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With six million acres of valleys, lakes, peaks, and passes, the Adirondack Park of is a big place ripe for big adventures, and no adventure could be bigger than hiking across the entire park, from top to bottom. This 235-mile opportunity to traverse the Adirondacks is being dubbed by former Adirondack Park backcountry ranger Erik Schlimmer the “Trans Adirondack Route”.
Schlimmer’s Trans Adirondack Route pieces together hiking trails, abandoned pathways, snowmobile trails, and dirt and paved roads to travel from Ellenburg Center near the Canadian border to southern Fulton County near Gloversville. During its course the route crosses five wilderness areas, visits fifty bodies of water, climbs three summits, and runs through three settlements. Highlights of the route include Whiteface Mountain, the High Peaks, the Cold River, and Long Lake.
To guide backpackers along the route Schlimmer has written a guidebook: Blue Line to Blue Line: The Official Guide to the Trans Adirondack Route (Beechwood Books, 2013). The guide breaks the route into seven sections ranging from 25 to 45 miles in length. The route descriptions are easy to read, designed for long-distance hikers who want a combination of detail and brevity. Sections on lightweight backpacking, weather, rules and regulations, and Adirondack history, flora, and fauna are discussed beyond the meat-and-potatoes route descriptions. A map set of the route is available as well.
Schlimmer developed the Trans Adirondack Route during the past three years, part of this development including a 2010 solo hike across the park. “I always think big” the 40-year-old Oneonta resident said when the book was published. “I had completed dozens of Adirondack backpacking trips and climbed hundreds of peaks in the range by 2010. But these adventures were disconnected. I wanted something immense and complete.”
More information on the route and the group that Schlimmer formed to promote its use, Friends of the Trans Adirondack Route, can be found at transadk.com.
Note: Book noticed at Adirondack Almanack are provided by their authors.
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A couple of Adirondack guys did a traverse like this for charity last year, called the Adirondack Traverse, check em out!
http://www.adirondacktraverse.org/traverse-13/
There is another blue line to blue line trail route that traverses for 147 miles east and west across the Central Adirondacks, The North Country National Scenic Trail. [NCNST]. Spanning 4,600 miles from North Dakota to Vermont, The North Country National Scenic Trail is twice the length of its sister trail, the Appalachian Trail and therefore the longest National Scenic Trail.
At present the route is about 50% on existing trails with connecting bushwhacks where trail is yet to be built. Volunteers working with the DEC have GPSed the route including both existing trails and connecting bushwhacks.
The North Country National Scenic Trail is a narrow foot trail laying gently on the landscape in an environmentally friendly manner and avoiding sensitive areas. At the west end it enters the blue line near North Lake at the Stone Dam Lake trail head and crosses Wild Forests and Wilderness Areas to Crown Point State Historic Site and the Vermont border at the Lake Champlain Bridge. Check http://www.NorthCountryTrail.org. or http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/39658.html