Table of contents for Outings Guide 2021 in Adirondack Explorer

As I pored over my maps, leafed through guidebooks and searched websites online, the task felt a bit daunting. I was trying to find somewhere to hike in the Adirondacks that was worth visiting and wasn’t overrun, the way most trails are on weekends in the High Peaks and many of the trails now promoted through hiking challenges. It seemed like we had written about every single trail in the northern Adirondacks in recent years, and so had others. Finally, in a last-ditch attempt to find a destination, I came across a trail that sounded interesting, and likely not too popular, at least compared to tourist hot spots like Lake Placid and Lake George. It was called the Ancient Oak Trail. Located right off a main road along Lake Champlain…

When hiking or snowshoeing the Pinnacle, there is one thing that stands out: the amazing views of Lake George from the summit. The views from the Pinnacle—a small mountain just outside Bolton Landing—rival just about any mountain in the Adirondack Park, at least those that overlook lakes. From the summit, one can see a large expanse of Lake George, including the Tongue Mountain range, the Narrows, Shelving Rock, Buck Mountain, and Dome Island. “When we closed on the Pinnacle, there were people literally waiting at the gate to go up it,” said Lake George Land Conservancy Executive Director Jamie Brown. “There was so much anticipation for it.” That was in 2015. Now about 15,000 people a year hike the 1-mile trail, according to Lake George Land Conservancy land steward Alex…

Adirondack paddlers have had much to celebrate in recent years as the state’s acquisition of former Finch, Pruyn lands has opened up spectacular waterways to the public, including Boreas Ponds and the Essex Chain Lakes. But another land deal two decades ago did as much, perhaps more, for canoeists and kayakers. At the end of 1998, Gov. George Pataki announced that the state had struck a deal with Champion International to conserve 139,000 acres in the Adirondack Park. Most of the land would be protected by conservation easements allowing sustainable forestry, but the state would buy outright portions of eight river corridors in the northern Adirondacks. Twenty-two years ago this August, these waterways were open to the public for the first time in more than a century. The Explorer is…

Josh Wilson knows the Jackrabbit Ski Trail as well as anyone. He tells us the Old Mountain Road in Keene—which we’re skiing today—is not his favorite part of the 24-mile trail, but it comes in a close second. His favorite? The 6-mile stretch between Lake Placid and McKenzie Pond Road near Saranac Lake, which provides backcountry skiers an exhilarating 1.5-mile downhill run. I tend to agree, but others might differ. After all, Old Mountain Road has lots of downhill, too, and it’s considerably more scenic, offering views of dramatic cliffs, attractive forests, and peaceful beaver meadows. Josh is the executive director of the Barkeater Trails Alliance (BETA), a nonprofit that maintains the Jackrabbit as well as other ski trails and mountain-bike trails in the region. Mike Lynch and I have…

In some ways the Cranberry Lake 50 is a perfect trail for a pandemic. The trail is often wide, following old logging roads, so if you do meet a hiker (a rare occurrence) it’s easy to keep a safe distance. The terrain is rolling, sometimes even flat, and many streams cross the trail. It’s possible to camp almost anywhere to avoid lean-tos and developed campsites. But this beautiful trail wasn’t designed to hide fugitives and hermits. Tom and I often hike the 50-mile loop at the end of April, when we have school vacation and before the blackflies. We hike for three days with friends, hoping they’ll find the same peace we do as we walk past remote ponds, stride above the rest of the world on a long esker,…

A few years ago, while standing atop Mount Colvin, the temptation to add Nippletop Mountain to an already long day nagged at me. I had never hiked Nippletop, nor Dial Mountain, on the same ridge, a couple of 4,000-footers that had long been on my must-hike list. Other 4,000-footers, like Mount Colvin, always seemed to trump them. Nippletop (4,620 feet), the 13th-highest peak in the Adirondack Park, especially intrigued me. A prominent landmark as one drives up the Northway from the south, this silent sentinel always welcomed me back to the High Peaks from trips to Albany and beyond. It’s obvious why Orson “Old Mountain” Phelps, the legendary Adirondack guide in the 1800s, popularized the mountain’s name. Its summit ridge has a distinct bare nipple of rock. The mountain’s humorous…

One of my go-to ski tours, especially early in the season, is the Hays Brook Truck Trail north of Paul Smiths. Although another ski tour begins across the road, I never bothered to check it out until a few winters ago. Now I know what I was missing. The Kettle Trail is a trail for all seasons. After skiing it, I returned in summer to bike it and later to hike. I can’t tell you which activity or which season is the most enjoyable. You’ll have to find that out for yourself. The trail begins on Slush Pond Road and ends in 3.4 miles at McColloms Road. Both are dead-end dirt roads and not plowed, so in winter you must ski or snowshoe an extra half-mile to reach the trailhead.…

At 8 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 14, 2018, nearly a dozen bicycle riders set out on the longest, most challenging and leastknown bicycle race in the Adirondacks. Departing from Waterfront Park in Northville, on the southern edge of the Adirondacks, they began what would be a meandering, 550-mile loop around the park. There would be hours after hours spent cruising down roads, bouncing over trails, dragging loaded bikes over rocks and fallen logs. Only half the riders would finish. This is The Adirondack Trail Ride, now in its fifth year. Inspired by similar rides held out West, the TATR attracts a certain kind of cyclist, says race founder Mikey Intrabartola. “You need to be willing to suffer,” he said. “A lot of it is not only how fast you can…

It’s always a bit of a surprise when you look down at a trail register and see “We saw a bear!” scribbled in the notes section of the last entry. That’s what happened when I started my hike at Cook Mountain on a Saturday in early June. Immediately several thoughts raced through my mind when I saw the note. “Too bad I left my telephoto lens at home” came to mind, as did “I doubt I’ll see it anyway.” And then a short distance into the trip, I pretty much forgot about it. There have been plenty of times I’ve been hiking when bears had been spotted on my projected route. Rarely do the animals reappear. Plus, in this case, the sighting was the prior day. It was likely long…

Sometimes it pays to wait until the crowd thins out at the latest attraction. The first hint came when my son Theo and I started gearing up at the trailhead to Wolf Pond in 2019, a new path and lean-to accessed from the Blue Ridge Road between Newcomb and North Hudson, south of Boreas Ponds. As we loaded water and other essentials into our dog Chili’s doggy backpack, a couple from Canada emerged from the trail with a warning. “Lovely,” one of them said of Wolf Pond, but way too buggy for them. They were the last people we would see that early summer Saturday. The crowd we faced wasn’t human. After winter and spring had loaded the Adirondacks with more moisture than we had seen last year, people were…

To a canoeist or kayaker, it sounded too good to be true. And it was. For decades, I had been driving past the Cedar River where it crosses Route 28 in Indian Lake. Like all paddlers, I would crane my neck each time, fantasizing about a trip down the inviting stream. For 100 years, a day trip on the Cedar was impractical without permission from the hunting and fishing club that controlled the take-out point. Then, in 2013, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that new lands added to the Adirondack Forest Preserve would make the Cedar River and its confluence with the Hudson River available. “I encourage everyone to come explore the many outdoor recreational activities that this breathtaking area has to offer,” the governor said in a news release. I’m…

Standing at the Sawyer Mountain trail register, his snowshoes pushing through more than a foot of snow, Ned yelled out: “The last person to sign the register was six days ago.” That wasn’t a surprise to me. There were no tracks in the snow and the snowbank along the parking lot was 5 feet high, with no indication anyone had scaled it to get to the trail. Hiking crowds generally dissipate after peak colors fade in the fall, and this trail doesn’t get the number of hikers that frequent popular backcountry destinations such as those in Keene Valley and Lake Placid. The lack of people would actually make the trip a bit more interesting. It meant we would have to break trail as we made our way through 1 to…