Whitewater

The Town of Indian Lake, NY - Chamber of Commerce web site¹ says:

“Indian lake is considered the Whitewater Rafting Capital of New York State. Thirteen rafting companies are available to take you safely from Indian Lake to North River on the Indian River and the Hudson River.
Running from the dam-controlled put-in site at Indian Lake to North Creek, this 17 mile gorge trip is one of the greatest single-day rafting trips in America. The trip starts on the Indian River, which drops 150 vertical feet in 3.5 miles before reaching the confluence of the Hudson River. Further on, a 20 foot ice cold waterfall from Huntly Pond, adds its Brook Trout stream to the Hudson. The next 10 miles on the Hudson offer continuous rapids spotted with welcome calms for resting. Blue Ledge Rapids and Narrows, the Osprey Nest, Beaver Dam, O K Slip, Gunsight, Kettle Mountain and the final Harris Rift are the common names used by the guides to refer to the sites the raft passes. The 17 mile wildwater trip drops approximately 650 vertical feet and passes through one of the greatest Adirondack Park land masses.”

In late July 2009 the dam releases were scheduled for Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. On Saturday July 25 I hiked with my two sons to Blue Ledge in the Hudson River gorge to watch the whitewater rafters come through. Not having an exact schedule, but knowing that at least one rafting company advertised meeting in Indian Lake between 9 and 9:30 am we decided to start our hike in around 9am. We were the first to sign the trail head register but we were still a little late, starting at 9:15 and arriving at Blue Ledge in about an hour. We waited for the rush of dam released water. We were a little disappointed when it was a slow rise of no more than 8 to 10 inches arriving about 15 minutes before noon and only a few minutes before the first rafts. Blue ledge is a calm spot in the gorge and about a dozen rafts paddled through the slower water to stop here for lunch. With the area population swelling by more than the 50 paddlers that one guide mentioned, we started our hike out before they finished their lunch.

So even here in one of the least accessible parts of the upper Hudson River, activity is driven by an artificial, man made, current. There may be plenty of whitewater for rafting but it is anything but the “wildwater” extolled by commercial interests.

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1 http://www.indian-lake.com/rafting.asp?bc=105&pc=100