SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
New York's Adirondack Park near the U.S.-Canada border is some of the most expansive wilderness in the eastern U.S. And it just got bigger. This week, Governor Cuomo protected another 25,000 acres of forests, rivers and lakes. North Country Public Radio's Brian Mann skied the new wild lands - where else do you hear this but NPR? - and sent us this audio postcard.
(SOUNDBITE OF SKIING ON SNOW)
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: I'm gliding over this perfect layer of spring snow. I'm on cross-country skis. But the feeling is sort of like when I was a kid skateboarding. You know, every time I give a kick, I get a long glide.
(SOUNDBITE OF SKIING ON SNOW)
MANN: Cross-country skiing gets a bad rap sometimes. But when conditions are right, it is a magical way to fly through the woods.
A lot of the time you're just letting gravity do the work, surfing. So after skiing for five or six miles, I've reached the Boreas Ponds, this chain of beautiful, frozen lakes that open up beneath the high peaks of the Adirondacks. And so what I'm doing now is crossing this pure, white surface. And crowding all around are these amazing snow-capped mountains. Above that, there's blue sky and spring sun. It's blowing out here. You can probably hear the wind. But it's so warm that I'm stripped down to my T-shirt - definitely my first sunburn of spring.
(SOUNDBITE OF SKIING ON SNOW)
MANN: I'm all alone out here in just this enormous, wild space. You can kind of feel it. It's just this whiteness carved by the wind, all these patterns in the shadows and the mountains that rise up. Yeah. It's just an amazing place - bigger and more protected than ever. Brian Mann, NPR News in New York's Adirondack Mountains. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
