(This column was
first published in the June 3, 2002 Buffalo News.)
For some time I had wanted to explore the Hudson
River. After watching Bill Moyers' PBS special on this important waterway, I
couldn't wait. In mid-May off I went.
Instead of boating, I followed both banks of the
Hudson as closely as possible by moped. My trip took me from near the source of
the river in the Adirondacks to the Rip Van Winkle Bridge near Catskill.
Because I took daily round trips, I rode 335 miles in the four days I was out.
(The entire river from source to mid-Manhattan is 317 miles.)
Despite this spring's uncomfortable weather, it was a
wonderful outing. I wore layer upon layer of winter gear so I was able to
withstand the near freezing temperatures and I only suffered through that
biker's challenge, rain, on one day. That night I retreated shivering to a
motel to dry out and warm up. The other nights I slept comfortably in the back
of my SUV after spending the evenings studying the Hudson's history in books by
Robert Boyle and Carl Carmer.
I have several times been to the designated source of
the Hudson River at that beautifully named Lake Tear of the Clouds on the
4322-foot flank of Mount Marcy. The nearest I got to Lake Tear this time was
seven miles away along another of the source streams north of Tahawus, the
mining center on Sanford Lake. After having ridden past the ugly mine tailings,
I found the end of the road high peaks trailhead a lovely spot with the roaring
whitewater of Calamity Brook a few yards off and the mountains visible through
the birches and pines. The stream was less than ten yards wide there and a few
yards upstream I could cross it by jumping from rock to rock.
The elevation at that point was about 2100 feet,
already more than half way down to the sea level tidewaters at Troy. From Troy
the remainder of the river is an estuary, its current almost entirely lost in
the in-and-out workings of tides. It is said that a log would take almost a
year to float from Albany to the ocean. It would be carried eight miles
downstream and then seven and a half miles back upstream on each ebb and flow.
The only part of the upper Hudson that I could not
follow was the 22-mile roadless stretch where the river flows through a gorge
between Newcomb and North River. I had to drive around that favorite section of
canoers and kayakers. By the time I got back to the river it was already over
fifty yards wide.
The rest of the Hudson was mostly flatwater with only
a few high falls, most notably Glens Falls, the site of the famous cave episode
in Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans. By the time I reached Catskill the river was a mile across.
I stopped often to read roadside historical markers
for so much of our history took place within a few yards of this river. For
example, I passed where Jennie M'Crea was scalped, where Burgoyne's surrendered
troops crossed and where the ever-burning Mohican council fire was located.
One result of my early trip was that each night I
simply pulled off the road to camp a few feet from the riverbank. My favorite
site was near Lake Luzerne where I parked in a field of spring beauties. The
next morning the repeated who-hoots-for-you-all calls of a barred owl served as
a pleasant reveille.
Anyone planning a similar trip should obtain Arthur
Adams, The Hudson: A Guidebook to the River, which provides excellent directions for road or river
travel.-- Gerry Rising