The most cherished memories of my childhood were formed in the Northern Kingdom of New York at the Haystack Mountain and Bear Paw hunting Camps. Unfortunately, many of the men who were instrumental in making these memories have either passed away or have aged beyond their ability to pass on their legacy. Many younger men who would traditionally take their father's place have been trapped on the treadmill of "modern life" without the time, patience, or social support to make their own memories. This book is about the people and events that contributed to my gradual development from a boy to a man. The recording of these stories is important because the opportunities for boys to learn to become men are slowly being eroded by efforts to implement a "gender neutral" society. The prevailing attitude of the self-appointed arbitrators of "rights" and "victimization" is that all-male anything is dangerous and should be abolished, controlled, or mitigated by coeducation. My hope is that this book will inspire a revival of camp life in the Northern Kingdom or, at the least, be a record of what it was like to be a member of a group of men before our modern-day culture discovered them and extinguished their existence.
