When I returned to Old Forge on Friday to begin the Adirondack Canoe Classic ("The 90-Miler"), I thought I knew what I was getting myself into. After racing in a C-2 last year, I was expecting the craze of canoes, kayaks, stand up paddle boards, and racers young and old to feel familiar. In a sense it was--I remembered lots of the rivers and lakes, and I distinctly remember the look of the last few turns before the finish line. What I did not remember was the atmosphere that sets this race apart from any other competitive environment I've been in. Although there were racers from all over the country, there was a solid sense of community between all of the paddlers that was strongly based in the Adirondack Park. Throughout all of the paddlers' meetings and race announcements, the host of the event constantly encouraged attendees to support local Adirondack businesses, to respect the DEC's requests to remove weeds between different waterways, and to maintain a strong connection to the park we were all racing in. The sponsors of the race ranged from PEPSI to the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program. The combination of competitive national racers with local Adirondack paddling families mimicked the large corporate sponsors with the local businesses, and reflected the strong community found within such a massive park.
There was even a class for guide boats, a kind of boat that is endemic to the Adirondacks. These boats are neither the fastest nor the lightest, and are clearly a pain to run with on the many carries, but they will be forever a part of the 90-miler as an Adirondack tradition. The race has become a significant event for competitive paddlers all over the country, but it will be forever grounded in Adirondack traditions, leaving room for locals and new racers like Hamilton students to compete and feel welcome. I was more aware of this dynamic this year than the last, and it made me grateful for the opportunities Hamilton students have by living so close to the park.
I agree with your emphasis on the importance of tradition in the 90 and the cohesive nature of the paddling community, particularly in the Adirondacks. A little anecdote to further illustrate your point: Two guys from Cornell decided to paddle the 90 for the first time but didn't quite know what they were getting themselves into--they didn't have a pit crew, transportation, or a campsite. One of them approached us in a parking lot in Old Forge--we had woken them up because they had slept in a rental car--to ask if one of us could transport their stuff. They became part of our team for the next 3 days--we drove them around in vans, fed them, gave them a spot at our campsite, and Andrew even bought them ice cream at the end as he did for our team.
ReplyDeleteWhile on the topic of the two Cornell guys, these two seem like they were born in the wrong century. Their attitude towards the race was very much "we'll figure it out on the go and deal with anything as necessary, and hope the locals help." They were fortunate to have our aid, but their innocence with respect to the dangers of such an undertaking with little preparation demonstrated a yearning to adventure beyond charted lands; these two could very well have been the first European-Americans two to paddle the lakes of the Adirondacks extensively had they been born in the right century.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of the guide boat represents many of the conflicting cultural attitudes interwoven into the Adirondack landscape. While "natural" in there lack of a motor, and fitting into the minimalist, conservationist effort, they were created as an attraction for outsiders who did not explicitly adhere to those same ideals. They became the romanticized image of the Adirondacks known to vacationers from downstate: the luxury of a multi-acre great camp rather than a untraceable meager down stream. Their effect is much the same of nature writers such as McKibben in the sense that they advertise a simpler lifestyle yet simultaneously entice outsiders to intrude and degrade that very idea. They personify disconnect between the idealism of the region and reality which sets in when visitors begin to arrive.
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