On The Water

The Ultimate Guide to August Events North of NYC

August is summer refusing to slow down. County fairs are filling midway lights, porches are turning into stages, corgis are racing at Saratoga, lumberjacks are climbing greased poles and a festival devoted to Lake Champlain’s legendary monster is taking over the waterfront. This month’s guide reaches from Westchester and the Hudson Valley through the Catskills, Capital Region, Adirondacks and Finger Lakes. You will find major concerts, outdoor theater, food festivals, cultur

Hudson Valley Happenings

58 minutes ago17 min read

Kingston's Secret Quarry Just Became the Best New Swimming Hole in the Hudson Valley — And It Took the State 20 Years to Build One

I've spent two decades in this valley chasing swimming holes the old-fashioned way — half-remembered directions from a guy at the hardware store, a "no trespassing" sign you pretend not to see, a scramble down a bank that ruins a perfectly good pair of sneakers. So forgive me if I sound a little stunned writing this next sentence: New York State just handed us a legitimate, lifeguarded, ADA-accessible swimming hole, for free, and it's better than any of the secret ones. It

Hudson Valley Happenings

4 days ago4 min read

Researchers just confirmed, for the first time in recorded history, that Atlantic sturgeon — a species that has been cruising rivers since before flowers existed — make sound. And the sound they make, while spawning, in our river, thirty minutes from wherever you're reading this, is a deep, rolling rumble that scientists are describing as a metallic timpani kettledrum.

There's a Prehistoric Sex Rave Happening in the Hudson River, and Nobody Told You

Somewhere off the shore of Hyde Park, under the same water where people paddleboard and toss out crab lines and pretend not to think about what's touching their ankles, there is a fish the length of a Volkswagen Beetle currently thundering. Not swimming. Not splashing. Thundering. Like, scientifically documented, peer-reviewed, someone-had-to-double-check-it's-not-a-train thundering. This is not a metaphor I'm building toward. This is the actual finding. Researchers jus

Hudson Valley Happenings

Jul 216 min read