The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
By Phil Brown
The Adirondack Mountain Club has issued a supplement to its Adirondack Trails: Eastern Region guidebook that can be downloaded for free from its Web site. The supplement describes twelve additional hiking trails in ten locations within the region, which includes Lake George and the Champlain Valley. Perhaps the most exciting addition is the 2.6-mile trail…
By Phil Brown
Last weekend I climbed Lyon Mountain, the 3,830-foot peak west of Dannemora. What a great view! I had been up it a few times before but not since the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) rerouted the trail. The old trail was an old jeep road that shot straight up the mountain. It was a rubbly mess.…
By Phil Brown
If you like to ski the backcountry, the Adirondack Ski Touring Council wants your help maintaining trails for skiing. The council will be trimming brush and branches on the Van Hoevenberg Trail to Mount Marcy this Saturday. Volunteers are to meet at the High Peaks Information Center at Heart Lake at 8 a.m. Tools will…
By Phil Brown
The executive director of the Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board has written Gov. David Paterson to urge him to reject a proposal to classify part of Lows Lake as Wilderness. At its September meeting, the Adirondack Park Agency voted 6-4 to classify the western part of Lows Lake as Wilderness and the eastern part…
By Phil Brown
The history of Finch, Pruyn & Co. and its paper mill in Glens Falls is intertwined with the history of the Adirondack Park. Two years ago, the company sold all its lands, more than 160,000 acres, to the Nature Conservancy and its mill to Atlas Holdings. Much of the land is expected to added to the…
By Phil Brown
We should be hitting peak foliage soon. Last weekend, I climbed the slide on East Dix and saw lots of color, mostly yellow, in the forest. But what really caught my eye were the succulent red berries of the American mountain ash. E.H. Ketchledge, in Forest and Trees of the Adirondack High Peaks Region, calls…
By Phil Brown
Many of you may have heard about the recent death of Fran Betters, the legendary fly fisherman from Wilmington. He is usually associated with his beloved Ausable River, but he fished many other places in the Adirondacks as well. Years ago, for example, he wrote a nice piece for the Explorer about the fishing opportunities…
By Phil Brown
A friend of the Explorer just forwarded these photographs of a bull moose taken on Upper Ausable Lake. He also forwarded an e-mail from Ron Hall, who described the recent encounter. Hall was rowing a guide boat on the lake–on “a perfect morning, cool, mist”–when he heard clunking and splashing sounds near a boathouse. “Suddenly…
By Phil Brown
The first time I hiked to Gull Lake in the Black River Wild Forest I was appalled at the damage to the trails caused by the illegal use of all-terrain vehicles. That was more than ten years ago. This past Sunday, I went for a morning run on these same trails and discovered that nothing…
By Phil Brown
The Adirondack Park Agency voted 6-4 Friday to classify most of Lows Lake and adjacent lands as Wilderness, despite objections from local politicians. Under the proposal, which requires approval from the governor, Lows Lake west of Frying Pan Island will be designated Wilderness. The rest of the lake, which is much narrower, will be designated…