Latest News Headlines
- DEC: Stay out of way of rail-trail construction - Adirondack Explorer
- Raquette Lake microgrid raises concern among residents
- Budget clarifies concealed carry law, Adirondack Park
- Mobile boat-cleaning station helps control invasives in Schroon Lake
- Akwesasne marches remember missing and murdered indigenous people
- What climate migration could mean for the Adirondacks
- After 200 year wait, work planned to free Saranac salmon
- Essex County land bank gets state approval
- Upstate politicians brace for asylum seekers
- After a 16-hour rescue in the Adirondacks, rangers say prepare for the worst
Latest News Headlines
- DEC: Stay out of way of rail-trail construction - Adirondack Explorer
- Raquette Lake microgrid raises concern among residents
- Budget clarifies concealed carry law, Adirondack Park
- Mobile boat-cleaning station helps control invasives in Schroon Lake
- Akwesasne marches remember missing and murdered indigenous people
- What climate migration could mean for the Adirondacks
- After 200 year wait, work planned to free Saranac salmon
- Essex County land bank gets state approval
- Upstate politicians brace for asylum seekers
- After a 16-hour rescue in the Adirondacks, rangers say prepare for the worst
Recent Almanack Comments
- Mike on ANCA Awarded $40K Lake Champlain Basin Artist-in-Residence Program Grant
- Mike on Final days banding birds at the Crown Point Banding Station, approx. 750 birds banded
- Rob on Highlights from the APA’s May meeting
- Boreas on Final days banding birds at the Crown Point Banding Station, approx. 750 birds banded
- Mike on Final days banding birds at the Crown Point Banding Station, approx. 750 birds banded

The Adirondack Almanack
The Adirondack Almanack is a public forum dedicated to promoting and discussing current events, history, arts, nature and outdoor recreation and other topics of interest to the Adirondacks and its communities
We publish commentary and opinion pieces from voluntary contributors, as well as news updates and event notices from area organizations. Contributors include veteran local writers, historians, naturalists, and outdoor enthusiasts from around the Adirondack region. The information, views and opinions expressed by these various authors are not necessarily those of the Adirondack Almanack or its publisher, the Adirondack Explorer.

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The secret life of water
At the recently opened Essex Quarry Nature Park, a classic Adirondack brook winds through a cedar forest, chatters over boulders artfully accented with moss and ferns and then — disappears.
Like water running down a drain, it plunges down a stony crevice in the earth and is gone. Trail stewards say it doesn’t reappear again until it reaches Lake Champlain. Precisely where it goes and what it encounters along the way will likely forever be a mystery.
The Secret Life of Water is a fascinating story that escapes most people as they appreciate the beauty and charm of Adirondack lakes, rivers and streams. Paddlers might not realize that beneath the surface Mirror Lake, to pick one example, has important work to do, and some of that work is fraught.
Water sustains life, but it is also a mover, a builder, a gardener and an excavator. What it encounters in one spot can have implications in another, as we’ve seen with road salt and excessive nutrients.
Gov. Kathy Hochul was in Lake Placid on Friday, talking about the importance of water quality and showing off permeable pavement that allows rain to seep through the ground before it reaches the lake instead of running along the surface collecting man-made toxins as it goes.
Water is the reason the Adirondack Park was created. Left to its own devices, it does its job well. But where development has knocked it off its game, sometimes it can use a little help.
A scene from the Essex Quarry trail. Mike Lynch photo
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Tim Rowland
Tim Rowland is a humor columnist for Herald-Mail Media in Hagerstown, Md., and a New York Times bestselling author. His books include High Peaks; A History of Hiking the Adirondacks from Noah to Neoprene and Strange and Unusual Stories of New York City. He has climbed the 46 high peaks, is an avid bicyclist, and trout tremble with fear when they see his approaching shadow. He and his wife Beth are residents of Jay, N.Y.
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