my Leatherman Blast is still up there on one of the mountains of the Adirondacks somewhere. Maybe another hiker will come across it and get some good use out of the tool. I’ll definitely get another multi-tool for my next wilderness excursion.
Kleigh O.
Galway, NY
OK, you voyeur, you. Enough of reading other people's stories. It's time you told your own tale of gripping heroism or even just neat DIY'ism. We know there's a Shakespeare in you somewhere. Don't make us use the Steens to find it.