Discover the Southern Adirondacks

by Barbara McMartin & Bill Ingersoll
with the assistance of Stanford Pulrang

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Price: $14.00
Status: In stock
Published: 2005
Details: Paperback
184 pages
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Originally published in 1974 as Walks and Waterways: An Introduction to Adventure, this guidebook was the first hiking guide exclusively devoted to the southern Adirondacks. It remains the most thorough guide available, covering not only the marked trails but all of the traditional footpaths and the best bushwhacks as well.

Although the southern Adirondacks lie only 20 miles from the Mohawk Valley, the state acquired these forests at an early date. As a result, the region boasts of a low road density and an extensive amount of wild, open space. Though logged in the nineteenth century, most of the woods have had sufficient time to return to near old-growth conditions.

Middle Three Pond - Click to Enlarge
Middle Three Pond

The bulk of the region's trails are found in the Ferris Lake Wild Forest, which features dozens of ponds and lakes—most of them reached via an elaborate network of snowmobile trails. These are ideal for day and weekend trips, with many loop and through trip possibilities. The Powley-Piseco Road is a long, gravel road that takes you deep into the forest to access a more remote area with many wilderness attributes.

However, it is the Silver Lake Wilderness that represents the southern Adirondacks at their wildest. The fifth largest protected area in the northeastern United States, this wilderness spreads over 100,000 acres of mountains, streams and valleys.

Mud Pond - Click to Enlarge
Mud Pond

The Northville-Placid Trail traces a north-south route through the middle, but the rest has no marked trails at all. Instead, the Silver Lake Wilderness features an elaborate unmarked trail system, with most of the footpaths tracing the routes of old-time logging roads and maintained by the outdoorsmen who use them. The mature forest, with its open understory, makes this an outstanding setting for a backcountry adventure. Interior mountains rise to heights exceeding 3000 feet in elevation, and on some of these you will find enchanting tarns tucked away far from the nearest trail.

This edition of Discover the Southern Adirondacks features updated trail information, dozens of photographs, many new route descriptions, and newly redesigned trail maps—making this the definitive guide to the southern Adirondacks.