Susie Localio as a counselor (CTT 55-58, staff 65-80, 89-94, grandparent 19, Balanced Rocks Circle Member) with a camper enjoying their “summer feet.” (Photo: Susan Topper)

Walking barefoot in the grass is something Treetops honed into a lifelong habit. As a camper, the soles of my feet developed leather-like calluses, which stood up to the gravel driveway on the way to the garden. Except for hikes, visits to the barnyard, the riding ring, and the occasional early-morning frost, one could enjoy moving about in bare feet almost the entire time at Camp. Sixty years later, the first thing I do each morning is to jog barefoot around our hayfield with the dogs. Footgear is worn only when the temperature is below 45 degrees.

My second hike as a first-year was a bushwhack of Big Slide. Don Rand led the trip. We took a trail to Second Brook, rock-hopped up the stream for a long time, and headed into the bush up the mountainside. Don hoped to find traces of the trail Treetops had created in World War II to get to the Garden, but we never found it.

It was a beautiful morning when we left camp so I didn’t bring along any rain gear. As we walked past the barn, Don pointed out the herringbone pattern of the cirrus clouds and mentioned the possibility of rain. On the climb we hit a few small patches of blowdown. Don’s little terrier Maggie went under the fallen trees. The sky was still clear when we made the summit of Big Slide. After lunch, we started down the Slide Brook Trail. Clouds came in. They darkened. A cold downpour soaked us. Lightning and thunder crashed through the trees. The final three miles of our hike on the Johns Brook Trail seemed endless. Finally, we reached the Garden. I was frozen, wet, and scared. It took me years to get over a fear of rain on hiking trips, including my first several years as a counselor. I had to pretend I didn’t mind. Eventually the fear faded away, but not soon enough.

Campers were not allowed to have candy in Camp, so the most special treat we enjoyed were the Van Houten chocolate bars we received on more strenuous trips into the woods. The stated purpose was to give everyone an energy boost in the afternoon. It also provided a significant morale boost. The flavors included hazelnut, orange, milk chocolate, coffee, and bittersweet. My favorites were hazelnut and orange. Some campers ate their bar within minutes. Others nibbled at their bar for an hour as if they were taunting the faster eaters.

Paul Waddell was a camper who loved to hike as much as he loved to talk. Sometimes I had enough of his chatter. I tried different ways to turn off his motor mouth. On several occasions I told him, “Paul, remember, silence is the hiker’s best friend.” This rarely worked. One day on a long hike out from the peaks we had just climbed, I succeeded in spreading out the line of campers. I had the immediate woods all to myself, briefly. Paul caught up with me and started into a story. Several words into the story he stopped and said, “Oh, yes, silence is…”—he was quiet for the next ten minutes. A sweet victory.

Sandy Waddell (CTT 67-71) and Liz Leiman (CTT 71) on Mount Redfield in 1971.

Tom Clark and I led a triple-overnight hike to the Lake Colden area. Campers Todd Weber and Tom Cohen became forty-sixers on Cliff and Tom Clark became a forty-sixer on Allen. To our surprise, Roger Loud led a separate single-overnight trip which rendezvoused with us on the hike up Allen for Tom’s celebration.

Liz Leiman was one of the girls on the trip. For scheduling reasons it was difficult to find a second girl with hiking experience. The other girl hikers were committed to horse and canoe trips. Sandy Waddell was a super who was mostly interested in riding. She had one 46er— Lower Wolfjaw—which she had climbed every summer since she first arrived in Junior Camp. “I liked it when I was in Junior Camp,” she said. “So I put my hand up for it again each summer.” This was good enough for me. Sandy joined our seven-mountain expedition and was a delight the whole trip. She said on several occasions, “My mother is never going to believe this.”