Adirondack Explorer

Eagle Bay resident Ben Cohen has ridden bikes off-road in Utah and Colorado, and now he ventures around his home territory at McCauley Mountain. “It’s been a blast to see the growth and development of the system; can't wait to see what else is in store,” Cohen said. “It’s near impossible to compare riding out West to our location, but the machine-built trails that McCauley offers are like nothing I've ridden on the East Coast.” Cohen, who rides near his family’s businesses, Nutty Putty Miniature Golf and Benny’s Ice Cream, in Old Forge, is among a growing group mountain biking in a growing trail system in the western Adirondacks. The network is getting a boost, thanks to a $250,000 state grant to expand the trail system at the McCauley Mountain Ski/Recreation Area in…

As Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett sang, it’s five o’clock somewhere, and on a Friday afternoon in mid-September, that somewhere was Hardy Road in Wilmington, where local mountain bikers drifted into the Beaver Brook Tract Trail trailhead parking after a long week at work, or whatever. Tires were inflated, helmets secured, pleasantries exchanged and cold cans of beer were nestled into fanny packs with care. It was “Hardy Hour.” It is a casual affair to be sure, with no dress codes or guest lists. All are welcome, come when you can, minimal experience required. Social climbing, however, is mandatory—760 feet of it, to be exact, as the trail known as All In leaves the valley floor and darts up the northern shoulder of Winch Mountain. But the payoff on this Friday was sublime,…

The high school students take off their shoes and socks and step into the water of the North Branch of the Grasse River. They can’t see the bottom as the water is golden brown, steeped in tannins from bogs upstream. Crossing the North Branch is the first challenge of their AP Environmental Science final exam. All year they’ve been studying at Canton High School with their teacher, Tom Van de Water. They’ve been on field trips, but never one like this. On this trip they must make all the decisions—how to get across the North Branch of the Grasse River, how to bushwhack to the Main Branch of the Grasse, how to set up a low impact campsite. Most of the students have never been backpacking. Some of them wear their school…

Hiking up Blue Mountain and Goodnow Mountain on the same day seemed like a good idea on paper. They were located about 12 miles apart in the central Adirondack Park. Both hikes measured a little over two miles from trailhead to summit. Blue, 3,750 feet, and Goodnow, 2,664 feet, didn’t sound like much as my husband Jack, niece Hannah and her husband Adam contemplated our double-summit day. What’s more, historic fire towers crowned both. However, mountain stats and reality in the woods can vary greatly. By random choice, we headed to Goodnow first. Named for Sylvester Goodnow, a homesteader who settled at the base of the mountain in the 1820s, the mountain is one of those rare hikes in the Adirondack Park that is not state-maintained, though the state built the…

The trail to Bennett, Middle and Murphy lakes is among the closest Adirondack trails to the State Capitol. This moderate hike along an old logging road passes all three lakes within 3.5 miles and can be hiked out-and-back from Creek Road in the town of Hope, or if using a second car, 8 miles to Pumpkin Hollow Road. From the Creek Road trailhead, hikers follow in the varied footsteps of history: the Revolutionary War veterans who first settled Hope around 1790 and created the road that the trail follows today; the employees of the 19th century paint mine, responsible for the red paint on local buildings; the subsistence farmers such as the Burgess family, whose 10 children would walk the road daily from Bennett Lake to the one-room schoolhouse; loggers harvesting…

This spring I took my gravel bike on a 23-mile ride that had a bit of everything: paved highways, dirt logging roads, foot trails, a snowmobile trail and a section of the yet-to-be-built Adirondack Rail Trail. It performed well on all parts of the trip, proving the versatility of gravel bikes. The trip also demonstrated the potential for the rail trail to change the region’s biking scene. Not only will cyclists be able to bike the 34-mile rail corridor between Lake Placid and Tupper Lake, but they also will be able to devise loop rides that combine sections of the corridor with adjacent roads and trails. My idea for a loop ride came to me while writing about the rail trail in winter. I did the loop alone in late May and…