ADK Journal

4 things I love about the adirondacks Story and Photos by Gary VanRiper

Camp is an Adirondack chair and a dock for some. For me, it’s home base to explore territory less visited.

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The feeling

Look on most maps of New York State and you will notice an outline of the 6-million-acre Adirondack Park marked by a blue line. We live less than an hour from the line and usually enter through Woodgate via Route 28.

I don’t know what it is, and it doesn’t really matter, but there is something that happens to the senses when crossing that line. Others have mentioned the same thing to me, so I know I am not alone.

There is a refreshing scent of pine, but it is more than just the aroma – somehow it’s like entering a portal to a different world. Body tension begins to ease and the heart-rate slows down. (Unless you happen upon a moose!)

Perhaps it is from kind childhood memories like buying those hard-to-find Marvel® comics in the racks on the porch at Mary’s Gift Shop in Inlet. Or standing in the long shadow of Paul Bunyan in Old Forge. Or being an arms-length away from a real deer. Even my dad’s outrage of gas prices pushing 50 cents a gallon brings a smile.

The landscape

It wasn’t until I married an Adirondack girl whose family owned a camp on one of the lakes when I was exposed to the Park beyond the

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Most of the relatives enjoyed the sun, the dock, and all the activities living on the water afforded. Then a cookout with a sunset and s’mores or a night out to a fine restaurant.

But it became home base for me to explore the trails laced through local forest, around more secluded bodies of water and up the nearby mountains. It was an invitation to hike Mount Marcy along the Opalescent River with a friend of mine to do the senior photos of his daughter in the high peaks wilderness that introduced me to scenery that still at times appears surreal.

The wildlife, especially the birds

It was a kayak and a camera that acquainted me with the most popular symbol of our northern wilderness – the Common Loon. Sitting in a boat low and quiet in the water and with a telephoto lens made it easy to observe the bird carrying about its business in its natural habitat. The same with the Osprey tending their young in the nest of a towering snag; Belted Kingfisher and Cedar Waxwing traveling from shoreline to island and

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Mark Lowell and Gary VanRiper on the summit of Rocky Peak Ridge, the 20th highest peak in the Adirondacks.

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back again, or a Common Merganser, a brood of some twelve chicks in tow. The slap of a beaver tail, a damselfly catching a ride on a floating maple leaf, painted turtles sunning on a fallen snag, a white-tailed deer at the water’s edge (where I’ve also seen bear tracks in the sand) – all are possible to experience in a single morning’s paddle.

The people

I’ve met so many amazing people all across the Park from all walks of life, several of which have become really good friends. Anyone reading this column in the pages of Mohawk Valley Living for very long would be familiar with one of them – Mark Lowell – who I have been hiking the Adirondacks with since 2007. He has, in fact, become like one of our own family. Mark learned early on that to hike with me is to become an outdoor model for photographs!

I know many of our readers already know what a precious jewel we have right here in our own backyards and who join me in sharing the love! •

Gary VanRiper is an author, photographer, and pastor at the Camden Wesleyan Church. He has written 15 children’s books with his son, Justin. Find out more at: www.adirondackkids.com

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