More Articles From

Niki Kourofsky

Rustic Invention: The Art of Paul Lakata

Rustic Invention: The Art of Paul Lakata

Artist Paul Lakata brought home one of the most coveted honors at the Rustic Furniture Fair in September 2024. The annual exhibition, mounted by Adirondack Experience, in Blue Mountain Lake, showcases artisans who specialize in crafting classic and contemporary rustic furnishings.

Bird Notes

Bird Notes

Boreal chickadee photograph by Jeff Nadler   Want to go birding in the park? Let guide Joan Collins show you the way   Know Before You Go: Learn the birds around your home first. A feeder is a great way to attract them. Most species are habitat specific, so...

A Massawepie Paddle-Bike Combo

A Massawepie Paddle-Bike Combo

The Massawepie Mire, located near the tiny hamlet of Gale, which lies just east of the tiny hamlet of Childwold, deserves a place on every Adirondack bucket list. The wetland complex includes a 740-acre peatland, the largest in New York State—a remarkable habitat easily accessible by an old railbed. The bog harbors several avian species sought after by birders, including the endangered spruce grouse.

Manhunt Revisited: 10 Years After the Dannemora Escape

Manhunt Revisited: 10 Years After the Dannemora Escape

A mother accompanied her child to the school bus with a rifle slung over her shoulder. Guns were loaded and propped near doors and windows. People slept with hammers and baseball bats. They locked their houses, camps, cars and trucks—some for the first time ever. Armed officers lined roadways, searched passing vehicles, and swept forests and fields while the chop of helicopters drowned out the sounds of Adirondack springtime.

Character Study

Character Study

Every Adirondack small town has its own cast of characters whose presence becomes as familiar as its landmarks, and just as entwined with its sense of place. For the better part of five decades, the affable Keene Valley artist Frank Owen has played a recurring role around town, with frequent appearances at the Ausable Inn, where you may find him chatting up hikers, contractors and anyone else who happens upon the only local watering hole.

Renaissance Man

Renaissance Man

I remember the gloss of a fresh coat of varnish on a newly built boat. I remember the coziness of the shop from the woodstove in the dead of winter. But even without it, my dad’s energy filled the area. He was calm and focused, with a passion for his craft. For years...

Eternal Love

Eternal Love

The best years of my life have, so far, passed in a crease of the Ausable River Valley. The love of my life, our children, our friends, our trials and triumphs—it’s all happened here. Recently, after the kids were tucked in and the dog walked, my husband and I sat on our front porch, the river roaring after days of rain, the creeping night swallowing the Jay Range in the distance.

Music Lessons

Music Lessons

It is easy to imagine that spring in the Adirondacks is a concert. The trills of toads and background refrains of frogs and the choral fervor of coyotes. The staccatos and crescendos of waterfowl and the tremulous songs of meadow and forest birds. A white-throated sparrow whistling “Taps” at dusk while I sit in a rocking chair on the porch of my Long Lake cabin.

Raiding Party

Raiding Party

Fort Ticonderoga hosts a three-day reenactment of the capture of Fort Ticonderoga on the 250th anniversary of the raid.

Cover Story

Cover Story

It was a cool, perfect afternoon with fluffy clouds floating over Upper St. Regis Lake. My plan was to spend the day rowing my guideboat around the lake in search of a sunset composition for a photograph I had etched in my mind. I had borrowed a lantern from a friend, and brought along a red-and-black checkered wool blanket I had found on the back side of Colvin Mountain.

On Sale Now

December 2025

Pulling back the curtain on the rough-and-tumble world of backcountry guides, plus Old Forge’s beloved Strand Theatre, the life of a master woodworker, Santas on the slopes and more!

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