Since its inception as "forever wild" in the 1880s, New York's Adirondack Park has served as a model of conservation for the world. The Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit organization devoted to protecting the diversity of life on Earth and preeminent Adirondack photographer Nathan Farb here team up to reveal feats of nature that the human eye on its own would not perceive. In the tradition of Ansel Adams and Eliot Porter, Farb renders the most miniscule detail as clearly as the grandest vista.

Ecologist Anne LaBastille created the life that many people dream about. When she and her husband divorced, she needed a place to live. Through luck and perseverance, she found the ideal spot: a 20-acre parcel of land in the Adirondack mountains, where she built the cozy, primitive log cabin that became her permanent home. Miles from the nearest town, LaBastille had to depend on her wits, ingenuity, and the help of generous neighbors for her survival. In precise, poetic language, she chronicles her adventures on Black Bear Lake, capturing the power of the landscape, the rhythms of the changing seasons, and the beauty of nature’s many creatures. Most of all, she captures the struggle to balance her need for companionship and love with her desire for independence and solitude. Woodswoman is not simply a book about living in the wilderness, it is a book about living that contains a lesson for us all.

This official book published with the Adirondack Mountain Club celebrates America's original hiking destination through breathtaking contemporary photography, maps, rarely seen archival photos, and a text that brings the history of the trails to life. The Adirondack Park is home to the largest protected natural area in the lower 48 states--six million acres including more than 10,000 lakes, 30,000 miles of rivers and streams, and thousands of miles of hiking trails running from mountain summits through a wide variety of habitats including wetlands and old-growth forests. How better to view this wilderness than afoot on the many trails, many leading to some of the most picturesque summits in North America. There are trails for everyone in the Adirondacks. Today, thousands enjoy hiking, skiing, and snowshoeing trails to backcountry destinations all around the park while others aspire to climb all 46 peaks. Water trails include the historic Fulton Chain of Lakes, Raquette River, and Saranac River routes, in addition to more intimate paddles across wild lakes and waters that meander through towering mountains and verdant forests. Every season has its own charm, all portrayed here in this one of a kind volume of history and photography along Adirondack trails. This is a book for anyone who enjoys travelling through the Adirondack backcountry and includes unique and picturesque destinations throughout the Adirondack Park in addition to a comprehensive history on hiking in the Adirondacks. From the dramatic beauty of the Lake George Wild Forest, to numerous fire tower summits and open ledges and mountaintops scattered around the park, and the rugged splendor of the High Peaks and bucolic beauty of the Champlain Valley, this book covers it all.

Greater in area than Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Olympic, Yellowstone, and Glacier national parks combined, New York State's Adirondack Park is the largest public park in the nation. A land of contrasts and paradoxes, loved, feared, exploited, protected, argued over, eulogized, and affected for better or worse by the hand of man for more than 300 years, the Adirondack forests, rivers, lakes, and peaks attract nearly 9 million visitors a year. From the geologic origins and glacial scouring of the region, to Indians, early settlers, and the logging, mining, and tourist industries, Jane Eblen Keller unfolds the dramatic history of the Adirondacks and the men and women who tried to tame the wilderness. The author also recounts how man and nature have interacted with each other in the region, indeed, how our American attitude toward nature shaped Adirondack history. This is a highly readable and amusing introduction to both Adirondack and conservation literature.

While living far from civilization at ¿Cold River City¿Population one,¿ Noah John Rondeau, the original Adirondack Hermit, wrote daily diary entries to document his experience. To conceal incriminating information from ¿snooping game protectors¿ he developed an enigmatic code that was said to resemble the ¿footprints of an inebriated hen.¿ In 1946, Rondeau wrote his entire journal in code, making it the most mysterious of all. Attempts to break the code all ended in failure until David Greene discovered a key and shared his findings with author William J. O¿Hern. Noah John Rondeau¿s Adirondack Wilderness Days¿A Year with the Hermit of Cold River Flow, tells the story of how the code was broken and then reveals the real story of a fun-loving hermit thriving in the wilderness. In addition to Rondeau¿s decoded journal entries, letters, photographs and reminiscences from friends who visited him complete the story of the misunderstood recluse. Why did Noah create the code? What secrets does it contain? Learn the answers in Noah John Rondeau¿s Adirondack Wilderness Days. Features over 135 vintage photographs and illustrations!

Essays written and pictures taken by the author over the last fifty years represent an anthology of his wilderness philosophy. No index. No bibliography. Cloth edition (unseen), $29.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR