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Trail #6 - 10 Trails We Should Build Before We Worry about Converting Rails to Trails

12/9/2012

9 Comments

 
To see the introductory Blog Post to this series and the other trail suggestions click HERE

I have had so much interest in this series  I thought I would encourage people to submit what trail they think should be built. Let's keep this conversation going and, if you would like, share a trail in the Saranac Lake area that you think might be appropriate for one or more outdoor recreation uses. Once I have completed posting my ten trails (and an additional blog post or two wrapping up my thoughts on the topic) I will start posting trails submitted that I think are appropriate. You can make your submissions by sending them to me HERE. Let me hear from you.

 
Trail #6 - Saranac Lake to Mountain View
This is a route recommended by Naj Wikoff in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise August 14th. You can read his piece on it HERE. It makes so much sense to create this as a bicycle trail before we worry about the Adirondack Scenic Rail line. It has virtually all the features of what has been proposed for the Saranac Lake to Old Forge route and it is available now! I have bicycled and X-C skied sections of it. It needs surfacing for bicycles but we could get a 28 mile trip to Mountain View and on to Malone with minimal cost. It is a trail that would be easy biking, hiking, and X-C country skiing. It is already a popular snowmobile line.


Since this is such a long route I have provided three maps. You can click on each one to get a close up view.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Name

6. Saranac Lake to Mt. View

Access/Description

From  the Harrietstown Road north of Saranac Lake to Mountain View via the old railroad bed/Power line right of way
Difficulty: Easy


Distance

28 miles


Thoughts/Issues

It already exists as a snowmobile trail and could readily be turned into a multi-purpose year around trail.
9 Comments
Brian
12/9/2012 10:58:48 am

This could be the prototype for ARTA. We could get a sampling if this type of recreational trail would be popular. If its good enough for Bush 43, then I think it's worth exploring.

Reply
Ken Youngblood
12/9/2012 11:58:33 pm

This would not be an alternative to the ART. A rails-to-trails appeals to people who like going from one quaint town...LP-SL-TL, etc. to another at reasonably short intervals and not too taxing on children or older recreationists or those confined to a wheel chair. The bed is a deeply ribbed washboard of a trail that goes nowhere that a tourist would want to be.

Reply
Just Sayin'
12/10/2012 02:20:12 am

By the criteria noted in your second sentence, it looks like the proposed ARTA route from Tupper Lake to Big Moose would be a dismal failure.

jim
12/9/2012 09:45:37 pm

The trail also has a number of road crossings, which allows shorter hikes with leaving a second car (or a bike) at the far end.

Reply
Ken Youngblood
12/9/2012 11:53:29 pm

I think it is a good trail if hundreds of thousands of tons of dirt are brought in to replenish the multiple washouts that made the trail impassible on a bicycle last time I tried. And then you have the liability hurdle that a power company will see as prohibitive. If those obstacles are overcome, you will afford tourists an ongoing view of what the industrial age...rails and powerlines...can do to make a pristine wilderness as ugly as it can get. Bicyclists looking for what you call a scenic alternative to the now deserted rail line between Saranac and Old Forge would be given the pleasure of maneuvering between huge electrical poles strung with high voltage lines. An Adirondack experience doesn't get any uglier than this. P.S. Sand makes the Harrietstown-Onchiota leg too eviscerating for a bicycle. Try it and you will see.

Reply
Doug
12/10/2012 07:53:36 am

Always easy to find fault.

BTW - there are power lines along the Lake Placid to Saranac Lake corridor too.

Reply
Ken
12/10/2012 11:15:36 pm

"Always easy to find fault" is neither true nor is it the kind of reasoned response that adds to the dialogue. The power lines on the Onchiota route are so much more constant...you bicycle under them and so much more massive, there is no real comparison. Stand where you first access the powerlines below Toomy(?)'s store and take a picture...it will speak for itself.

Doug
12/10/2012 07:55:49 am

There appears to be two ROWs involved with this trail proposal. The D&H bed and the NYC bed. What this shows is that there are many old rail beds in the Adirondacks where there is no active line and the tracks are long gone. All with great potential for trail development without displacing an already valid use. We should all be able to agree on this.

Reply
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