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Everyone in the North Country knows an aspiring 46er or soon learns to recognize one: firm calves, purposeful expression and a lofty to-do list. Forty-Sixers earn the title, of course, by climbing all of the Adirondack High Peaks, most of which top 4,000 feet. The Adirondack Forty- Sixers organization, established in the 1930s, records more…
Vermonter ventures into High Peaks By Caleb Daniloff We leave our Vermont home before dawn, nudging our twin beams of light across the Champlain Bridge and onto New York Route 9N. Not long after crossing into the Adirondack Park, a large coyote lopes across the road, silver and blond fur glinting in our headlights, eyes…
Looking for the wild things By Akum Norder Our expedition leader’s britches keep falling down. She’s zigzagging all over the trail, and she trips on every root she crosses. But we’d follow her anywhere. My daughter, husband and I are on our way to Panther Pond, a half-hour drive west of Lowville in a remote…
On Page 65 of this excellent biography is a photograph of Howard Zahniser in front of Hanging Spear Falls, on the Opalescent River. Snapped by the Adirondack conservationist Paul Schaefer in 1946, it provides a compelling visual reminder of the role of the Adirondacks in the story of wilderness preservation in the United States. Zahniser…
By Mary Lou Recor Panther Gorge has always interested me, given its remote location in the deepest heart of the High Peaks, shadowed by the walls of Skylight, Marcy and Haystack. I imagined it as dark and mysterious. Even its name evokes fanciful thoughts of wildness and an edge of danger. But until this past…
Ted “Cave Dog” Keizer did it, though not in the way he planned. Keizer climbed Mount Jo near Adirondak Loj on a windy, overcast morning in late November to complete his quest to hike 50 kilometers (about 30 miles) a day in each of the 50 states. By Phil Brown
I’m on a ridge, not exactly sure where, and I can’t see more than a few feet past the branches that just poked me in the face. By Phil Brown
Journey up the Jordan By Mark Bowie Way up north, a secluded river flows through cathedral-like corridors of stately spruce, tamarack, balsam fir and white pine. The duotone dark-green and black waterscape looks ancient and primitive. Straight passages give way upstream to serpentine segments that wobble across the valley. They’re often lined with alders, but…
Dennis Aprill has come out with another book for people looking to hike outside the High Peaks. His first guidebook, Paths Less Traveled, focused on smaller mountains (less than 2,800 feet). Short Treks takes the concept a step further, describing 20 easy hikes that require no summit climbing. Silver Lake Bog, the Hudson Gorge, Lampson…
In her fifth work about the Adirondacks, author Sandra Weber has written a children’s book about her adventures in the High Peaks with her 11-year-old daughter, Marcy. The two trekked 60 miles over 11 days, climbing Mount Marcy and Mount Marshall, hiking to Indian Pass and Avalanche Pass, and camping at Duck Hole. They were…