Chapter History

The group of people that eventually became the Mohican Chapter started hiking in 1983. Pat Kimball, the chapter's founding father aka "Chief Mohican", wanted to organize those who shared his interest in hiking on trails in Westchester and Putnam Counties. Kimball wanted to be associated with a larger organization rather than just be a local club, and he found out that the Adirondack Mountain Club would create a new chapter if certain requirements were met. There needed to be an organizational and informational meeting followed by regular meetings for one year before a chapter charter would be issued by ADK.

The first Mohican Chapter informational meeting was held in January of 1984. The charter for the Mohican Chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club was issued on June 15, 1985. There were 22 members. Paul Wollner was the first chair and monthly meetings were held at Westmoreland Sanctuary in Mount Kisco. Fairfield County, Connecticut as well as Westchester and Putnam in New York where the membership is based.

At around the same time in January 1984, the Jaggers Camp and Trail Outing Club (JCT) began meeting in Mo Jagger's store. The members enjoyed camping and canoeing and planned their outings at a monthly meeting held at the store. By January 1989, the group had grown to a size that could no longer comfortably meet at there. The JCT decided to merge with the already existing Mohican Chapter of ADK. Twenty-five members of JCT became members of ADK.

From this small beginning, the Mohican Chapter has grown to membership in the hundreds. Over the years hiking, paddling, cross-country ski, and bike trips have been offered to the members as well as weekend trips. We have participated in trail building and trail maintenance and the chapter has "adopted" various trails in the local area through the NY/NJ Trail Conference.

Some of our more strenuous outings have been to the Adirondacks and the Catskills in both summer and winter (snowshoes and crampons required!). As a result, some of our members have become Adirondack 46ers, having climbed all peaks over 4000 feet of elevation in the Adirondacks, and/or members of the Catskill 3500 Club, which requires one to climb all the peaks in that range over 3500 feet. Several Mohican members have completed the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia, 2190 miles. Two separate groups have completed the Long Path in 1997 and 2005 – a 358-mile trail from the George Washington Bridge to John Boyd Thatcher State Park near Albany.

Three important events in our chapter history were sponsoring a very successful ADK Spring Outing in the Berkshires in 1993 and hosting the ADK annual meeting in Fishkill in 1996. These were both weekend events that involved organizing lodging, meals, outings, and speakers for participants from all chapters of ADK. More recently, we participated with four other downstate chapters to organize and run the ADK Fall Outing at the Stephen and Betsy Corman Camp in Harriman State Park in 2019.

In 2010, the Mohican Chapter began an affiliation with another local club, the Westchester Trails Association (WTA), in order to broaden the offerings for each club. Many of our outings are joint and many people belong to both clubs.