Innholdsfortegnelse for Outings Guide 2025 i Adirondack Explorer

The Northern Forest Canoe Trail (NFCT) is the longest inland water trail in the United States, covering 740 miles and territory in four states: New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The Northern Forest Canoe Trail also serves as a nonprofit that oversees the trail. Celebrating its 25th year in 2025, the organization was formed in 2000, and the trail was completed in 2006. The trail was not built from scratch, however, as almost the entire trail consists of traditional canoe routes. Along the entirety of the trail are campsites for paddlers to stay at. Users choose to section-paddle or thru-paddle the trail, of which there are around 100 documented finishers. From the beginning, the organization’s goal was to provide canoe-based recreation while encouraging participants to steward the waters and…

“So, you need to get away from us for a couple of days?” my 13-year-old asked when I announced I was backpacking the 23-mile French Louie Trail Loop in the central Adirondacks. My motivation, I tried to explain, was about what I was headed to, woods and lakes, not about getting away from the family. Still, along with my tent and sleeping bag, I packed some guilt. There are no special trail markers for the Louie Loop. The only sign was at the parking lot shared with the trailhead for Pillsbury Mountain outside Speculator. French Louie was a logger and trapper who lived at a camp near Pillsbury Lake in the early 1900s. His life is chronicled in Harvey Dunham’s book “Adirondack French Louie: Early Life in the North Woods.”…

The Adirondack Rail Trail will create new opportunities for loop bike rides. No need for a car shuttle or to go over the same ground twice. One such circuit cuts through the most remote and scenic stretch of the 34-mile rail trail. I first rode this 13.8-mile loop two summers ago, before construction began. About half of it was on the rail trail. Most of the rest was on a good dirt road or old woods roads. Cars were no problem. Along the way I saw ponds, wetlands, wildflowers, butterflies, three deer, two loons and a gaggle of paddlers. I also took a swim. Ten days later, I did the route again with my neighbor, Tim Peartree. We began near the state fish hatchery west of Lake Clear and rode…

Loon Lake has had its share of celebrated visitors over the years, among them George Gershwin, Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde, Red Skelton, and three U.S. presidents. The entire 354-acre lake is surrounded by private land, and so its magnificent views of the Loon Lake Mountains remain largely hidden from the general public. Fortunately, you can soak in similarly striking vistas from four ponds in the vicinity. This pond-hopping excursion differs from others in that you drive from one pond to the next, traveling along Franklin County Route 26, a two-lane road that passes through the storied resort community. The only carry of any length is at Debar Pond. Two of the ponds can be paddled together. Thus, there are three parking locations. Call it the Loon Lake Challenge. It’s…

Between the Lake Placid 9er, the Saranac Lake 6er, the Tupper Lake Triad (there’s even a patch for dogs), the growing Fire Tower Challenge list, and Tim Rowland’s attempts to clarify the various Buck mountains of the Adirondacks, Doug Miller and I knew it was time for a new Adirondack List Challenge which Doug dubbed the Owls Head Four-Pack. Doug suggested we do it in one day, but fortunately he was joking. And with the waning days of fall and the vagaries of age, we decided three days would be easier—nonconsecutive, of course. All the Owls Heads of the Adirondacks have an S according to the USGS. None have an apostrophe, though I’ve spelled them for this article as they appear in the local vernacular. First up was the longest,…

I had canoed the Little River in the western Adirondacks a few times and remembered it as a mellow paddle with not much current. Evidently, I hadn’t canoed it in April. Leaving Saranac Lake midmorning, I arrived at Streeter Road, a former railroad bed that provides access to the Aldrich Pond Wild Forest, and found it still gated for mud season. This wasn’t a huge hassle, as I had to carry my lightweight Hornbeck only three-tenths of a mile to the river. The seasonal road begins in Aldrich, a community of hunting camps on the river. A sign at one camp describes Aldrich as “God’s country,” and I won’t argue. The Little is a beautiful waterway, largely free of development, but it has been left out of the state’s Wild,…

Something big was happening on a Saturday morning in May, in the normally quiet town of Westport. This Lake Champlain community, known for its Amtrak stop and small theater, was abuzz with activity. It was the start of the Grand Hike, an annual (at least before COVID-19) 14-mile organized walk sponsored by Champlain Area Trails (CATs) to promote some of the best—and newest—hiking paths in the region. Since 2008, CATs has been building what is now a network of 98 miles of trails, many on private land. “Our mission is to save land and make trails and connect people with nature,” said Christopher Maron, then executive director of CATs. The biggest challenge is the limited state forest. Much of the area is farms and private parcels. It’s not even an…

There aren’t many rock-climbing areas on the East Coast where one needs a canoe to approach a cliff. On a cool, June weekday, Cyrus Ferri and I paddled our rented canoe for 20 minutes along the north end of Lake George to the huge slab known as Rogers Slide. We stashed the boat, traversed along the rugged shoreline, flaked our ropes and started climbing one of the most unique routes in the Adirondacks. Such is the dichotomy of Lake George. It’s famous for its raucous tourist village, its Million Dollar Beach, its pristine waters and the sublime scenery that prompted Thomas Jefferson to call it the Queen of American Lakes. Thousands of climbers drive right past the region to the popular climbs in Keene Valley and its vertical surrounds. Those…

My first ride in “the Plains” was 2019 after a writers’ conference in Old Forge. My bike was a mountain bike in name only—a $75 beater I’d brought to commute to the conference. Those first rides were over tame, gravel roads with forays on easy trails into Icehouse and Helldiver ponds. But something about cruising through the forest on a bike created a spark. For the past decade, I‘ve met a group of friends every summer to ride road bikes for a long weekend. In the early COVID-19 days, renting a house together was out. I proposed camping in individual tents at Limekiln Lake, renting mountain bikes and riding in the Moose River Plains. My buddies were skeptical. They were road bikers, and they were grown-ups with high-deductible insurance plans.…

The Northeast Wilderness Trust (NEWT) announced its intention to create the Moriah Wilderness Preserve, a 1,775-acre puzzle-piece that fits with other privateand state-protected lands in the Adirondack foothills that rise from the Champlain Valley. To call these lands—which include the Hammond Pond Wild Forest and the Eddy Foundation’s Parch Pond tract—“underused” is to consider them from a purely human perspective. For wildlife, the paucity of human activity is an obvious selling point, and among the goals of the preserve is to establish four-legged connectivity from the Green Mountains of Vermont, across a narrow, oft-frozen neck of Lake Champlain to the High Peaks. There are no plans for hiking trails on the preserve, but it’s open to the public and has plenty of opportunity for exploration. Janelle Jones, NEWT’s New York…

I am a lifelong birder and outdoors enthusiast, a retired conservation biologist and a wildlife photographer. Yet, at 77 years old and dealing with progressive axonal polyneuropathy, I can now just manage a slow walk, and thankfully, a bicycle. I love my e-bike. It provides exercise and allows me to reach places I can’t walk to in search of birds. I welcomed the opening of the Adirondack Rail Trail. From mid-May through June, the woods, fields, and marshes of the Adirondacks are bursting with life, most notably the singing of millions of neotropical migrants that have returned from their wintering grounds in the tropics. These insect-eaters include flycatchers, swallows, thrushes, warblers, orioles, tanagers and other birds. In mid-May I did some bike-birding on the Adirondack Rail Trail from the Lake…

East Caroga Lake is calm when the small band of kayakers sets off, slicing through the water, pointed west. It’s a mellow Tuesday morning, but not a silent one. Laughter, conversation and friendly banter can be heard as the kayakers glide, pause to wait for stragglers or stop to rest. This fun and friendly paddle is a weekly ritual for the Ladies of the Lake. The group started paddling together 25 years ago. And while members come and go, there are some constants. The women offer camaraderie and friendship, and there are few rules other than no men allowed. For those eager to exercise and socialize together, the Ladies are warm and welcoming, happy to loan kayaks and gear to newcomers, quick to crack jokes and to share their signature…