Champlain Area Trails (CATS) is raising the funds needed to complete a trail improvement project, using a crowdfunding program offered through Adirondack Gives, part of the Adirondack Foundation.

The Get Out of the Mud! campaign is planned to provide the $1,500 needed to complete the Bobcat Trail Improvement Project; the Essex Community Fund previously provided $1,500 for the project in memory of two early CATS supporters, Bruce Klink and Baird Voorhis. » Continue Reading.

My wife Beth works for Champlain Area Trails out of Westport but, long before she started there, we were major fans of the network of hiking opportunities radiating through hill and dell interwoven throughout the eastern side of Essex County. The trails are gorgeous, running through field, forest and stream, and have some of the best views anywhere of Lake Champlain and are a perfect, nearby antidote for those wishing to take “pressure off the peaks.”

They don’t present the physical challenge that the High Peaks do, but look, it’s not every day that you want to climb up the south side of Saddleback.

Being generally free of erosion, roots and rocks, the trails are a break for the knees. Being mostly short, and at lower altitudes, there is no need for a pack full of survival gear. And being more open and interspersed with civilization than the wilderness to the west, there’s little chance of getting lost.

Or so one would think. » Continue Reading.