Visitor from the Past

2-3 August 2014

Bob Koppe was a couple of years ahead of me when I was a student at SUNY College of Forestry. I never thought much about what his major was; I don't even remember if I realized that he was also a student at what is now known as the college of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF). I just figured he was another one of us hooked on the Outing Club. Anyway he was visiting the Northwest to attend an Appalachian Mountain Club hiking week based out of Packwood, WA, and he decided to drop in on old friends from his past. 

Bob got here Saturday around 1030 or so. The weather didn't look too promising with a strong chance of thunderstorms, unusual for the Northwest. I was planning to drive down to the northern boundary of Mt Rainier NP and hike to Summit Lake, but gave up on that idea when I found out that Bob had already done six days of hiking in the Rainier area, besides, the thought of being stuck in a thunderstorm on the trail did not appeal. So we hung out at home catching up on the intervening 49 years. Bob had gone on to graduate school in the Midwest (Ohio State?) and then to MIT where he continued hiking and climbing in the White Mountains. He worked many years for Con-Ed of NY keeping their nuclear power plants running. Apparently he learned a lot about power plants in general because he is only semi-retired now and serves as an expert witness in court cases involving power plants of all kinds. He lives outside of Boulder. Bob is a couple of years older than me  but is still actively hiking with the ADK and AMC, especially at the fall hike week(s) in the Whites.

On Sunday morning, shortly before Bob had to head off to meet with his next friend in Redmond, WA (then on to Mt. Hood, and to meet up with Paul Haggard near Sisters, then to pick up friends at the Reno airport to hike in the Sierra), I dug out my old clippings from the SU "Daily Orange" about his winter trip to the White Mountains to do a traverse of the Presidential Range. He and his three companions, Craig F., Peter, Catelli, and Peter Bradford, got trapped by a storm and had to wait it out in the Edmunds Col emergency shelter between Adams and Jefferson. They were safe but hungry, and just beginning to head off to finish the traverse when a search plane spotted them and the rescuers insisted they be flown out by helicopter. I gave Bob the clippings since I had no connection to the event except that my Kelty pack had gone on the trip. I dug out my earliest box of slides and found just a very few photos of SUOC activities. Maybe I have some more printed pictures somewhere.

Around noon Bob loaded his Honda Fit and headed for Redmond, his next stop. C.J. and I then started packing up ourselves for an Olympic Peninsula trip.