Rail-trail idea shortsighted

It is extremely unfortunate that your paper devotes so much effort to the establishment of a bikeway on the old Lake Placid-Old Forge line.

My family and friends have ridden this line in the past and hope to do so again soon. It provides an experience that we have trouble finding elsewhere, that is a train trip in the wilderness.

For the past thirty-seven years, my family has camped and rented in the Adirondacks in the summer and fall. We particularly enjoy hiking and canoeing.

However, we would never hike on paths that were often used by bicycles, finding their presence and passage very unpleasant and often annoying. One experiences relative solitude one moment and a throng of bicycles creeps up and, surprising you, swarms by.

The primary reason my family visits the Adirondacks is to get away from people. If a bikeway were built we would stop coming.

Already many of my friends refuse to visit because of the road congestion and motel-room scarcity caused by canoe races, car shows, balloon festivals, and the like. They now go to Maine or Canada instead.

We feel advocacy of the rail trail is very shortsighted, and the supposed economic benefits will be offset by many who will choose to stay away. The area would no longer be very wild.

Peep Rebasso, Croton-on-Hudson