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A must for moss mavens Field guides don’t get much more specific than the beautiful new Common Mosses of the Northeast and Appalachians, the latest in the excellent series of field guides published by Princeton University Press. The identification of mosses, aside from distinguishing a few easily recognized common species, has long been the exclusive…
Champ surfaces again Zeuglodon, sauropod, coelacanth, or plesiosaur? Sturgeon or gar pike? Fortuitously sculpted chunk of driftwood, or flock of birds? Hallucination, perhaps induced by a binge at a lakeside tavern? Or flat-out hoax? The story of Champ, the “Lake Champlain Monster,” has been one of near-religious zeal, unwavering certainty, firm doubts, controversy, bitter rivalries,…
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The Adirondack Park has its share of guidebooks—for hiking, paddling, birding, fishing, cross-country skiing, you name it. Just when you think the field has been exhausted along comes another. The latest addition to the genre is one I never would have foreseen: a guidebook to the culverts under the Northway. The author, Tom DuBois, is…
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THE APPALACHIAN Mountain Club has published a multisport guidebook that contains suggestions for hiking, paddling, and biking in the Adirondack Park. Written by Peter Kick, Discover the Adirondacks covers twenty-six hikes, thirteen canoe trips, and eleven bike rides throughout the Park, with accompanying maps and black-and-white photos. It also includes a number of short essays…
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The Adirondack Mountain Club has issued the fourteenth edition of its popular High Peaks Trails guidebook, and some might say it’s bigger and better than ever. No one can dispute that it’s bigger. The new edition measures 5½ inches wide by 8½ inches tall, whereas the previous edition measured 5 by 7. This continues a…
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Long before I went car camping with high school friends, before I discovered the High Peaks, before I explored nature preserves close to my Capital Region home, I saw nature from the middle of a canoe. Nestled next to my brother in my parents’ Grumman, I trailed my fingers in the water and watched the…
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The “Tip Top Town” now has its own entry in the “Images of America” series, depicting the town’s growth from a wilderness outpost to a bustling logging town. Tupper Lake contains hundreds of photos that Jon Kopp, the town historian and former director of the Chamber of Commerce, selected from the archives of the Goff-Nelson…
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Sagamore—it’s a name celebrated in Adirondack history, story, and song, synonymous with a glittering but shortlived era of rapacious wealth and ostentatious luxury. The subject of attention in many books, most recently Gladys Montgomery’s An Elegant Wilderness: Great Camps and Grand Lodges of the Adirondacks, 1855-1935, the place now gets its own deserved volume in…
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Another fine new field guide useful to Adirondack naturalists is Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East by Dennis Paulson (Princeton University Press, 2011). This book contains such a wealth of detail and natural history that it may initially overwhelm the user. Still, it’s hard to argue with the author’s efforts to show and tell all…
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Another fine new field guide useful to Adirondack naturalists is Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East by Dennis Paulson (Princeton University Press, 2011). This book contains such a wealth of detail and natural history that it may initially overwhelm the user. Still, it’s hard to argue with the author’s efforts to show and tell all…