NORWICH – Monthly meetings are a regular practice for members of the Bullthistle Hiking Club, but not often does the group of avid hikers hear from a special guest speaker.

At 7 p.m., June 7 in the Community Room at the Norwich Family YMCA, the group will welcome Charles Yaple, professor at SUNY Cortland and author of the book “Foxey Brown: A Story of an Adirondack Outlaw, Hermit and Guide as He Might Have Told It.”

“We’re excited to have him speak because we don’t get too many guest speakers from outside the area,” said Bullthistle Presentation Coordinator Chris Sprague. “I don’t know too much about [Foxey Brown]. He seems like an interesting character to hear about.”

Yaple’s book – a fact-based story – gives an account of late 19th century railroad worker and college student David Brennan, who fled to the Adirondack Mountain wilderness after a Boston barroom brawl left him convinced he had killed a man. Upon changing his name to David Brown, he became known as “Foxey,” a crafty woodsman and popular hiking guide until a hunting trip tragedy led to the largest manhunt in Adirondack history.