I don’t want you to think that I’m stuck thinking or writing about North Carolina, it’s just that I happened to have lived there for a lot of years and that those were the formative years for me as a back packer and for my two boys as outdoorsmen.

My point right now is that remembering those excursions into the Gorge brought back the sight in my minds eye, of the Linville River rushing and busting down through the valley smashing its way over and around boulders the size of trucks with a roar that warned anyone in its path to beware it was coming.

We have that right here in our back yard too! It’s called the Hudson River. Oh sure, I know if you look at the Hudson anywhere between the dams and locks, it looks more like an elongated lake…and that’s my point. I feel cheated and so should you and here’s why.

Do me a favor…do yourself a favor. Get up off your duff some Saturday, leave the ball game to be recorded on your DVD, pack a lunch along with the kids, get in your car and take a drive up the Northway to exit 23 in Warrensburg, go north through town and bear left on Route 23 toward Indian Lake. When you get to North Creek, slow down. You are entering into the territory of the still wild Hudson River. 

If you take a right off of Route 28 toward the village and then take another right across the bridge, you will see the river as it once was all the way down to below Stillwater. Another right immediately across the bridge and a short walk to the river will take you to the top of 30 and 40-foot high cliffs overlooking the rushing waters.

Back in the car and continuing north on Route 28 will take you to North River. It’s just a wide spot in the road, but it offers some fantastic close-up views of the river as it tumbles and bubbles over its rocky bed.

Pretty - You bet! BUT, if you really want to see this river in action, take this little journey early in the spring when the snow melt run-off fills the river with ice cold water doing its best to bust out of its banks. Just like the Linville River.

So, if we have it right here in our backyard, why do I feel cheated? Well, stand there along the road and close your eyes. Listen to the roar surrounding you…feel the temperature drop a few degrees, cooled by the spray kicked up as the rapids stir up the waters in front of you…taste the sweetness of the air cleansed by the winds of the valley…imagine how it was decades ago when this mighty, this beautiful, this wild river flowed like this unrestricted, unimpeded and untamed all the way from Newcomb to Albany. Imagine how different it would be when you drove the stretch of road between Corinth and Lake Luzerne if the dams were not there to hold back, flattening out and confining the Hudson. See with your mind the white foaming rapids that would roar through the city of Glens Falls and how sparkling clean the waters would be as they began to slow near Schuylerville only to pick up speed once more, just as a reminder of its strength, until finally reaching Waterford.

What a rush! What a River! Oh yeah! I feel cheated. How I would have loved to see this river when it was truly and wholly wild.  How I would have loved to see this river when it served only itself and not man. When it was a river and not a tool.

Too late for me…or is it? Do we really still need those dams? Do we still float logs down to the mills? Can’t we control floods without destroying beauty in the process? What if we took away all those dams? What if…?

Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to rely on my mind seeing back into the past. Seeing this majestic river the way it once was. I hope I can reach the top of a mountain high enough to give me a clear view.  Want to take a ride with me?

See you outdoors!

Dick Totino can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it