Favorite, Least Favorite Trails

I would be interested in hearing about favorite sections of trails in the ADKs. Not necessarily the most spectacular, but perhaps the most satisfying or enjoyable walks. In the interest of balance you could also include your least favorite.

From my somewhat limited experience here are mine:

FAVORITE: Bushnell Falls to Slant Rock. Beautiful, open, tranquil, with nice glimpses of surrounding mountains. Soft earth under foot.

UNFAVORITE: Flowed Land leantos to Lake Colden Dam. Just not my kind of trail. Roots, rocks, mud and more mud.

No, I cannot pick just 1. Too many beautiful trails to choose from. But here are 3 of my favorites:

3 FAVORITES: 1.) West side of Saddleback Mt. rock scramble. 2.) Ridge Trail to Giant, especially from Giant washbowl to about 3500'. 3.) NY Rt 74 at Paradox lake to Crane Pond trail.

Ask me tomorrow and I might give 3 very different answers.

Least favorite: Probably the standard route heard path over Seward,Donaldson and Emmons. Muddy and extensive cripple brush on a hot day when I did it in the mid-1990's. Worst section on the north side of Seward for extensive erosion and mud.

Ask me tomorrow and I will probably give the same answer. I did not enjoy that hike.

Happy New Year,
John

My least favorite trail is the first half of Allen. It was neat to see about a trillion blackberries and rasberries, but it was alot of dirt road. My favorite trail is a tough one. I like the dix trail from rte 73, when you are coming up on the slides. Before you break out in the open, you're in a great birch forest. I enjoy the slide on macomb. I like the stretch from dial to nippletop also. Basically, whatever trail I'm on, or planning to do. It provides me with some great daydreaming material. Hike on.

True Alpine Conditions

We did the route from Algonquin to Iroqouis on New Years Day and it is the best Alpine Climbing I have done since Mt Washington. OK - you don't need an ice axe, but it offers all of the other challenges, high wind, routefinding above treeline, snow/ice/rock, no other people once you leave Algonquin. If only it had a glacier!!

I have a love/hate relationship with a lot of trails. I really love any trail with a long steep climb, but as my age progresses through my 50s I really hate the steep descents over those same trails. But aside from that I only really hate those heavily travelled trunk trails like the trail from the Loj parking lot to Marcy Dam. Does anybody have anything nice to say about that trail other than "it is not as bad as it once was"? It is the kind of trail that only a trail maintainer could love, and they probably only love the short haul in with the trail hardening supplies. I genuinely commend the efforts of the trail maintainers. I confess that to break the monotony I occasionally take the old trail back to the Loj, and I am never the only cheater as I always pass a few others on the old trail.

Adirondack trails that are among my favorites:

1. Stimson Trail to Noonmark, glacial erratics and great views of the Great Range.
2. Ridge Trail to Giant along with the traverse over Rocky Peak Ridge to Route 9 for the many open views and varied scenery.
3. Avalanche Pass Trail. For me it is more attractive than the Indian Pass (but that is a close call), and you have the lake and trap dike views.
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would be interested in hearing about favorite sections of trails in the ADKs. Not necessarily the most spectacular, but perhaps the most satisfying or enjoyable walks. In the interest of balance you could also include your least favorite.

Some folks are answering from the vantage point of a winter hike, and others from a non-winter one. Is it possible to separate the beauty of a trail from its difficulty, in order to answer the question? Some parts of a trail are quite beautiful, while others are...ho hum. The beauty of any one trail for me changes from hour to hour. When the sun and wind are just right, there are parts of the stretch from Flowed Lands to Colden Dam that are wonderful, just over the long descent before Herbert Brook). Although a "classic", the first part of Herbert Brook was, the second time, heaven on earth for me (no less so the first time, but black flies and 90-degree temperatures were a slight distraction!). If mud = bad experience, I think the 1/3 mile stretch before Bradley Pond, where the trail drops like a rock, should have some sort of top billing. But I've done this in a variety of wet conditions, and I'm sure winter is a very different experience (never done it then). If you stop to look around, rather than look at it merely as a swampy obstacle to be overcome, it is a beautiful area (I'll include the Couchie swamp here as well!). A muddy five-mile stretch of woods on the Northville-Placid Trail just north of Piseco was one of the most magical moments for me, but I can't describe why. It was a muddy, somewhat "non-descript" forest treck, but is still one of the moments in the Adirondacks I cherish. The trail to Street/Nye was a wonderful walk in the woods -- but not one that most people would recommend for "views". As for Seward/Donaldson/Emmons (and Seymour), I enjoyed the trails en route much more than the summits, though Seymour has a fine lookout near the summit. And the Blueberry footpath is beautiful! Summit views are another issue entirely. Gray Pk. in the winter was more spectacular and easier than in the summer. I could go on with a hundred other equally beautiful hikes...

So many

In my many years (three!) of hiking in the Adirondacks, I've been on some beautiful trails, and a couple that I really didn't enjoy at all.

GOOD: through Avalanche Pass, Avalanche Lake, and on to Lake Colden. BAD: Lake Colden to Flowed Land; a rocky, muddy and seemingly endless trail when returning to the lean-tos after a long day on the mountains.
GOOD: Bushnell Falls to Slant Rock (A beautiful forest).
GOOD: in the AMR; the trail from Noonmark through to Nippletop.
GOOD: Also in the AMR; Gill Brook Trail, IF you're not in a hurry.
Great: Sawteeth to Pyramid to Gothics (spectacular views-the best).
BAD: descent from Gothics via the Beaver Falls Trail (a long, steep, rocky descent).
GOOD: Your first hike up to Algonquin Peak from the Loj area (when there is water running in the falls by the trail).

I'll think of more, but the fun is in finding your own. When you get down to it, they're all good compared to working! Like our former Buffalo Bills coach, Marv Levy used to say: "Where else would you rather be than right here, right now?".

Best: Last years winter break from Bradley pond to Times Square.
Worst: This years winter break from Bradley pond to Times Square.

I'll add more when I've recovered from today's new years celebration hike to Times Square and beyond.

favorite: East Trail to Giant via Rocky Peak Ridge - most open-rock hiking trail in the Adks. Close second: Gothics via Beaver Meadow Falls.

least favorite: trail to Bradley Pond, muddy mess.

Most favorite hike of mine is from Panther Gorge Leanto up the southside of Haystack then continuing on to Marcy, then down the southerly side of Marcy to Lake Tear, then up to Skylight with a return to camp at Panther Gorge. Just be prepared to be shocked depending when you do this because the solitude of Panther Gorge will dramatically be broken by the crowd on Marcy.

Somehow I try to convince myself that I have no least favorite. Ok, maybe except for the rocky stretch of misery mile along Avalanche Lake (if it wasn't for the fact that this is one of the most beautiful places in the Adirondacks it would be my least favorite trail).

Pvon

Pvon said:

Somehow I try to convince myself that I have no least favorite. Ok, maybe except for the rocky stretch of misery mile along Avalanche Lake (if it wasn't for the fact that this is one of the most beautiful places in the Adirondacks it would be my least favorite trail).

Pvon

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I'd go along with that one Pvon....that has to be one of the most frustrating stretches of trail if you are in a hurry.....but at the same time who wants to hurry out of such a beautiful location?

I don't have a favorite or a least favorite, only trails that give me a little extra pleasure or annoyance at the time.

Pleasant - Trail from New Russia over Bald Peak, Rocky Peak Ridge, Giant, Hopkins, Spread Eagle, and into Keene Valley.

Annoying - Trail to Bradley Pond lean-to. Mud, mud, and more mud. Yet I wouldn't change a thing.

Pleasant - Range Trail from junction from Phelps Trail to summit of Haystack.

Annoying - Stretch of the Northville - Placid Trail from Wakely Dam to the farm. I just don't really like walking on or along blacktop.