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Tony Goodwin’s short, powerful legs are churning up a steep, 1,000-foot trail to Brown Mountain in the Tongue Mountain Range above Lake George. Perspiration dapples his wind-burned brow. Yellow and orange maple leaves rustle in the wake of his battered, split-at-the-seams leather hiking boots.
You can reach the 2,178-foot summit of “Goodman Mountain” by an easy bushwhack. Start at the unpaved parking area for Lumberjack Spring, on the east side of Route 30 a few hundred yards south of the right turn for County Route 421 (the road to Bog River Falls and Horseshoe Lake).
When the Explorer asked me to write about two of my favorite ski trips, I didn’t have to rattle my brain long before I hit on the two gems below. Both should be great skiing in late winter, when there is (or should be) lots of snow. If you love the winter wilderness and enjoy backcountry skiing, you won’t be disappointed with either of these trips.
You think you’re physically ready, braced for the worst. But no matter how many times you’ve clung anxiously to a raft catapulting and careening down the wild upper Hudson River during spring runoffs, there’s no way to be really prepared for that first heart-stopping plunge into a wall of frigid water.
Carl Heilman knows snowshoes. He made and sold them for 15 years, always out of hand-split ash, and he’s used them for much longer. Although he got out of the business a few years ago to devote his energies to photography, he still goes out on snowshoes two or three times a week when conditions permit.
By breviews
Paul Jamieson’s Adirondack Canoe Waters: North Flow, first appeared in 1975 and quickly set the standard to which most subsequent guides adhere. It has gone through many editions and picked up a co-author, Donald Morris, who has expanded the book’s reach, in part as a result of his greater experience as a whitewater paddler. But…
By Phil Brown Back in 1979, Almy and Anne Coggeshall published 25 Ski Tours in the Adirondacks, the first guide to cross-country skiing in the North Country. They dedicated it to John Apperson, an ardent conservationist and the first person to climb Mount Marcy on skis.
By breviews
Mount Marcy has been a prime focus for Adirondack climbers ever since that day in 1837 when William Redfield and company first ascended the peak and ascertained that it was indeed the highest mountain in New York. Since then, many pages have been written about Mount Marcy, but until now no one has set out…
This is how it was meant to be. The wax is holding firm as we ascend the mild uphill behind Pitchoff Mountain and settle into a comfortable kick and glide through the still woods, slow enough to maintain conversation but fast enough to know we’re getting somewhere. By Rick Karlin
By Jeff Schmidt The roller-coaster ride through the krummholz was exhilarating and unlike any skiing I’d ever done. I had just come through the Romper Room, a magical section on the shoulder of Mount Marcy that epitomizes the best in Adirondack trail skiing. The trail rolls, dips, turns and twists. Blind corners lead to blinding…