May/June 2020

Adirondack Explorer

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Adirondack Explorer4 min read
ADK Chief To Focus On Core Mission With You In Trying Times
New Adirondack Mountain Club Executive Director Michael Barrett said one of his jobs will likely be refining the venerable club’s mission and educating the public about it. He suggested that could mean focusing more on core missions. “I’d rather do f
Adirondack Explorer2 min read
BRIEF BIO: Nolan Fedorow
Age: 33. Birthplace: Albany. Residence: Wanakena. Occupation: Co-owner and operator of Otto’s Abode (store/gallery) in Wanakena. Accomplishments: I drove the Zamboni at Swinburne Ice Rink in Albany for one season. It’s been nearly impossible to beat
Adirondack Explorer1 min read
Adirondack EXPLORER
A nonprofit magazine supported by donors, subscribers and advertisers, and devoted to exploring, protecting, and celebrating the Adirondack Park (888) 888-4970 • (518) 891-9352 Fax (518) 891-9312 AdirondackExplorer.org 36 Church Street Saranac Lake,
Adirondack Explorer4 min read
Sharing Loon Lake Mountain
Loon Lake Mountain (3,279 feet) in the Debar Wild Forest doesn’t exactly roll off most hikers’ tongues as a must-do climb. I hope it never does. It’s one of my little secrets, though the peak is not small. The 2.8-mile trail climbs 1,651 feet, of whi
Adirondack Explorer2 min read
The Routes Less Traveled
The following is a list of lesser-used Adirondack Park trails where hikers may seek to spread out for some social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic. The Department of Environmental Conservation recommends engaging in low-risk hikes near home
Adirondack Explorer6 min read
Reversing Acid Rain’s Dirty Work
For several months, 760 bags of pulverized limestone sat waiting in the woods with a sheet of paper stuck to a nearby tree that said: “DO NOT DISTURB” In late February, a group of state workers and college students came to the pile of 50-pound bags,
Adirondack Explorer8 min read
Bushwhacker’s Paradise
Some take the road less traveled. The truly adventurous don’t even need a road. In the Adirondacks this translates into bushwhacking, an eye-poking, pack-snagging, boot-sucking, map-and-compass romp into the wilds, boldly going where no person has go
Adirondack Explorer8 min read
Stoking The Home Fires
During a February snowstorm in North Hudson, highway crews filled trucks with sand. Snowplows carved into the drifting banks of white. Summer seemed impossible. Inside the garage it was toasty. “You can tell it’s quite warm in here,” said Emmett Thom
Adirondack Explorer2 min read
Virtual Group Hug For Lake George
3 HIKES INLAKE GEORGE Lake George’s grand annual group hike is adding some personal space to the schedule this summer. Make that a lot of space, and quiet time for reflection, as the Independence Day weekend Lake George Hike-A-Thon drops its communal
Adirondack Explorer13 min read
Salt In The Wounds
MORE SALT COVERAGE For years, there were signs that something was wrong with the water on Ben Sweeney’s farm. The cows weren’t producing as much milk. Appliances and farm equipment broke. Ben and his wife weren’t feeling well. Their son’s hands would
Adirondack Explorer7 min read
Refuge Weathers Storm
Cree howled. The sound stabbed through snow-laden pine branches, startling a raven or two. Steve was here. Steve Hall is used to getting announced when he pulls up in his truck to the Adirondack Wildlife Refuge in Wilmington. Hall is the friend and c
Adirondack Explorer3 min read
The APA Shows Its Teeth
The Adirondack Park Agency has been criticized in recent years for losing sight of its protective purpose. Now, one promising case suggests the APA may be back on track. The APA’s recent enforcement action against the owners of a “glamping” (luxuriou
Adirondack Explorer4 min read
Letters
As an avid bicyclist, cross-country skier, and canoer I would like to offer an alternative to miles of underfunded, under-used, under-maintained, and under-patrolled converted rail trails that I have experienced around other remote areas of the state
Adirondack Explorer6 min read
Virus Challenges Census
This new decade, things were supposed to be better than they were in 2010, when enumerators suspected large numbers of Adirondack residents went uncounted by the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2020, the count is going online, and “Complete Count” committees
Adirondack Explorer4 min read
Anorthosite Delight
Slide climbing is a fundamental part of the Adirondack mountaineering culture. Scaling exposed anorthosite rock slopes dates back to the 1800s, when early pioneers used them as the path of least resistance to a respective summit or to add an element
Adirondack Explorer5 min read
Revival On The Hudson
The Town of Newcomb is reinventing itself. Long known for its southern gateway into the High Peaks and for historic landmarks such as Great Camp Santanoni or the abandoned mining village of Tahawus, its residents are celebrating fresh business, and a
Adirondack Explorer7 min read
Wanted: Doctors Who Love Mountains
Woods McCahill moved to Lake Placid in 1980, fresh out of residency. It was always his dream to work as a family physician in the Adirondacks. He grew up in Albany, where he went to medical school and drove north every chance he had to hike. McCahill
Adirondack Explorer2 min readNature
A Bold Bird On The Rise
“Hi I’m a neighbor we were both at a cocktail party at Frank and Sally’s but we never spoke and I see you around town all the time I have this bizarre bird with a cerulean back, neck and head and a cadmium red chest and I no sooner saw it than anothe
Adirondack Explorer5 min readMedical
Should The Adirondacks Discourage Visitation During The Coronavirus Outbreak?
Although I currently live in Monroe County, working as a nurse practitioner, I am from and love every chance I have to return to the North Country. However, as I learn and unfortunately witness this virus unfold its tentacles rapidly throughout weste
Adirondack Explorer4 min read
Controlled Speed
Peggy Mousaw, a USA Luge race official, is in constant motion between the athletes coming off the track, a scale where they’re weighed, a station to check the temperature of the sled’s runners and the “Yanke gauge”—a machine that measures the sled it
Adirondack Explorer3 min read
Favorite Adirondack snakes
Each of us is born with a personality trait or two that vexes our parents. In my case, the foremost was a love of snakes. My parents weren’t serpent haters, but nor were they ophidiophiles. I, on the other hand, from earliest memory, cherished the co
Adirondack Explorer1 min read
How Road Salt Works
Afew decades ago, transportation officials began trying to keep roads in the Adirondacks clear in the winter by applying salt before and after storms. Across New York, highway departments now apply more than 1 million tons of the stuff each year. Muc

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