I am a proud woodchuck, a Roman Catholic, and a North Country patriot.
I write for a living at Hickman's Hinterlands at https://t.co/czRSBad12f
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In a collective, there's always someone around to talk to. You never eat alone. Stimulating conversation takes place daily, though retreating to your room now and then is normal.
Just before we met I had quietly reached the conclusion that I'd probably never marry. I thought about becoming a Franciscan friar. I knew that the intersection between religious traditionalists and third-world-style off-grid hippies was tiny.
Cities like Gloversville and Utica have had their flagship architectures largely unmolested, almost solely because they've remained economically depressed. Had lots of "development" occurred, they would've gutted their downtowns with relish.
The narrowboats are 6'10" abeam and range from 20' to 50' in length. I'd think at about 25-30' it'd be good and livable on the Erie Canal. I'd keep it simple - flat-bottomed with an outboard since the canal's 12' depth is too deep to pole. 
Their theology was iconoclastic, believing that God was immanently present in all human souls. Staunch pacifists and often vegetarian, they completely rejected military service and most aspects of orthodox religion. Nonetheless, they accepted the divinity of Jesus.
The first is that neurosis about gear and technique belies an entirely wrong attitude about what traveling should be. Reading endlessly about these topics is a fool's errand -- whether you have great gear and knowledge or not, you're still going to "pay your dues". Embrace it.
Walking defines our species. Virtually every chapter of the human story took place at 3mph, day in, day out. Walk, camp, repeat.
'Stealth camping' involves violating numerous laws and social norms; tresspass and vagrancy laws make it illicit to sleep in any non-designated sleeping area. Vigilante landowners, cop-calling joggers, and rough-handed cops could subject you to a rude awakening or worse. 
I was 18 years old and had utopian visions of buying plots on which hexagonal structures built from stuccoed rigid insulation would serve as 'common areas' for a legion of bike trailer dwellers. Each wall would have a 'loading dock' into which a trailer could 'plug in'. 
With land in NY, Quebec, and Ontario, the Mohawks can maintain a shocking level of autonomy. Yet straddling so many jurisdictions makes cohesive law enforcement impossible. This + unique geography involving islands on an oft-frozen river makes Akwesasne ideal for smugglers.
The book is packed with wisdom about gender and marriage that today would be largely un-printable. And there are many corollary bits of wisdom regarding housekeeping and a manly and temperate Catholic livelihood on the land.
In many ways, Rome's Genesis is not extraordinary. Situated at the sole portage on the canoe journey from the Great Lakes to the Hudson, the site that would become Rome was of incredible importance during the days of fur traders, the French & Indian war, and the Revolution.
The first time you learn you can enter a dangerous and unstable situation and not only survive it, but actually excel and lead others through it, you find a caliber of meaning that is not generally available in normal life. 
The precipitous decline of the American village has been one of the greatest blows to our culture to date. While many forces are responsible, what matters most today for young people is the 'power vacuum' created by this decline. 
Everything on deck is always frozen. Tasks that would take five minutes in summertime take an hour. On 'soft water', you'll get bow-legged from the waves. On ice, your bones rattle, because everything is always vibrating and grumbling loudly as the ice breaks beneath you. 
