George W. Sears
George Washington Sears (December 2, 1821 – May 1, 1890) was a sportswriter for Forest and Stream magazine in the 1880s and an early conservationist. His stories, appearing under the pen name, "Nessmuk" popularized self-guided canoe camping tours of the Adirondack lakes in open, lightweight solo canoes and what is today called ultralight camping.
Canoeing had been popularized by Scottish lawyer John MacGregor in the 1860s, but the typical canoe trip of the day employed expert guides and heavy canoes. Sears, who was 5 feet 3 inches (1.60 m) tall and 103 pounds (47 kg) had a 9-foot-long (2.7 m), 10 1⁄2-pound (4.8 kg) solo canoe built by J. Henry Rushton of Canton, New York. He named it the Sairy Gamp (the name of a Dickens character) and in it he completed a 266-mile (428 km) journey through the central Adirondacks. He was 62 years old and in frail health (tuberculosis and asthma) at the time. William Henry Harrison Murray's Adventures in the Wilderness, published in 1869, had praised the Adirondacks as having a healthy atmosphere for consumptives and Verplanck Colvin's enthusiastic writing about the Adirondack wilderness had further inspired the trip. The Sairy Gamp was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution and is now on loan to the Adirondack Museum.
Podcasts:
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by Queensberry
No Smoke
by: QueensberryYou said you love me, is that a matter of
fact,fact,fact
I guess I fell for it, almost believed in it, I let my
heart rule in my head
You really got to me, your sensuality, but pleasure
ain't my only need
You thought you'd pull the wool over the little lambs
eye (Do you think I'd be that blind)
I was spellbound hypnotized but don't you patronize
[Chorus]
You said you love me, Oh I was so blind
You had my world spinning round and round
You said you need me, is that a matter of fact
Oh, everybody's talking behind my back
You said I was your heart and soul desire
There ain't no smoke without fire
An educated guess tells me your faithless, lie through
your teeth but your eyes confess
You got no dignity, you ain't no good for me, so save
your tears and get off your knees
You thought you'd pull the wool over the little lambs
eye (Do you think I'd be that blind)
I was spellbound hypnotized but don't you patronize
[Chorus]
You said you love me, Oh I was so blind
You had my world spinning round and round
You said you need me, is that a matter of fact
Oh, everybody's talking behind my back
You said I was your heart and soul desire
There ain't no smoke without fire
[Bridge]
Oh, you said you love me
Yeah, yeah, I was so blind
There ain't no smoke without fire
You pulled the wool over the little lambs eyes
I was spellbound hypnotized, oh oh
[Chorus]
You said you love me, Oh I was so blind
You had my world spinning round and round
You said you need me, is that a matter of fact
Oh, everybody's talking behind my back
You said I was your heart and soul desire
There ain't no smoke without fire
You said you love me, Oh I was so blind
You had my world spinning round and round
You said you need me, is that a matter of fact
Oh, everybody's talking behind my back
You said I was your heart and soul desire