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Lake Tear of the Clouds () is a small tarn, in Essex County, New York, on the northwest slope of Mount Marcy; it is both the highest lake in the state and the highest source of the Hudson River via Feldspar Creek and the Opalescent River. The Hudson River officially begins several miles southwest of Marcy at Henderson Lake (1,814 feet). Lake Tear of the Clouds was discovered in 1872, by Vermont native Verplanck Colvin while he was surveying the Adirondacks. He wrote: Far above the chilly waters of Lake Avalanche at an elevation of 4,293 feet lies summit water, a minute, unpretending, tear of the clouds — as it were — a lovely pool shivering in the breezes of the mountains and sending its limpid surplus through Feldspar Brook to the Opalescent River, the well-spring of the Hudson. On September 14, 1901, then-Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was at Lake Tear of the Clouds after returning from a hike to the Marcy summit when he received a message informing him that President William McKinley who had been shot two weeks earlier but expected to survive had taken a turn for the worse. Roosevelt hiked down 10 miles on the southwest side of the mountain to the closest stage station at Long Lake, New York. He then took a 40-mile midnight stage coach ride through the twisting Adirondack Roads to the Adironack Railway station at North Creek, New York where he discovered that McKinley had died. Roosevelt took the train to Buffalo, New York where he was officially sworn in as President. The 40-mile route is now designated the Roosevelt-Marcy Trail.
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