ADK Rail Trail: The Adirondacks' Newest Sneak Route
This story was first published in the Summer 2024 issue of LOCAladk Magazine.
There’s something special about a trail. The way it shortcuts a corner, connects backyards, leads to forts and hide-e-holes. Some have official names, associated maps, icons on kiosks. That sort of thing. Others are simply known as the “sneak route.”
Each an invitation to explore. To bring you someplace you want to go, but don’t necessarily need to be.
On either end, regardless of where you start, is a destination. Along the way, every step, paddle stroke or crank of a pedal is a connection with the landscape and the people you meet in motion.
I was thinking about all these things on a rainy midweek March morning. After having dropped my work van for minor repairs in Ray Brook, I opted to ride my bike back to Saranac Lake via the newly opened Phase 1 of the Adirondack Rail Trail. The temperature was in the mid 40s, a steady drizzle making it feel colder yet.
In the five miles back into Saranac Lake, I saw half a dozen other cyclists and a handful of people walking their dogs. As I passed, each looked up and with rain dripping from their hoods and helmets, smiled and gave me one of those looks that says everything without uttering a word.
It was cold, wet, friggin’ March in the Adiraindacks. But we felt like we were getting away with something.
In the months since, I’ve pedaled nearly 200 miles on the short 10-mile section between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake. I’ve linked mountain bike networks, commuted to meetings, a middle school track meet, stopped into a restaurant for a beer with friends, even picked up a Mother’s Day gift for my wife.
Each experience brought the same feeling.
And each time, the people I passed had a look similar to those I saw on that rainy March day. Whether riding a bike, walking their dog, jogging, pushing a stroller (sometimes while jogging), skateboarding, rollerblading, or cruising along in a wheelchair, the smiles were there.
All of them, getting away with something. I imagine those who skied, snowmobiled, snowshoed or fat biked anywhere on the full 34-mile corridor over the winter, felt the same.
Trails do that. They provide something you don’t expect and for some reason, don’t feel like you deserve. It’s just too good.
In late April, I joined group of volunteers organized by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), who oversees the rail trail corridor, and the Adirondack Rail Trail Association (ARTA), the advocacy group largely responsible for making it happen, for a cleanup of Phase 1.
As we swept rocks, shoveled road sand and hucked rotten tires into a DEC truck, “Transformative” was a word that kept coming up as the group swapped stories about their experiences thus far on the trail. The description couldn’t be more on-the-nose.
The Adirondack Rail Trail is everyone’s sneak route.
No matter how you use the corridor - work, play or otherwise – it’s a connection to something. Shops and restaurants are a little closer. Neighborhoods somehow more linked. The communities of Lake Placid, Ray Brook, Saranac Lake, Lake Clear and Tupper Lake more connected.
Point A to Point B is easier, more accessible, and way more fun. Totally transformational.
But here’s the bonus. Pull your magazine up close and read on like I’m whispering.
Peek around. Is it safe to keep going?
OK, let’s do this together.
The best elements of the Adirondack Rail Trail are the ones we don’t know about yet. The existing businesses that will grow by improving the things they already do, all while adding the things they didn’t know where needed. Entirely new businesses will be sparked because someone says “you know what would be cool” and the person listening agrees.
It’s happening already. A brewery is under construction (editor note: now open) in Saranac Lake and just around the corner 70 affordable apartments are being built directly on the trail. New snowmobile and bike rental operations are popping up, and likely plenty of other ideas are bubbling around in the collective community percolator.
Quality of life will improve for those who live here already, but it will also be a boost for those visiting in ways we don’t yet know and certainly don’t expect.
Because of the massive area the Adirondack Rail Trail touches, regularly busy “doable” trailheads – 6’ers, 9’ers, Triaders - may be a little less strained because there’s an entirely new, even more accessible, and totally free option in town.
School enrollment may also see a bump. I mean, who wouldn’t want to raise their kids in communities connected by trails?
Sure, there will be growing pains. Change does that, especially when our community legs stretch a little longer. But I’m not sweating this stuff because I know when we share our sneak routes, we also share the smiles that come with it.
