You’ve got to be fast to take part in the Great Adirondack Trail Run. The Mountaineer will accept the first sixty applicants to sign up for the 11.5-mile race this Saturday and expects to fill all the slots in just twenty minutes.
The race will be held Saturday, June 19. Participants will run through the Giant Mountain Wilderness, starting on Route 9N and ending at the Mountaineer in Keene Valley. Along the way they’ll cross the wide-open summit of Hopkins Mountain. The elevation gain is about 2,900 feet.
If you’re not up for that, you can take part in a 3.5-mile fun run from the Baxter Mountain Tavern on 9N to Keene Valley.
This is the charity race’s sixth year. In the past, it has drawn criticism from people who object to holding organized races in Wilderness Areas.
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The fees for adults are $40 for the main trail run and $20 for the fun run. The fees are cut in half for children sixteen and under. Proceeds from the race will be donated to the Au Sable River Association and the Boquet River Association.
Registration starts at 8 a.m. Saturday. On your mark, get set, go …
Somebody should tell Commissioner Grannis that this is a wilderness area, meaning that is an area that derives its character from the ABSENCE of people and human activity. The Adirondack State Land Master Plan provides explicit guidance on the types of activities that should or should not be allowed in wilderness areas – “Group events” are one of those activities specifically proscribed as contravening the intent and meaning of wilderness. Given that, why would the agency charged with PROTECTING wilderness then do just the OPPOSITE?
As one protester put it several years ago, “It’s like allowing baseball games in the Sistine Chapel”.
On the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, I would expect better than this from the Department that professes to protect the environment on behalf of all New Yorkers.
People enjoying the wilderness in GROUPS? When will they learn that the Adirondacks were created for individuals who don’t like other people. If you have to have other people around to have a good time maybe you should re-examine your priorities.