The Long View

The Long View

Photograph courtesy of the author   Looking back at my Saranac Lake childhood Saranac Lake, with a population of just over 5,000 people, is the largest village in the Adirondack Park. This still surprises me even though I’ve known it for at least half my life....
The Old Man and the Loppet

The Old Man and the Loppet

Illustration by Mark Wilson   Taking on Lake Placid’s toughest Nordic race   It all started sometime the summer before last, when my son Nathan suggested he would come back East and we would both ski the Loppet. Held at the Nordic Center at Mount Van...
In Limbo

In Limbo

Illustration by Alison Haas The continued—and heartbreaking—search for the missing “I hate nature.” He said it as we sat in a college classroom, our desks pushed into a circle. I had just explained that our semester would focus on reading and writing about the natural...
And Nature for All

And Nature for All

photograph courtesy of the author   In the Adirondacks, I’ve found all the outdoor adventures I dreamed of as a child in the South Bronx. Now I want to share those experiences with other people like me As a child growing up in the South Bronx in the 1960s and...
To the Mountain

To the Mountain

Finding wilderness in a scarred landscape Photograph courtesy of the author My hometown of Morrisonville, on the Saranac River, is a five-minute ride away from the stores and fast-food joints of Plattsburgh. But follow the river west and those same five minutes bring...
Growing up Minerva

Growing up Minerva

An insider’s guide Photograph Courtesy of the Author In a land of small towns, my hometown is one of the smallest. A map dot so tiny, it’s often left off the map entirely; its presence is as rare as finding my name on a rack of tiny license plates in a Lake...
My Adirondack Life

My Adirondack Life

How can the park become more diverse and welcoming to people of all backgrounds? Here’s what growing up black in the North Country taught me Photographs courtesy of the author When people ask me about my life as a black person growing up in the Adirondacks among a...
The Property

The Property

Illustration by Kristina Swarner Finding hope on a tiny piece of the Adirondacks Down a half-mile dirt road sits our 1.1 acre of semi-tamed wilderness. Thirteen years ago, before the chainsaw and wood splitter began their work, our lot on Little Clear Pond was a...
Crossing the Border

Crossing the Border

Bringing Out the Dead author Joe Connelly on finding home In early May of 2001, my wife and I packed up our 10th-floor apartment in Manhattan, loaded the kids in the car with our closest belongings, and headed north for a new life in the Adirondacks. We’d bought the...
Rebel Love

Rebel Love

illustration by Kristina Swarner   A Friends Lake tragedy brings out the kindness of strangers Sometimes when we have nothing else to argue about, my husband, three sons and I debate which of our dogs has been the smartest. Over the past 15 years we have owned...