The Adirondack Trail Ride ‘bikepacking’ route challenges those hardy enough to try
By Tom French
Imagine biking 585 miles through some of the roughest single-track, old logging roads and overgrown snowmobile trails in the Adirondacks.
That’s The Adirondack Trail Ride (TATR, pronounced tater), a comprehensive tour of the Adirondack Park that begins and ends in Northville.
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Riders trek from Wilcox Lake Wild Forest to the Moose River Plains, north past Pepperbox, Five Ponds Wilderness, and the Oswegatchie Educational Center near Croghan all the way to Hopkinton before heading southeast past Debar and Wilmington and through the divide between Jay and Hurricane mountains. From there, the riders travel along Lake Champlain at Essex and Westport then back into the interior to cross the Boreas River onto the Irishtown Snowmobile Trail through Lester Flow where “the trail literally disappears.” Participants bushwhack around blowdown and ford rivers with a bike on their shoulders through a wide range of terrain.
Created by Michael “Mikey” Intrabartola, the race started in 2014 just a few years after the explosion of bikepacking (think backpacking, but with a bike. Not to be confused with touring, which is usually on paved roads). Intrabartola started with side bags himself, but while exploring New Zealand in 2004 with his wife, he discovered a world of rugged single-track where they “ditched the panniers and just strapped a dry bag to the rack.”
In 2012, Intrabartola completed the Tour Divide, a 2,745-mile race from Banff, Canada, to the Mexican border in 22 days. “It’s the granddaddy of off-road bikepacking,” he said.
Hundreds of other routes and races popped up over the years, with many listed at Bikepacking.com. Events are usually self-supporting and without fees or prizes other than the satisfaction of “endurance, self-reliance and mental toughness.”
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While support crews are prohibited, riders are allowed to use any resources along the route that are available to everyone, such as a bike shop or a Stewart’s. Some choose to stay at motels instead of bivvying on the ground.
Grand departs
People can complete routes anytime they wish. GPS trackers record progress and times can be sent to organizers as an Individual Time Trial (ITT) or Fastest Known Time (FKT). Those craving camaraderie can take part on a group ride with a “grand depart.” Not an organized event per se, but “an invitation to come on a particular day. We’re not organizing. We’re instigators,” said Eric Betteridge, TATR veteran and an organizer of the St. Lawrence Triple Crown, a 1,550 mile-challenge made up of three separate routes: TATR, the Log Driver’s Waltz and Butter Tart. The latter two rides are in Canada.
For TATR’s grand depart, students from Northville Central School line the streets to cheer the riders on. Spanish teacher Shannon Thomarie first organized the send-off in 2018. Teachers utilize the race to teach geography, history, math and even science. Thomarie supplies cowbells, clappers and maracas.
“The kids are very interested in tracking the riders and their little dots [from the GPS trackers], and they’re learning the names of places, the lakes and how big the park is.”
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A few hardy finishers
Finishing can be a lonely affair with no one waiting to cheer other than a friend, family member or crickets.
In 2015, the first year, five people started plus Intrabartola, and one finished.
“I wasn’t sure anybody was going to show up, so I was happy with six people. The weather was absolutely nasty, and some of the trails were overgrown,” Intrabartola said.
Injury or breakdown are two leading causes for people to scratch, but most who quit do so on the first day. “People are unprepared for the grueling nature of the trails and the first day is the hardest. The section [in the Wilcox Lake Wild Forest] goes on for 17 or 18 miles. It makes or breaks people,” Intrabartola said.
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Since its inception, only 64 of 94 have accomplished the feat, some after multiple attempts—a short list for an Adirondack challenge. (Over 16,000 46ers are listed as of March). Intrabartola created an easier (with more road miles), albeit longer, 619-mile TATR 10 in 2024 to mark the 10th anniversary. Seven of nine finished.
Eight have completed the trek more than once, but the record for most finishes goes to 69-year-old Jody Dixon who has crossed the line six out of seven attempts. Her husband, Mike Feldman, also 69, has completed the race four out of five times. Dixon and Feldman, residents of Benson, are legends in the bikepacking community. Feldman was the first to complete the “Triple Crown” and Dixon writes a blog about her experiences.
Feldman related a story about arriving at a store after closing hours. The owner was watering flowers and reluctant to open, but when she learned he was married to Dixon, “all she talked about was watching Jody on Trackleaders.”
Doing it fast
If 585 rugged miles isn’t enough, try to do it in 96 hours at a pace of almost 150 miles per day.
The best time ever was 3:09:54 in 2020—the year with the most participants (21). Someone has also completed the route in 3:12:43 with a single-speed gear set-up.
The top time in 2024 was 3:23:03 by 43-year-old Adin Maynard, followed by 27-year-old Phoebe Gelbard with 3:23:41 in TATR 10.
Maynard evolved into “the adventure side” after years of shorter, regional races while his kids were little. “I have a pretty dialed approach now—trusting myself with my gear and my mindset. I finally gained enough confidence where I can sleep wherever. For this race, I was aiming for around four hours a night.”
In addition to TATR, he biked the Silk Road (1,200 miles through the mountains of Kyrgyzstan) and Super 8 (655 miles in Vermont). He attempted the 550-mile Highland Trail in Scotland this May.
Gelbard wasn’t planning to be competitive. It was her first bikepacking race, and she only decided to enter three days before the grand depart when the weather looked good. “I didn’t think it was achievable, but I was willing to try,” Gelbard said. “We were definitely going faster than I expected. The last 50 miles were tough after riding for over 30 hours [straight] with unrelenting hills, rough snowmobile and logging roads, and a lot of sand and thorns.” Gelbard finished Vermont’s Super 8 the week after TATR.
After two days while pacing with a small group, fellow rider James Graves, 45, said he wanted to finish within four days.
“It was the first time I’d ever done any bikepacking,” and almost 20 years since he’d done any touring. He biked across the country on a tandem in 2006. “I did next to no training. It was very last minute. I used a bike that I’ve had for 15 years. I borrowed a couple things from Mikey. The navigation was a completely new element. I don’t think I would have ridden the ride I did without Phoebe in terms of logistical efficiency and how to use [the app] Ride with GPS.”
When asked how they decided who would cross the finish line first, Graves said, “I stopped and took a 10-minute nap. She said she needed to keep riding, or she was going to collapse. I was like, ‘I’ll catch up with you.’ But we were so close to the end that I never caught up.”
Explore more
This year’s grand depart is scheduled for 8 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 12, at Waterfront Park in Northville. More information:
Photo at top by Eric Teed
Don’t miss out
This article first appeared in a recent issue of Adirondack Explorer magazine.
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