Virginia Boyle Traver crosses a stream on the way to Preston Ponds.

Outdoors writer Gillian Scott takes a photo of flowers at Preston Ponds during a recent outing.

A rocky stream lets out near a leanto on the shore of Henderson Lake in the Adirondack High Peaks.

I’ve had a lot of adventures in the past few decades and one lesson has stuck with me more than others: When you’re focused on reaching your destination, whether it’s a summit or the next town, the places you pass along the way sometimes get neglected.

When I started planning a backpack last month, I specifically wanted to savor a place I’d only passed by before, a place that had gotten just a glance but really deserved more attention. A place where I’d stopped to take a break during a day trip and said, “I wish I could wake up here tomorrow morning.”

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My friend Virginia agreed to go with me. We tossed destination ideas back and forth — Flowed Lands in the Adirondack High Peaks region, several spots in the Pharoah Lakes Wilderness, a pond near Lake George — before settling on a backpack into Henderson Lake. We........

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