#7 Nuclear Lake (Hudson Valley Appalachian Trail) | August 27th, 2016

Field Recordings NYC

Despite its name, Nuclear Lake has the reputation of being one of the most beautiful lakes on the Appalachian Trail. Nestled in the heart of Hudson Valley. Nuclear Lake gets it’s name from a chemical explosion that blew out two windows in the experimental nuclear research lab that used to sit on the shore of the lake in 1972. Blasting an unspecified amount of bomb-grade plutonium across the lake and surrounding woods. This didn’t stop us from going for a swim in midst of our 12-mile hike that day. My recorder was left at the bank of the lake on a fairly breezy day — leaving us with the sounds of the wind, local insects buzzing by, birds, along with the occasional creature hopping in the water. Also a steady amount of planes flying overhead and the occasional voices of hikers strolling by or swimming in the distance. Given it was a fairly breezy day, I had to nix my XY mic recordings and rely solely on the omni mic’s recordings which captured the breeze nicely without too much wind distortion. Oh, and I made a friend with a toad on the trail along the way. 12:38pm - 1:52pm 85° and rising (Low of 62° / High of 88°) Clear Skies Chance of Precipitation: 0% Wind: 3mph South Humidity: 58% UV Index: 9