Innehållsförteckning för Guide to the Great Outdoors 2024 från Adirondack Life

I used to consider myself a backpacker: I thru-hiked the 132-mile Northville Placid Trail with my thenboyfriend in 2001 and Vermont’s 273-mile Long Trail with my now-husband for our honeymoon in 2003. It rained 18 out of the 32 days we were on the trail. So much rain, we renamed it The Long River—it was not the honey-moon we had planned, but oh well, we were hard-core backpackers. After hiking the entire length of Vermont, I looked like Rosie the Riveter when I reached the Canadian border. But then life brought my husband and me the responsibilities of three children, two careers and maintenance for a 100-year-old house. Backpacking held no appeal. My own bed, clean sheets, ceiling fan, hot shower, and coffee that brewed itself were all I wanted…

We reached the northern end of Tirrell Pond in the early afternoon, when the autumn sun was still hot and high in trees on Tirrell Mountain rising up to the east were just beginning to peak—pops of bright gold and crimson amongst the evergreens—and we basked in their warm, hazy glow. I wanted to swim immediately, while my skin still prickled with sweat. My boyfriend and I shed our backpacks and our clothes and padded out on a sandy spit, and then cautiously waded into the water. After a few steps, the sand beneath our feet disappeared, and we plunged in. The water was icy, so cold the arches of my feet cramped in protest as I paddled around. But this was a moment I didn’t want to end, so…

Any 10-to-15-day traverse of the 138-mile Northville-Placid Trail requires good planning, and backpackers should be prepared for poor weather and the cumulative problems of wet clothing, developing blisters and equipment failure. A guidebook is essential—the Adirondack Mountain Club publishes a complete guide to the trail, edited by Jeff and Donna Case, and available at adk.org. Food Don’t believe the count of portions in ready-to-eat packages without testing the quantity yourself. Carry a few meals with you that are very easy to prepare, since a late arrival in camp or bad weather can create difficult cooking conditions, but also include a few special treats in your pack that you can use for morale raising. Food packages can be mailed to post offices in Piseco, Blue Mountain Lake (the approximate midpoint of…

Recreational camping emerged in the United States after the American Civil War as a form of escape from the hustle of city life. Spurred by the 1869 publication of Adventures in the Wilderness; or, Camp-Life in the Adirondacks by Reverend William Henry Harrison (aka Adirondack) Murray (1840–1904), visitors flocked to the region in search of spiritual and physical renewal, marking what the historical geographer Terence Young characterized as the birth of the practice as we know it today. When they camp, campers “make” a set of constructions (a tent, a fire, a meal) resulting from actions that provide the practitioner with a tangible stake in their temporary settlement. Each task requires a different degree of investment: when the camper makes a tent, for example, she is not constructing the structure from…

Though we can precisely date the emergence of the term sleeping-bag to the mid-nineteenth-century memoirs and speeches of the Arctic explorers Sherard Osborn (1822–1875) and Sir Robert McClure (1807–1873), we do now know that the expression did not immediately catch on. Throughout that period and well into the twentieth century, authors and experts circuitously referred to the familiar implement of gear in different ways, calling it a sleeping-sack (1856); a drugget bag (1860); a blanket-bag (1871); a strong linen sack (1872); a knapsack bag (1872); a peasants’ sack (1872); a traveling rug (1876); a sleeping valise (1903); a sleeping-pocket (1908); and a quilt bag (1918). The interchangeability of these terms suggests that the sleeping bag’s function, design, and—to believe certain hearty woodsmen—its sheer necessity, were not yet fully settled matters. Even…

Sandpaper. That’s the unlovely thing that lovely chunks of Warren County garnet can become once processed. Henry Hudson Barton was the first to appreciate the mineral’s power as an abrasive and the first to recognize the quality of the large deposits on Gore Mountain. He started mining there in 1878; the business he founded still operates on nearby Ruby Mountain. But it was Frank Hooper who dreamed up the key to unlocking the resource’s full potential. While working a graphite mine on Lake George with his brother, the pair hit upon a way to mechanically separate minerals from surrounding rock. In 1893 they patented the technology, called a vanning jig, and Frank opened a mine on Ruby Mountain. By 1898, he’d moved on to a richer parcel on a hillside…

Quiet is a relative thing; it depends on where you are and where you’ve been. In the city it means you can hear yourself speak. In the suburbs it means you can hear your neighbors talking in the yard next door. But I found out what quiet really is when I was working as an Adirondack Voyageur, taking groups of Boy Scouts on canoe treks in the park. The Adirondack Voyageur program was created in 1979 as part of the Boy Scouts National Camping School. The program certifies adult leaders to guide youth groups on wilderness outings. We were on a trip to Lows Lake, a man-made lake created by two dams on the Bog River, and I was with the Venture Crew from my son’s Boy Scout troop. The…

Last summer my friend Brian La Vallee and I sat in my backyard, poring over A Charm of Goldfinches and Other Wild Gatherings: Quirky Collective Nouns of the Animal Kingdom by Matt Sewell. I’m fascinated by etymology—particularly when it comes to the sweet, goofy, often old-timey names given to clusters of critters. A romp of otters, a prickle of porcupines, a trip of rabbits, a gaze of raccoons—I could go on and on. As Brian and I flipped through the pages, he mentioned hearing someone call a group of kayaks a “ganglecluster.” A ganglecluster? Brian’s an artist. He’s funny, too. So, of course, we agreed that a series of “collective noun” paintings from his perspective belonged in Adirondack Life. Here are a handful. You can see more of Brian’s work…

Situated somewhere between what historians John A. Jakle and Keith A. Sculle have described as the “challenging new circumstances and the safe reassurances of familiarity,” the camp is a substitute for the home—a place to dwell, to sleep, to interact socially, to prepare and eat food. Stripped of any but the most essential conveniences and often merely shielded by a single layer of paper-thin, 40-denier ripstop nylon, the modern shelter, and the patch of ground upon which it is located, is literally and figuratively open to the external stimuli of its natural surroundings. As the parcel of land upon which millions of enthusiasts elect each summer to drive their car, set up their tent, or park their trailer or RV, this patch of ground upon which they lay down temporary…

Know why I love Aunt Camp? Because we have crazy ideas and you actually let us do them!” exclaimed eight-year-old Savannah, while stapling sheets to our loft ceiling to create a sleeping fort. Almost every summer since 2009, nieces and nephews in various configurations, from both sides of our family, have joined us for a week of adventure in the Adirondacks. No parents allowed. Hearing our most indoorsy nephew announce, “Aunt Camp is the happiest place on earth!” confirmed that we were onto something special. What began with our Subaru Impreza and two five-year-olds now involves seven campers, ages 10–16, and requires both a minivan and a Forester. Both of us are “camp people.” We spent a number of summers as counselors and ultimately directors at Girl Scout camps in…

Every bike ride brings the potential of adventure and discovery, and on a few Capital District bike rides, my wife, Judy, and I encountered stone monuments that read: “Through This Place Passed Gen. Henry Knox in the Winter of 1775–1776 to Deliver to Gen. George Washington at Cambridge the Team of Artillery from Fort Ticonderoga Used to Force the British Army to Evacuate Boston.” We decided to visit Fort Ticonderoga to learn more about the man who helped save the Continental Army in the early days of the American Revolution. I also wanted to bike part of the route Knox had taken—in 1926, during the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Revolution, New York and Massachusetts placed 56 commemorative stone monuments along the path historians believe he traveled. In…

The Northville-Placid Trail cuts through the West Canada Lakes Wilderness in some of the most remote terrain in the Adirondacks. It’s about as far from human hubbub as one can get. But one rainy July morning, it’s anything but placid. Deep in a blowdown-filled beaver swamp, the woods reverberate with the voice of my daughter, Rae, who at the moment has—let us be frank—quite the potty mouth. As her backpacking guide, I just made the strategic misstep of laughing as she waded into knee-high slop, followed by my request that she hold that pose while I fish out my camera. Hence, the profanity. It’s day three of what I thought would be a leisurely four-day itinerary on the French Louie Loop, a seemingly ideal starter trip for Rae after she blessed…

The picnic table is an ingenious piece of design. Featuring a structurally bolted frame that unites bench seats and table into a sturdy package, its construction is so simple that it has not required any significant improvements for nearly a century. It is safe to say that there are picnic tables in every park, every campsite, and, seemingly, almost every suburban backyard in America. And yet its ubiquity has also made it largely unremarkable, to the point of invisibility. Having transcended the event it was originally intended to accommodate, the picnic table is now the ideal setting for any outdoor event that compels us to face one another squarely across a shared surface. An 1886 photograph by George Bacon Wood of Camp Colden in the Adirondacks would have been illustrative of the…

Hell of a day for a hike, boys!” sure. Where you headed?” “Up the MacIntyres.” Kootch smiled. “It’ll clear up soon enough.” The Attendant looked up at the sky. “Not so The Attendant shot Kootch an odd expression and said, “Well, make sure you sign in and out.” Kootch paid him a few dollars for the parking fee and we pulled in to find a spot. The place was pretty crowded and we squeezed into a space so tight that Kootch could barely get out on his side. I stood in the rain while he leaned back into the cab and rummaged for some things. I was wet by the time he found what he was looking for. He looked at me with surprise. “C’mon, Bran, get your stuff ready!…

Wakely Mountain It’s an uncrowded hike to the top of one of the taller mountains in the region with the tallest fire tower in the Adirondacks. Start: Cedar River Road Total distance: 6.4 miles, out and back Difficulty: Strenuous Hiking time: About 5 hours Highest point: 3,750 feet Vertical gain: 1,568 feet Dog-friendly: Yes. Dogs should be on-leash. Do not allow dogs on the fire tower. Nearest town: Indian Lake Maps: USGS Wakely Mountain Quad (summit), Snowy Mountain Quad (trailhead) Finding the Trailhead From the junction of NY 30 and NY 28 in Indian Lake, take NY 30 north for 2.1 miles. Turn left on Cedar River Road at the NYSDEC sign for “Cedar River Entrance, Wakely Mountain Trailhead” at a sharp bend in the road. Go 11.5 miles. The…