Every named river in the Adirondack Park — the Hudson, the Moose, the Raquette, the Sacandaga, and the rivers that drain the High Peaks.
The Hudson River's uppermost reach begins as a trickle at Lake Tear of the Clouds on the southwest slope of Mount Marcy — the highest source of any river on the Eastern Seaboard — and winds south through the High Peaks before settling into broader valley character past Newcomb and North River. In the Lake Placid region proper, the river is still narrow, cold, and fast — more a backcountry corridor than a paddling destination, threading through mixed hardwood and softwood forest with minimal road access. This is the Hudson before it becomes *the Hudson* — before the Gorge, before the towns, before the valley opens up. Most engagement here is incidental: trail crossings, bushwhack routes, and the occasional angler working pocket water for wild brookies in the feeder streams.
