Joe Dadey, a co-founder of the Adirondack Hamlets to Huts travel nonprofit, holds up the Wall Street Journal special section featuring a paddle he led. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — Adirondack Hamlets to Huts co-founder Joe Dadey is feeling the “ripple effect” of the Saranac Lake-based travel nonprofit being featured in a front page spread of the Wall Street Journal’s “Off Duty” weekend lifestyle section on July 3.

The article, titled “The Ultimate American Summer Adventure? Exploring the Adirondacks by Canoe” by Beth Kracklauer can be found at tinyurl.com/4m6yyvwt.

It is more than promotion for the region. Kracklauer goes into the history of the Adirondacks, weaving the stories around her love of the “Great Camp” architecture while sharing a bit of local color and keeping a travel journal.

Dadey said the focus on the intersection of nature and community in the article is a focus Hamlets to Huts shares. The story of the Adirondacks is about settled and unsettled land, integrating communities with the wild.

Hut-to-hut travel involves hiking, paddling, skiing or biking by day, and staying at lodges by night. Dadey said the Adirondacks will never have lodging on state land, or high mountain huts like in Europe — where hut-to-hut travel is more common. Here, routes start, pass through and finish in communities.

The nonprofit he established in 2017 with Jack Drury takes care of the logistics for these guided or unguided trips.

The idea for Hamlets to Huts came from his interest in bringing hut-to-hut travel to the organization, and Drury’s interest in routing hikes in and out of local communities.

In 2014, they started with a Hamilton County grant, funding their work to conceptualize 60 routes around the park. These routes are still in progress and are likely a “decades-long project,” Dadey said, as they pick away at their aspirational “wish list” by connecting trails and building new ones.

In the article, Kracklauer says she’s visited her friend’s family “Camp” in the park for years. She wanted to explore the region a bit more.

Over the winter, she reached out to Adirondack Regional Tourism Council Coordinator Joanne Conley for story ideas and background on the Adirondacks. Jane Hooper and Sydney Aveson from the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism joined in to form a plan. They connected Kracklauer with Green Goat Maps founder Ezra Schwartzberg, who recommended she reach out to Dadey.

They chose a four-day, three-night, 25-mile trip paddling from the Browns Tract Inlet, west of Raquette Lake, up to Blue Mountain Lake. Her friends Matt and Molly Tighe joined the trip. Dadey said it was a “trial by fire” as Kracklauer and photographer Elizabeth Coetzee put their newly learned paddle strokes to the test on the twisty waters of the river. They did a great job, he said.

They slept at Great Camp Sagamore; ate at Raquette Lake Supply Co.; visited Huntington Memorial Camp, the first Adirondack Great Camp, built in the later 1800s; saw St. Williams Church and went moth-hunting with local biologist Janet Mihuc.

Dadey is “over the moon” for the coverage of his nonprofit, but also said he was thrilled that their lodging affiliates and the region as a whole got attention.

One of Hamlets to Huts’ goals is supporting communities, and he loves to share the place he calls home.

Dadey feels the Adirondacks are one of the special places in the world because of their unique mix of wilderness and communities.

Weeks after the article published he’s still pinching himself. It’s a bit surreal. Hamlets to Huts has been fielding calls from people in Texas, California, Missouri and Georgia who read the story and want to book their own Adirondack paddling trip. Coetzee’s boyfriend is scheduling a trip with his friends after hearing about her time taking photos on the trip.

This sort of “earned media” is valuable, Hooper said.

“ROOST works with various media outlets — newspapers, magazines, radio and TV — to promote the region through storytelling, showcasing its activities and its prominence as a desired travel destination,” she said in an email. “The WSJ is one of the top newspapers in the United States with 3,170,000 unique monthly online visitors along with its 609,000 print subscriptions, not to mention its social media reach.”

Dadey said part of the Hamlets to Huts model is making the wilderness more accessible for the uninitiated, and for people of all ages. Without the burden of carrying all the gear it takes for a night in the woods, it’s easier for people to get out in nature. Last year, they had their first three-generation trip, with a 79-year-old grandfather, 41-year-old father and 10-year-old grandson all in the same boat for three days. Part of wellness is sharing nature with friends and family, he said.