Almanack Contributor John Pitarresi

John Pitarresi recently retired from the Utica Observer-Dispatch, where he was a longtime sportswriter and outdoors columnist.


Sunday, November 20, 2016

New Guidebook: 12 Adventures on New State Lands

12-adventures-on-ny-state-landsChances are good that you’ve never seen Pine Lake. Or OK Slip Falls. You can now. Pine Lake and OK Slip Falls are two natural gems of the Adirondack Park that until recently had rarely been visited by the general public. New York State’s historic purchase of sixty-five thousand acres of former Finch, Pruyn & Company timberlands from the Nature Conservancy has put them into the public domain.

But how do you get to them? What can you do once you get there?

Phil Brown has the answers. 12 Adventures on New State Lands: Exploring the Finch, Pruyn Tracts is the latest in a series of guidebooks by Brown, editor of Adirondack Explorer. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, October 4, 2015

12 Short Hikes Near Keene Valley

Keene Valley coverKeene Valley was, the first time I saw it, jaw-droppingly astounding. All those peaks and ridges, jagged, monumental, stretching high into the sky, more and more dramatic as we drove up from the south.

It was a beautiful day, many years ago, and a friend and I had a vague idea about scaling a mountain or two. Maybe we’d go over The Brothers to Big Slide and down.

Well, we hiked and climbed a long way, but we were greenhorns, rather unprepared, and we never made it all the way around. One of us injured a leg; the other had an unfortunate encounter with a toxic plant. We had to turn around and go back the way we came. » Continue Reading.



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