Innholdsfortegnelse for Outings Guide 2019 i Adirondack Explorer

Lake George has long been renowned for its clear, blue water and mountainous setting. Even in summer, when powerboats and jet skis buzz about, the lake retains its sublimity—the more so if you’re viewing it from a mountaintop, away from the hubbub. A few years ago, I had the pleasure of experiencing the lake’s beauty from many different vantage points while researching the Adirondack Explorer’s latest guidebook, “12 Short Hikes Near Lake George.” The book describes hikes in the state forest preserve on both the east and west sides of the water. All but two of the destinations (Jabe Pond and Inman Pond) offer views of the “Queen of American Lakes.” Though I had done most of the hikes in the past, I did them all again for the book.…

Horse and buggy plunge off cliff! Husband shoots wife and self! Couple tumbles over precipice, stung by passion! Lurid is the lore of Coot Hill, and all these troubling exploits were told to me before I first hiked there a few years ago; the place has a captivating human backstory and is a natural history hot spot too. It’s also an intriguing and easy hike to a knockout of a view. Coot Hill is a lower summit of Bulwagga Mountain, the long uplifted plateau overlooking Lake Champlain’s bay of the same name just south of Port Henry. The summit lookout perches a thousand feet above the valley, commanding a vista up and down the lake and over to the Green Mountains. An Irish settler named the hill for one he’d…

In the 19th century, the Bog River’s reputation for remoteness attracted numerous writers of the day, who invariably depicted the headwaters as dismal, lonely, and insect-infected. It also was reputed to be the final refuge of the moose in the Adirondacks. “The last moose was killed many times there,” observed Paul Jamieson in “Adirondack Canoe Waters: North Flow.” Nowadays you’d be lucky to find a parking spot on a summer weekend at the Bog’s lower dam, the put-in for trips to Hitchins Pond and, farther upriver, Lows Lake. And you’re much more likely to see a flotilla of colorful kayaks than a moose. You can’t blame people for wanting to paddle to Hitchins Pond or Lows Lake. They’re both beautiful waterscapes that offer wild views and the chance to see…

DIRECTIONS: From NY 86 and NY 30 in Paul Smiths, drive north on NY 30 for a mile to the VIC entrance on the left. Several years ago, I asked Bill McKibben, the author and climate-change activist, to ski the entire Jackrabbit Trail and write a story for the Explorer. I expected him to start in Saranac Lake and end in Keene. You’d figure 24 miles would be a long day even for Bill, who once wrote a book about his effort to become a competitive cross-country skier. Not so. Bill started at the Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center, skied nine miles to Lake Clear Junction—through woods, down a logging road, and under a power line—and then followed railroad tracks to Saranac Lake. In all, he added about sixteen…

My brother, Wayne, claimed he was allergic to hiking. A decade ago, I coaxed him into climbing modest Baker Mountain by Moody Pond in Saranac Lake, a mile from his home. In a moment of weakness, he agreed, needing to walk his dog. One would think we had scaled Everest. “Want to hike up Ampersand Mountain?” I asked him in spring. Ampersand was close to his home with a fantastic view on top. “If I don’t show up at the trailhead, don’t wait,” he replied. It became his standard comeback every few days when I called him to see if he might join me on Baxter, Giant’s Nubble, Rooster Comb, St. Regis Mountain … I was updating my book “Hiking the Adirondacks,” hiking three days per week and constantly looking…

BLACK BEAR DIRECTIONS: From the Visitor Information Center in Old Forge, drive east on NY 28 for 10.5 miles to a large pull-off on the left. This is the parking area for both Rocky Mountain and Black Bear Mountain. If coming from the opposite direction, the pull-off is a mile past the junction of NY 28 and South Shore Road in downtown Inlet. N 43° 45.889’, W 74° 47.662’ What’s your favorite hike in these parts? I have been asked that question occasionally since the Explorer published my guidebook “12 Short Hikes Near Old Forge” a few years ago. My answer: it depends—on whether I’m looking for a short hike, a long hike, a hike to a summit, or a hike to water. Although I’m reluctant to pick just one…

It seemed like a good idea. I like to canoe small streams. Negro Brook is a small stream. Ergo, I would like canoeing Negro Brook. Negro Brook (on the name, see sidebar on page 39) begins near Onchiota and meanders through the Oregon Sand Plains before joining Twobridge Brook and turning into Sumner Brook, a tributary of the Saranac River. I had seen Negro Brook many times from the Bloomingdale Bog Trail, which follows an abandoned railroad corridor. The stream flows under the northern part of the trail in three places, and whenever I ran or biked the trail, I promised myself I would paddle it someday. That day came one early May, when the water was running high. Based on my observations from the trail, my study of the…

DIRECTIONS: From NY 28N in Newcomb, turn onto Pine Tree Road marked by a DEC sign (about 0.5 miles west of the town hall) and then turn almost immediately onto Goodnow Flow Road. Go 4.3 miles to a junction with Woody’s Road and bear left. Go 1.3 miles to a parking area on the left. The gate at Chain Lakes Road is two hundred yards beyond the parking area. Note: the road to the Deer Pond parking area, used by paddlers in other seasons, is not plowed in winter. DIRECTIONS: From NY 28N in Newcomb, turn onto Pine Tree Road marked by DEC sign (about 0.5 west of the town hall.) and then turn almost immediately onto Goodnow Flow Road. Go 4.3 miles to a junction with Woody’s Road and…

Where do those trails go?” I wondered. The map showed a small trail system, whose outline looked like a loopy, potbellied cartoon character riding a unicycle. Sure, there was Pole Hill Pond at the upper end, but the trail swung far and wide of it twice, a hugely indirect route. What was the dinky little loop down at the foot? I’ve been looking at Adirondack trail maps most of my life and could not decipher this weird pattern of black dashes. Yet here it was, on the National Geographic trail map that accompanies my Adirondack Mountain Club’s “Guide to Eastern Trails,” so I could explore it for work. How did those trails get there? Who knew about them? What was that pond like? They were on a new parcel of…

DIRECTIONS: From the junction of NY 28 and NY 30 in Blue Mountain Lake, drive east on NY 28/30 for 6.7 miles to a parking area on the right. If you grew up hiking and now are a parent, you’re likely to want to introduce your children to the beauty and challenge of a hike in the woods. But it’s a delicate thing. If the first experience is too hard, cold, wet or buggy, they may drag their feet about hitting the trail the next time. I started hiking with my boys, Rushton and Devlin, the summer when they were 4 and 6. It’s been rewarding, but also frustrating. You know how grandparents enjoy seeing their grandchildren give their parents the same hard time the grandparents experienced? During my son’s…

DIRECTIONS: From Lake Clear Junction (intersection of NY 30 and NY 186) northwest of Saranac Lake, drive north on NY 30 for three miles to St. Regis Carry Road. Turn left and go 0.3 miles to the public boat launch. As we neared the summit of St. Regis Mountain in January, the conditions changed dramatically. Tree limbs—caked in snow and ice—hung down over the trail, and as we walked crouched through the tangle of branches, snow cascaded upon us. “Most of the time I go past that rock outcropping, I feel like I’m home free,” said Doug Fitzgerald, co-chairman of Friends of St. Regis Mountain Fire Tower. “Not today.” The conditions slowed our travel, but the scenic beauty more than compensated for any inconvenience. The coating of ice and snow…

Avalanche Pass is probably the classic ski tour in the Adirondack Park. I’ve skied through the pass to Avalanche Lake more times than I can remember. Oddly, though, I never wrote a story about skiing to the lake and back. One winter, I aimed to rectify that oversight. My neighbor Tim Peartree and I accompanied Josh Wilson on what passes for a workday for Josh—checking out the ski conditions for the Barkeater Trails Alliance. Unfortunately, the conditions that day sucked. We spent much of the day trying to avoid rocks and roots, with only partial success. I decided not to do a story. Anything I wrote would not do Avalanche Pass justice. The next winter, the conditions did not suck. In fact, they were rather fantastic in late January when…