Adirondack Paddling guidebook updated

Adirondack Mountain Club has released a new edition of its guidebook Adirondack Paddling: 65 Great Flatwater Adventures. The book describes paddling day trips throughout the Adirondack Park, including on state lands acquired since the first edition was published in 2012.

Written by former Explorer editor Phil Brown, the expanded edition includes four new trips made possible by the Finch, Pruyn conservation deal: Boreas Ponds, Essex Chain Lakes, Blackwell Stillwater, and County Line Flow. Brown also added a chapter on Jabe Pond, in the hills above Lake George.

Adirondack Paddling contains over 150 color photos of waterways, wildflowers, and birds. Each chapter also includes color maps, GPS coordinates, and a statistical overview of the trip. ADK published Adirondack Paddling in partnership with Brown’s Lost Pond Press. The price remains $24.95.

Brown retired last fall after 19 years as editor of the Adirondack Explorer, a nonprofit magazine with focuses on environmental conservation and outdoor recreation. In the introduction to Adirondack Paddling, he writes of his love of paddling wild rivers and ponds.

“Adirondack Paddling: 65 Great Flatwater Adventures reflects the park’s wonderful variety of waterways, from the tiny, twisting Hatch Brook to the mighty Hudson, from the intimate charms of Bog Pond to the big-sky vistas of Oseetah Lake, from the obscure Alder Bed Flow to the ever-popular Lake George. But the book leans toward the wilder end of the spectrum,” Brown writes.

In addition to the textual changes, the second edition features many new shots from some of the park’s best photographers, including Carl Heilman II, Nancie Battaglia, Brendan Wiltse, Mark Bowie, Larry Master, Daniel Way, and Mike Lynch.

The book was designed by Susan Bibeau of Beehive Productions in Saranac Lake. The maps were created by Matt Paul, also of Saranac Lake.

The first edition of Adirondack Paddling described 60 trips for canoeists and kayakers. Starting in 2012, however, the state began buying tens of thousands of acres from the Adirondack Nature Conservancy that had once been owned by the Finch, Pruyn paper company. These acquisitions created spectacular new opportunities for paddlers. The two that received the most publicity are Boreas Ponds, with its breathtaking views of the High Peaks, and Essex Chain Lakes, a series of interconnected ponds in the central Adirondacks.

The Finch, Pruyn deal also opened up Blackwell Stillwater, a quiet stretch of the upper Hudson, and County Line Flow and its charming inlet, Fishing Brook.