The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
By Phil Brown
After we got six inches of snow in Saranac Lake this week you could understand why people were wondering if winter would ever end. Never fear: summer is on its way, and Green Goat Maps can help you make the most of it. Green Goat recently published its “Lake Placid and Saranac Lake Cycling Map”…
By Mike Lynch
The northern Adirondacks were hit with more snow the past few days, continuing what has been a snowy March. The fairly deep snowpack means that skiing is great in many places in the northern Adirondacks right now. The Jackrabbit Trail is in great condition and all the crosscountry centers should be in good shape. The…
By Mike Lynch
Explorer Editor Phil Brown skis to the summit of Dewey Mountain during his lunch break.
By Phil Brown
I just got back from touring the Andalusia region of southern Spain with Carol Fox and my daughter Martha. On one day we took a wonderful hike into the Sierra Nevada where we saw goats roaming the treeless hills. Although the mountains are not far from the Mediterranean Sea, they are snow-capped. The highest top…
By Mike Lynch
People living in the Adirondacks woke up to frigid temperatures Friday morning. In Saranac Lake, the temperature hovered around -10 degrees Fahrenheit and gusty winds. The National Weather Service in Burlington reported wind chills at about -30 in the northern Adirondacks and have issued a wind chill advisory until Saturday night. “The dangerously cold wind…
By Phil Brown
We got three to four inches of snow Sunday night, just enough to lure me out of the office for a backcountry ski on my lunch hour on Monday afternoon. I went to the Bloomingdale Bog Trail, an old railroad bed that needs only a few inches to be skiable. The base was thin, but…
By Phil Brown
The Barkeater Trails Alliance has done a great job building mountain-bike trails in Wilmington, Lake Placid, and Saranac Lake. A proposed management plan for the Saranac Lakes Wild Forest calls for the construction of 35 more miles of bike trails in the region. You can read about the plan in the forthcoming issue of the…
By Phil Brown
Baker Mountain on the edge of the village of Saranac Lake is one of the most popular peaks in the Adirondacks. Like many other local residents, I’ve hiked it countless times and thought I had seen it all. I was wrong. Will Roth recently made the hike to Baker’s summit more interesting for rock climbers:…
By Phil Brown
We lost much our snow base around Saranac Lake in recent weeks. For my lunch-hour ski on Thursday, I was rattling my brain for a smooth trail or frozen pond, someplace where you can ski without a lot of snow. I settled on the Bloomingdale Bog Trail, which starts a few miles north of the…
By Phil Brown
Uncertainty about deeds held up for months the lawsuit filed against the state over its plan to remove tracks and create a 34-mile rail trail between Lake Placid and Tupper Lake. The state thought it owned the entire rail corridor but discovered it does not have title to two parcels: a half-mile stretch near North…