Klondike Notch Trail
When I was a novice backcountry skier, I once climbed to Klondike Notch, the pass between Howard and Yard mountains in the High Peaks Wilderness...By Phil Brown
Outdoor Recreation
All Stories
Mount Arab
On a brisk winter day, my dad and I set out for a snowshoe excursion up Mount Arab, a small peak with a restored fire tower west of Tupper Lake and a panoramic view of the northern Adirondacks. By Evan Williams
Help the world; watch a ski film
By Phil Brown
Want to do something good for the world? Then watch the new Teton Gravity Research ski film at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts this Friday night. Proceeds from the ticket sales will benefit the Adirondack Ski Touring Council and the Barkeater Trails Alliance, two nonprofit organizations that maintain trails for cross-country skiing and…
No decision on Marcy Dam
By Phil Brown
Now that the state has decided not to rebuild the dam at Duck Hole, people are wondering about the future of Marcy Dam. The short answer is that there is no answer—not yet. “No decisions have been made. We’re still evaluating that,” David Winchell, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said this…
John Davis finishes TrekEast
By Phil Brown
After hiking, biking, canoeing, and sailing 7,600 miles over 280 days, John Davis says the hard work has just begun. Davis resigned as the Adirondack Council’s conservation director last year to undertake TrekEast, a muscle-powered journey designed to draw attention to the need to protect wild lands in the eastern United States and Canada. He…
The harbinger of winter
By Phil Brown
We had a brief snow squall in Saranac Lake this afternoon. No accumulation, but the cedars outside the office window got a nice dusting. So I wasn’t too surprised when Ron Konowitz called to say he had just skied the toll road on Whiteface Mountain. As the robin is to spring, Ron Kon is to…
DEC reopens two more trails
By Phil Brown
The state has reopened two more trails in the High Peaks region, but it has no plans to reopen before next year other trails closed by Irene. Hikers can once again take the Deer Brook Trail from Route 73 to Snow Mountain, though the low-water route through the Deer Brook flume remains impassable (it was…
Nordic Ski Centers
On one of those winter afternoons when night falls as the clock says it’s still day, a line of small children moves up a white trail, marching wide-legged like ants on a branch. By Mary Thill
Bum Pond Ski
Bum Pond doesn’t sound like the most attractive place, and in truth there are better destinations in the Adirondack Park for cross-country skiing—lots of them. By Phil Brown
Winter ramble
The Capital Region forecasters were predicting a high of thirty-five degrees, meaning this day would rival the warmest in six weeks. So my son Nicholas and I debate: ski pants or blue jeans for our snowshoe trip? Nick, a college student who spends most of the winter in Potsdam—where it can be fifty degrees colder than…