×

Navigating the Adirondacks: a list of indispensable guidebooks

After over 13 years in the Adirondacks, my family is relocating to live near extended family and friends in Hot’lanta.

I’m already missing the cool summer mornings and the way the loons keep me awake at night when I’m camping in the woods. The area has left a permanent impression on me, and if someone else were to love the region as much as I do, they would likely be out in the wilderness as much as I was.

When I arrived in town, I was a novice hiker and camper, and while still fairly green and by no means an experienced backcountry survivalist, I can hold my own now on a mountain trail or beside a campfire in front of a lean-to.

When we moved here, a handful of books helped us navigate the Adirondacks. I’ve made a partial list of those books to share. The ones we own are all dog-eared, watermarked and smeared with forest soil now. I highly recommend them all.

When I first arrived, Peter W. Kick’s “25 Mountain Bike Tours in the Adirondacks” helped me transition to the woods. It gave detailed instructions for off-road biking in the area and helped me exchange big-city life for the quiet wilderness. I haven’t found an updated version of this book online, and I’ve spent more time walking and paddling than riding lately, so it would be worth confirming the accuracy of the book’s information before depending on it alone for trail instructions.

“Adirondack Paddling” by Phil Brown was a much-referenced book for me over the past few years. It accurately described flatwater adventures and helped me in one of my favorite pastimes – rising early on a weekend morning and planning where I would take the kids canoeing that day.

“Quiet Water Canoe Guide: New York” by John Hayes and Alex Wilson was helpful as well, but not specific to the Adirondacks. They both replaced a different water guide that tragically fell overboard into Buck Pond and is now out of print.

The two best hiking books for our family were “An Adirondack Sampler: Day Hikes for All Seasons” by Bruce Wadsworth and “Kids on the Trail: Hiking with Children in the Adirondacks” by Rose Rivezzi and David Trihart. Both gave accurate descriptions of hikes and for the most part gave detailed instructions for how to arrive at the trailheads. Every now and then, I would read a direction similar to “turn right 2 miles in front of the four-way intersection,” but U-turns were always easy to accomplish, and the descriptions about where to park always made up for any minor difficulty finding a trail.

Obviously this list is by no means comprehensive, but it’s what worked for us.

All the guidebooks met the two criteria I had: to help the explorers stay alive, and to make getting to the wilderness as easy as possible.

After all, the woods and waters of the Adirondacks are their own kind of book. Happy exploring!

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.75/week.

Subscribe Today