Posts Tagged ‘Barkeater Trails Alliance’

Friday, April 8, 2022

BETA issues mud season request to riders

mud season

Dear Riders,

No one likes to be told what to do. We get it. But we are urging you to resist riding muddy trails.

We know this topic is controversial and nuanced. This is the Adirondack Mountains – if we didn’t ride when it was wet, we’d NEVER ride, right? Well, kind of, BUT there is a very important distinction that we need to make between the state of the trails now – saturated, soft and delicate, versus the state of the trails in July after a thunderstorm – hardened, stable and tacky. Read a science-y explanation  here: Mud Season Unlike Any & here: Just Say No To Mud

» Continue Reading.


Thursday, February 18, 2021

Jackrabbit Rally Announced 

Jackrabbit TrailA choose-your-own-ski-adventure

The Barkeater Trails Alliance (BETA) invites ski enthusiasts of all ages and skill levels to participate in the first-ever Jackrabbit Rally to celebrate ski touring, the 35th anniversary of the popular Jackrabbit Trail and founding of the Adirondack Ski Touring Council, which now operates as BETA. Founded in 1986, the Jackrabbit Ski Trail traverses a variety of terrain through Keene, Lake Placid, Saranac Lake and Paul Smiths for a total of 42 miles. 

» Continue Reading.


Thursday, December 5, 2019

BETA Annual Meeting, Ski Movie Fundraiser

winterlandBarkeater Trails Alliance (BETA) is set to hold their Annual Meeting and Ski Movie Screening and Fundraiser on Saturday, December 21st, at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts.

At the annual meeting BETA members will vote to elect two new representatives to the Board of Directors of the organization, Connie Prickett and Thea Moruzzi. » Continue Reading.


Friday, October 4, 2019

BETA Bike and Ski Trail Volunteer Days Scheduled

BETA Bike and Ski Trail Volunteer DayBarkeater Trails Alliance has announced fall volunteer trail days, the first set for Sunday, October 6th, from noon to 4 pm.

During this half day project volunteers will clean up a new trail corridor on the new Cobble Hill Trail System, above the golf course in Elizabethtown. Work will mostly involve pulling stumps and cleaning up the cleared corridor for winter use . » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Wilmington Mountain Bike Festival Call for Volunteers

wilmington mountain bike festBarkeater Trails Alliance (BETA) is seeking volunteers for the Wilmington Mountain Bike Festival, set for August 30th to September 1st. Festival volunteers will be a host for the event, a resource for activities in the region, and a critical part of making this a successful event.

If you plan to volunteer, organizers ask that you dedicate at least four hours to be “on-call” during the specific time slot that you agree to fill, in order to receive the benefits listed below. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Wilmington MTB Festival Early Registration Open

wilmington mountain bike festBarkeater Trails Alliance, in partnership with the Town of Wilmington, Whiteface Region Visitor’s Bureau, and local BETA volunteers, have announced that early registration is open for the Third Annual Wilmington Mountain Bike Festival, set for August 30th to September 1st, 2019.

The event features on-site camping; guided group rides and skills clinics for all abilities; live music all weekend, featuring Gratefully Yours and more TBD on Saturday; ride shuttles; local food and beer; and the Hardy Kids MTB race. » Continue Reading.


Monday, April 29, 2019

Stewards: Mountain Bikers Should Avoid Trails During Mud Season

DEC logoThe New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Barkeater Trails Alliance (BETA) are urging mountain bikers to avoid trails and closed seasonal access roads in the Adirondacks until these trails and roads have dried and hardened. Wet and muddy trails are easily rutted and damaged through use. » Continue Reading.


Friday, September 14, 2018

New Map Of Adirondack Mountain-Bike Trails

The Barkeater Trails Alliance (BETA) has published a full-color map of more than 75 miles of moutain-bike trails in Saranac Lake, Lake Placid, Wilmington, and Elizabethtown.

In all, the map shows trail networks in 10 locations: Mount Pisgah and Dewey Mountain in Saranac Lake; Brewster Peninsula, Henry’s Woods, and the woods near the Lake Placid Club and Craig Wood golf course in Lake Placid; the Flume and Hardy Road trails in Wilmington; and Blueberry Hill and Otis Mountain in Elizabethtown. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, April 27, 2017

Open Space Institute Grant Awarded For LPLC Acquisition

Members of the Board of Trustees of the Lake Placid Land Conservancy (LPLC), the Barkeater Trails Alliance, and LPLC staffThe Open Space Institute (OSI) recently awarded Lake Placid Land Conservancy (LPLC) a capital grant in the amount of $50,000 to support LPLC’s acquisition of a community forest preserve in Wilmington. LPLC acquired approximately 100 acres in Wilmington between Hardy Road and Quaker Mountain Lane on April 19, 2017, and plans to create a community forest preserve that will include approximately two miles of scenic, recreational trails. The new trails are expected to create a connection between the Hamlet of Wilmington and existing public lands and trails on the Beaver Brook tract of the Wilmington Wild Forest located on Hardy Road. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, December 6, 2016

New Preserve, Wilmington-Hardy Road Bike Corridor Planned

LPLC Wilmington preserve photo Josh Wilson credit 11.28.2016The Lake Placid Land Conservancy (LPLC) plans to create a community preserve in the Town of Wilmington that will include two miles of recreational trails open to the public.

The project will create a connector trail between the hamlet of Wilmington and the existing public land and trails on the Beaver Brook Tract of the Wilmington Wild Forest located on Hardy Road.

LPLC anticipates closing on the properties to create the preserve by the end of March, 2017. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, November 13, 2016

BETA Builds New Bike Trails In Wilmington

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERASo this is the shoulder season. The leaves are gone. It’s chilly outside, wet and gray. You don’t feel like hiking. You’re looking forward to skiing, but you don’t want to sit inside until the snow comes.

It’s a great time for mountain biking. You don’t need views, fall colors, or sunshine to enjoy riding on a well-designed trail through the woods. As for that chill in the air, you’ll warm up soon enough.

That was my thinking when I drove to Wilmington last weekend to check out some new trails off Hardy Road.

The nonprofit Barkeater Trails Alliance maintains a network of mountain-bike trails on both sides of Hardy Road, some easy, some not so. I have ridden there more than once. After Keith McKeever, a BETA volunteer, told me the group recently created two new trails, both for beginners, I drove over as soon as I had a free day.

» Continue Reading.


Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Jackrabbit Ski Trail Celebrating 30 Years

jackrabbit trailAn all day event to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Adirondack Ski Touring Council (ASTC) and the establishment of the Jackrabbit Ski Trail will take place on November 12, 2016 at the Cascade XC Ski Center in Lake Placid.

Early in the day, Barkeater Trails Alliance (BETA) will lead a hiking tour of the Jackrabbit Trail and a new ski and bike trail network under development on the site of the old Scott’s Cobble Ski Area in North Elba, followed by a gathering at Cascade XC Ski Center for the BETA annual meeting and a party with live music, food and drink, a bonfire, and surely a bit of story telling by ASTC and Jackrabbit Trail veterans. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Bare-Booters, Please Stay Off The Jackrabbit Trail

Jackrabbit TrailOn New Year’s Day we didn’t have enough snow to ski most backcountry trails, but we decided to give the Jackrabbit Trail a shot, starting at Whiteface Inn Road in Lake Placid and ascending to the pass between Haystack and McKenzie mountains.

I have skied this section of the Jackrabbit often and had an idea of what we’d find: bare patches on the half-mile hill at the start but decent snow above. With a few inches of fresh powder over a thin but solid base, the trail should be skiable, I thought. We would just need to steer clear of the bare spots.

That’s pretty much what we encountered. What I hadn’t counted on though, was that the trail would have been thoroughly trashed by bare-booters – that is, hikers without snowshoes.

» Continue Reading.


Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Martens Reverses Old Mountain Road Decision

In one of his last acts as the state’s environmental conservation commissioner, Joe Martens overturned a predecessor’s finding that part of the Jackrabbit Ski Trail was still a town road and therefore could be open to snowmobiles, ATVs, and other vehicles.

Martens, who left his post last week, wrote in a July 22 decision that the road had long been abandoned and so the state had the power to close it to vehicular use. The road in question — known as the Old Mountain Road — cuts through the Sentinel Range Wilderness between Keene and North Elba.

» Continue Reading.


Tuesday, December 23, 2014

A Push For Forest Preserve Mountain Biking

Mountain Biking by Nancie BattagliaThe Adirondack Park Agency’s promise to consider allowing mountain biking in the Essex Chain Lakes Primitive Area has generated a broader discussion – with much disagreement – of the place of bikes in the Forest Preserve.

The Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan allows bikes on trails in tracts classified as Wild Forest Areas but prohibits them in Wilderness Areas. They are allowed in Primitive Areas only on old roads used by state officials for managing natural resources. » Continue Reading.



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