Eight small boats exploring stretches of the Hudson opening to canoeists in the central Adirondacks all made it through seven moderate rapids interspersed with long flat-water stretches on a 7.3-mile trip through deepforests of evergreens and hardwoods.
Over countless millennia it evolved its own vibrant ecosystem, its volcanic peaks cloaked in deep tropical forests still riot with life: exotic birds, flowers and reptiles, many of these species found nowhere else on the planet.