In 1980, Sports illustrated published an excellent article about the Adirondack region called, No Landscape More Brightly Gemmed, by Robert H. Boyle. It is a natural history of the region from the perspective of an outdoorsman, concluding with an description of the impact of acid rain.
Boyle says that the Iroquois considered the Adirondacks a barren region. The word Adirondack is an Iroquois word meaning bark eaters. According to Wikipedia, before the arrival of the White Man, the Adirondacks were occupied by the Algonquin, with the Iroquois to the west.
My current interest in the Adirondacks is hiking. This past September with several family members we climbed Cascade and Porter Mountain. The upper part of Cascade is almost all smooth rock. As the wooded part of the trail ends, it leads up a steep rock face. As I gazed upward at the rock face, I saw a long gust of wind blow down the rock face from the top. The reason I "saw it" was that the wind was saturated with mist. It was enchanting, like seeing a waterfall in the air, like something from a fairy tale.
Boyle says, "The park contains 42 mountains higher than 4,000 feet, 11 of them with Alpine summits harboring plants not otherwise found south of Labrador..." According to Wikipedia, "Atop the highest peaks, above the tree line, there is a total of 87 acres (35 ha) of extraordinarily fragile alpine ecosystem; the amount of this ecosystem is constantly changing due to variation in the climate from year to year." Last September, when we hiked Cascade Mountain. The first thing that comes to mind when I recall the hike, apart from the exhaustion, was the very noticeable change in vegetation to Alpine at the higher elevations. As I approached the top, the evergreen trees took on a lighter shade of green, and the pine needles and bark had a much rougher, weather beaten look. Lichen grew on most of the trees and many of the rocks.
The upper part of Cascade is almost all rock, but on the level spots and in crevices, the vegetation is alpine. One spot had a sign asking hikers to not disturb that particular area stating that it was an alpine habitat and that the ecosystem was very fragile.
The SI article mentions the absence of Moose in the Adirondacks; however, there are now about a thousand Moose in the region. See Adirondack Moose Whisperer Speaks.
In the weeks after we climbed Cascade and Port mountains, I was enthused enough to read, The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper. It is centered in the area around Lake George. In the novel, Lake George and the valley it sits in is called Horicon. The Deer Slayer is a more sophisticated novel, but The Last of the Mohicans is more entertaining. Of course, there's always the film, The Last of the Mohicans (1992), starring Daniel Day-Lewis. The fort in the story is Fort William Henry which has been preserved as a museum in the village of Lake George. The waterfall, behind which the protagonists hide, is how the city of Glens Falls got it name. The various springs in the area are also in the story.
Boyle says that the Iroquois considered the Adirondacks a barren region. The word Adirondack is an Iroquois word meaning bark eaters. According to Wikipedia, before the arrival of the White Man, the Adirondacks were occupied by the Algonquin, with the Iroquois to the west.
My current interest in the Adirondacks is hiking. This past September with several family members we climbed Cascade and Porter Mountain. The upper part of Cascade is almost all smooth rock. As the wooded part of the trail ends, it leads up a steep rock face. As I gazed upward at the rock face, I saw a long gust of wind blow down the rock face from the top. The reason I "saw it" was that the wind was saturated with mist. It was enchanting, like seeing a waterfall in the air, like something from a fairy tale.
Boyle says, "The park contains 42 mountains higher than 4,000 feet, 11 of them with Alpine summits harboring plants not otherwise found south of Labrador..." According to Wikipedia, "Atop the highest peaks, above the tree line, there is a total of 87 acres (35 ha) of extraordinarily fragile alpine ecosystem; the amount of this ecosystem is constantly changing due to variation in the climate from year to year." Last September, when we hiked Cascade Mountain. The first thing that comes to mind when I recall the hike, apart from the exhaustion, was the very noticeable change in vegetation to Alpine at the higher elevations. As I approached the top, the evergreen trees took on a lighter shade of green, and the pine needles and bark had a much rougher, weather beaten look. Lichen grew on most of the trees and many of the rocks.
The upper part of Cascade is almost all rock, but on the level spots and in crevices, the vegetation is alpine. One spot had a sign asking hikers to not disturb that particular area stating that it was an alpine habitat and that the ecosystem was very fragile.
The SI article mentions the absence of Moose in the Adirondacks; however, there are now about a thousand Moose in the region. See Adirondack Moose Whisperer Speaks.
In the weeks after we climbed Cascade and Port mountains, I was enthused enough to read, The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper. It is centered in the area around Lake George. In the novel, Lake George and the valley it sits in is called Horicon. The Deer Slayer is a more sophisticated novel, but The Last of the Mohicans is more entertaining. Of course, there's always the film, The Last of the Mohicans (1992), starring Daniel Day-Lewis. The fort in the story is Fort William Henry which has been preserved as a museum in the village of Lake George. The waterfall, behind which the protagonists hide, is how the city of Glens Falls got it name. The various springs in the area are also in the story.
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