Thirty years after its initial publication, Forest and Crag: A History of Hiking, Trail Blazing, and Adventure in the Northeast Mountains has been republished in an anniversary edition (SUNY Press, 2019).

Laura and Guy Waterman’s book is a history of the love affair with the mountains of the northern forests from the Catskills and the Adirondacks of New York to the Green Mountains of Vermont, the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and the mountains of Maine.

Forest and Crag  – a true tome of almost 900 pages, including an index – includes the struggles of settlers in the Northern Forest; claimed first ascents of every major peak in the Northeast; the building of the trail networks, including the Appalachian Trail, the Northville-Placid Trail, and the High Peaks trail network; the golden era of the summit resort hotels; and the unforeseen consequences of the backpacking boom of the 1970s and 80s.

Laura and Guy Waterman spent a decade researching and writing Forest and Crag, and in it they draw together widely scattered sources. What emerges is the story of our ever-evolving relationship with the mountains and wilderness, that historians, outdoor enthusiasts, and armchair adventurers alike with find interesting and useful.

Laura Waterman and Guy Waterman (1932–2000) volunteered for the United States Forest Service and for hiking and conservation organizations, maintaining the Franconia Ridge Loop for almost two decades. They were awarded the American Alpine Club’s 2012 David R. Brower Award for outstanding service in mountain conservation, and the Waterman Fund to preserve wildness and service the alpine areas across the Northeast was established in 2000.

The Waterman’s wrote numerous articles and books on the outdoors, including The Green Guide to Low-Impact Hiking and Camping, Wilderness Ethics: Preserving the Spirit of Wildness, and Yankee Rock & Ice: A History of Climbing in the Northeastern United States. Laura’s memoir, Losing the Garden: The Story of a Marriage, recounts their thirty years of homesteading.

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Books noticed at Adirondack Almanack may have been provided by their publishers.