John Henkelman in his canoe on the Hudson River.

John Henkelman had time on his hands and a thirst for adventure. The Hudson River called him.

“I had a month off work so I said, 'I’ve got to do something crazy,'” said the Maine resident, 38, who studies natural resource management at the University of New Hampshire. “There aren’t many opportunities when you’re in your 30s to go on an adventure.”

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For Henkelman, crazy meant canoeing the length of the Hudson solo, starting at Henderson Lake in Newcomb on July 9. He carried most everything he needed in the canoe and launched without a detailed itinerary. That’s an adventure, all right.

Why the Hudson? Why not the Penobscot, say, or one of the other great rivers of Maine instead?

The answer lies in the Hudson’s incredible geographic diversity. It begins in a great American wilderness, raw and untamed, and ends in the great American megalopolis. It includes whitewater and stretches of lazy calm. It has industrial grit and, more often, beauty that inspired a school of painters.

“There’s also just so much history along it,” Henkelman told me. “New Yorkers don’t know, and Americans don’t know, how pivotal the river is to American history. It’s really what........

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