North Country Trail route in the Adirondacks discussion

[cbobcat49]

http://newyorkoutdoors.wordpress.com/20 ... irondacks/

By ALAN WECHSLER, Albany Times Union, link to original article

The North Country National Scenic Trail is not the most direct way to get from North Dakota to Crown Point, N.Y. This 4,600-mile trail meanders up and down North Dakota and Minnesota, winds around the shores of two Great Lakes, and then heads down to southern Ohio before climbing slowly through New York to end at Lake Champlain.

The route, conceived 40 years ago and designated a “scenic trail” by Congress in 1980, is today about half complete. And one of the sections waiting to be done is a 150-mile stretch through Adirondack Park. It’s that section trail advocates are now rallying behind.

Last Thursday at Mercatos Restaurant in Delmar, nearly two dozen upstate New York members of the Adirondack Mountain Club, Appalachian Mountain Club and Sierra Club met with Bruce Matthews, executive director of the North Country Trail Association of Lowell, Mich. Their mission: to make sure the route through New York’s largest wilderness area stays in the wilderness.

There are several routes proposed. The trail is expected to traverse the center of the park, through such wilderness and wild forest areas as Moose River Plains, Siamese Ponds, Vanderwacker Mountain and Hoffman Notch. But some controversy has developed over where, exactly.

Some wilderness advocates, along with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, want the route to follow an old dirt road that barely grazes the West Canada Lakes wilderness. They’re concerned about increased foot traffic in this area. But a wide road would be less pleasing to hikers than a narrow trail.

Advocates on the other side argue that there aren’t likely to be many people through-hiking a 4,600-mile trail, and note that the Northville-Placid Trail, which traverses the mountains south to north, already goes through these very woods.

There’s also a debate about whether the trail should be routed through Siamese Ponds Wilderness or follow an old railroad bed along the Hudson River.

Meanwhile, some hikers already have bushwhacked along the proposed wilderness route, mapping their preferred trail location. “There’s folks who get their kicks doing that,” Matthews said. “That’s kinda cool.”

Neil Woodworth, executive director of the Adirondack Mountain Club, said his group opposed any attempt to route the trail around wilderness instead of through it. “We’re not done lobbying this,” he said.

No one expects the North Country Trail to get the kind of usage of, say, the 2,175-mile Appalachian Trail, which gets around a thousand through-hikers starting out every year (though far fewer finishing), and a total of 4 million visitors on its various sections. Still, a handful of avid backpackers already have completed the NCT, using roads where the trail doesn’t yet exist.

The trail takes advantage of already-constructed long trails, wilderness and private land easements. In one case, Matthews said, a developer actually asked them to go through his land, saying it would increase property values. Some sections even go through cities. “It goes through Dayton, Ohio,” said Al Larman, a hiker from Canastota who serves on the board of directors of the trail association. “This trail gives us rural, urban and suburban.”

Approval of the North Country National Scenic Trail in the Adirondacks is expected to take years. In the meantime, you can get a flavor for the terrain by visiting some of the existing trails the NCT might pass through.

Suggested routes are the Siamese Ponds trail from Route 8 (12 miles) and the Hoffman Notch Trail, which leaves from a tiny parking lot on the south side of Blue Ridge Road, 6 miles west of Northway Exit 29 (8 miles round-trip through the notch and back). For more information, consult ADK’s Adirondacks Central Region or the Discover the Adirondacks South Central Region guides.

[backpacker]

It will be interesting to see how this develops. Since a lot of the Dacks is forever wild a lot of people and organizations fight and protest maintaining the trails we now have. So how will they ever get permission to build a new trail? I remember an article in the “Adirondack Explorer” written by a person in New York City wanting to ban trekking poles because they scar the rocks!! I’m willing to bet this person has never been on a trail. There’s just no end to the conflicts in the Dacks.

[cbobcat49]

It seems to me they can use a lot of already pre-existing trails. I wonder if it could overlap the Northville-Placid Trail for a ways?

[backpacker]

I'm sure they will use pre existing trails when they can, as for the NP trail. It runs mainly north and south, it’s possible they could use part of it depending on how they route it thru the High Peaks.

A quote from the NCTA web page concerning the Adirondacks:
“The Adirondacks- no official route yet approved. Choose your own and get information from the Adirondack Mt. Club ”

More info from their web page west of the blue line:

West of the Adirondacks, the potential route of the trail begins to take shape at Forestport, where the Black River Feeder Canal begins and heads west to Boonville. The old towpath along the canal has always been considered as the route of the trail, though the route is open to snowmobiles, ATVs, and highway vehicles. South from Boonville, the Towpath Trail, Operated by BREIA (the Black River Environmental Improvement Association, is a well maintained cross country skiing and hiking trail extending along the towpath of the Black River Canal to beyond Pixley Falls State Park--a distance of 7 to 8 miles.