LOCALadk Magazine

LOCALadk | Paddling 24 LOCALadk Magazine Spring 2014 Thin Blue Lines Story and Photos By Eric Adsit I believe there's power in crossing boundaries. It doesn't matter if they're visible or arbitrary lines drawn on a map; crossing from one side to another frees you up from wherever you were. The Blue Line is no different. Within its borders lie the forests, villages, and mountains of the Adirondack Park. Within its borders lies freedom. The maps of the region look like some kind of post-modern collage of state and private land. And rivers…. The park boasts 373,009 acres of water. It tumbles over boulders and cascades over cliffsides. It fills reservoirs, and placidly awaits the next portion of its journey to the sea in remote ponds. Thin blue lines demarcate these places too, but the boundary crossed has little to do with that. I have spent the majority of my life on rivers, and in them. I began paddling with friends along the Beaver River Canoe Route when I was 11 years old and quickly fell in love with whitewater kayaking on rivers like the Moose, Oswegatchie, and Grass. I've chased rivers to Nova Scotia, West Virginia, Idaho, Washington, and even British Columbia, but I always find myself drawn to the big drops and remote pools of the Adirondacks. The transition from the terrestrial to aquatic has become as easy for me as crossing that thin blue line around the park. But for others, it's difficult, impossible, unthinkable. You leave the solid, the "real" behind and enter the fluid, the ethereal. There's much to be said for facing your fears, and more for transforming them into a passion. Rivers are surrounded by a special mystique to all but the most experienced watermen, and even then there are moments of uncertainty. People refer to "undertows", "whirlpools", and

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