It hadn’t rained for a week, but a gray mist had moved in that day. A mile back, on Long Pond, a young-of-the-year loon splashed across dark water, testing still-useless wings. My arms were straining in slow motion. Alone in a canoe, I was moving neither forward nor back, stuck in some sort of bad dream. A silt barrier just below the black surface was blocking the entrance from Pink Pond to the Ledge Pond outlet in the St. Regis Canoe Area.
Thanks to those master sculptors—the glaciers that reshaped this region tens of thousands of years ago—Adirondack beaches put dull-as-seawater, flat-horizoned shoresides to shame. Here’s just a handful of the picture-perfect swimming spots hidden throughout the park, all with toe-tickling sand, pure pools and vivid views, along with the more mundane necessities: bathrooms (or, in one case, an outhouse) and picnic sites. Since hours and regulations vary, phone numbers have been provided.
Lost hikers, splintered bones and wildfires—a forest ranger reflects on more than two decades of coming to the rescue. Plus the oldest tavern in the Adirondacks, a trip through James Bond’s Lake George, and new energy in Schroon Lake.
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