River of Mountains: A Canoe Journey down the Hudson

by Peter Lourie

Lourie completed his trip. It took him three weeks and marked the first time anyone has traveled from the source of the Hudson to the mouth in a single vessel. The Hudson proved to be a very changeable river. It includes seven locks and nine power dams. The northern half is a true river with strong current, but the lower half is tidal, a sunken river from the days of glaciers. In its first 165 miles, it drops more than 4,000 feet to Albany. The second half falls no more than a foot. Lourie's account of his trip is a fresh look at one of America's great and complex waterways, one of the few, in fact, that still contains its historical and biological species of fish. It is also the longest inland estuary in the world. Henry Hudson called it the "great river of the mountains." Nowadays, too often the Hudson is stereotyped as a ruined, polluted industrial river. its glorious past is compared to its present neglect. In River of Mountains, Peter Lourie combines the Hudson's rich history and descriptions of some of the region's most impressive landscape with the residents of its mill towns, the loggers, commercial fishermen, and barge pilots - all of whom are proof that the river is still a thriving, vital waterway.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Peter is an award-winning author, professor, and explorer. He has written over two dozen nonfiction books for children and adults spanning topics from adventure and the environment to polar bears and lost treasure.

His forthcoming book, Locked in Ice: Nansen's Daring Quest for the North Pole is a spellbinding biography of Fridtjof Nansen, the pioneer of polar exploration, with a spotlight on his harrowing three-year journey to the top of the world.

A true adventurer, Lourie has traveled all over the world to research his subjects, from the cloud forest in Ecuador in search of Inca treasure, to Lake Turkana in northwestern Kenya on the Ethiopian border, to Terra del Fuego and the jungles of Rondonia, Brazil.

Reviews

[Jim Manning · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess it took me 25 years to get around to reading this, and a lot has changed in the interim. The good news is that from an environmental perspective much good has happened; Lourie's descriptions of quasi-apocalyptic air and water quality are much less likely to be familiar to people visiting the Hudson now. Let's hope we can keep those hard-fought gains. Meanwhile Lourie's catalog of the natural and human surprises to be found along the river is still fun to read. Is there a recent book that covers the same itinerary? That would be very interesting.

P.S. Note to the editor: The author's name is Lourie, not Laurie!

[James Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is okay. It was engaging to me primarily because my buddy, Bob Sweet and I canoed most of the Hudson back in 1981. Also, lately I have done a lot of biking along the Hudson so it was interesting to see what Lourie had to say about the river and about his trip when he made it back in the early 1990s.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone familiar with the Hudson River and its surroundings, this is a great read. Peter Lourie does an excellent job writing about his experience paddling down the river while providing interesting background on nature and history.