Reasonable and perhaps even achievable goals for bikepacking in the Adirondack Forest Preserve

When I saw this, I thought, wow, this is precisely what we need in the Adirondacks. And this exact concept is what I personally aim to do with my exploratory rides. Map out trails that the average bikepacker can turn into a wilderness style off-road experience.

To be fair this isn't just a cycling issue, hikers need this as well.

There is really only one long distance hiking trail in the Adirondacks, the Northville Placid Trail. We can debate mid-length trails like the Cranberry Lake 50, but if a reasonably fit hiker can do it in a 2 day weekend (or an average hiker in 3), it's hardly long distance. Beyond that there are some concept trails like the NCST which has loads of road walking just to try to make a long distance trail.

Unfortunately the unit structure prevents connected long distance trails from being built because each unit needs an amended UMP before a trail can be completed (and easements need an RMP). If you know even a little about the process you know it's complicated in many ways. As a great example, you may know Lake George Wild Forest has never had a UMP. Behind the High Peaks it's the most visited single unit in the Adirondacks.

Why doesn't it have one? Well it's actually extremely complicated.

• First off is money and resources. The DEC hasn't been funded properly since the Pataki administration and likely even then was below ideal levels, but it's never gotten better since then. At the same time the forest preserve has grown. Less money, more land to manage.
• Second is legal battles. The Lake George unit has actually been within 1 year of finalizing a UMP multiple times and each time a lawsuit pops up.

To build multi-unit trails, you need to amend every single UMP. Seeing how tough it is to even create or amend one UMP gives you insight into amending multiple at once. If I trail were to traverse the Adirondacks, it might traverse 10+ units. Imagine trying to amend 10 UMPs all at once to build a single connected trail? It's probably not going to happen.

However, if you consider a bike can make easy work of road sections and even use them to it's advantage (resupply in towns between units), you really can navigate the unit level approach. Each unit could have a bike specific trail (ideally 2, traversing NS/EW) that traverses the unit to an egress point. What the cyclist does once they get to the end is totally up to them. But they would essentially be able to hop units creating whatever long distance route they fancied.

How is this different then what already exist? On the surface it's really not any different. However, the lack of designed for bike trails leads to unnecessary user conflicts (some made up, some real). The biggest one is that hikers suspect "their" trails are being damaged by bikes. This is both true and untrue and I'll touch on that below.

The mountain biking scene in the Adirondacks is much better than it has ever been, but most of that is dense trail systems confined to local municipal land or private land. Where the failure is at is the long distance, *"wilderness style" bikepacking. The DEC has yet to implement it's general concept for multi-use MTB trails within the forest preserve. Multiple UMP/RMP have been approved to allow better MTB access to the Forest Preserve but those concepts have never been implemented.

Some examples the Township 33 RMP (Speculator Tree Farm, where Oak Mountain is located). The Moose River Plains UMP. Speculator was approved in 2024 and the Moose River UMP almost a decade ago, complete with IMBA written concept plan for the unit. No work was ever done on the MRP beyond adding some disc to largely unmaintained trails.

In a nutshell, the concepts are this:

• A hub and spoke model for MTB/bikepacking within the forest preserve
• • Hub: Dense concentration multi-use (but bike design) trail systems would be built around population centers or easily accessible areas. These aren't bike only trails, hikers, skiiers, and adaptive users would still have access. The bike design simply prevents erosion that is often seen on non biking trails.
  • Spoke: Longer distance "hiking style" travel trails would link to other trail systems and towns. This would allow for longer distance bikepacking routes off-pavement using the Forest Preserve. These trails would generally be existing trails that require some work to build to a multi-use standard but don't necessarily require outright new trails.

One thing it may be useful to educate the non cycling trail user groups on is that building a cycling trail to use specification mitigates trail damage by the very design. It's not anathema to the way new hiking trails are being built in the heavily traveled steep areas of the Forest Preserve (the High Peaks and surrounding mountainous units). Design matters more than use.

*I often use the term wilderness style. That's because in the Adirondacks the difference between wild forest (where bikes are legal on almost every trail) and wilderness (where bikes are not) is virtually indistinguishable to most users. Aside from that many wilderness areas were at some point heavily developed and trammeled by man. In fact, one could probably make a compelling argument that some of the most wild and least visited (most untrammeled by man today) are in the wild. This is not really any different than a wild forest with a PFAR/admin road.

Cycling New York's Capital Region: Cohoes Falls, the Niagara Falls of Eastern New York

The title isn't hyperbole. Cohoes Falls, the much, much, much lesser known huge waterfall of New York State is the second largest waterfall in the United States. Second largest, is that a typo? No.

So why don't people travel from all over the world to visit it? And why haven't you heard of it?  Unfortunately due to diversions for power plant and the canal, the falls doesn't run all year at the consisten volume that Niagara tends to. When it's flowing the 1000ft wide by 90ft high waterfall dumps a ridiculous amount of water volume over the precipous (at peak it comes within a mere 10% of Niagara Falls peak), but there are times throughout the year it's just a trickle. 

Unfortunately (actually, quite fortunately for those of us who live here), the Capital Region is terrible at marketing itself. It's also somewhat apathetic. With a location that puts it within 4 hours (a mere half day drive) of 90% of anything worth visiting in the Northeast US and some of Canada, it's a great place to live and I think perhaps some of that convenience makes the folks in the area not care too much.

Bikepacking to the Source of the Erie Canal in New York's Adirondack Mountains

North Lake Reservoir, source of the Black River Feeder Canal for the Erie Canal

I bikepacked the hard way to the source of New York's Erie Canal, the source of mid-west America's growth and prosperity, the source of economic prosperity for Northern, Central and Western NY and home of NY's 750mi bikepacking route, the Empire State Trail. 

The Little Collie monkey on my back

It was heinous, miserable, mostly hike-a-bike in mud that was effectively bottomless, but no less than hub deep if you were to claim there was a bottom. It was so bad I chose to bike on 22 miles of pavement with my 40lb dog, Marshall, on my back for the return trip rather than the out and back (lollipop) route I had planned. The total distance of the trip in either case was effectively the same, but one had virtually no pavement and no monkey (Marshall) on my back and one was the opposite of everything I enjoy. 

Sometimes these exploratory trips suck, but they build resilience for future times. If I was injured or had a serious mechanical I'd accept help, but I'm out there to ride, often hike, and always seek to be challenged. The worst case scenario is it sucks, I'm miserable and I raise the bar for future adventures by looking back on the experience. 

The views

The interlude between the suck

The means of suffering

The respite

Heaven

Gateway to hell

The route

Stewart's Shops an Upstate New York (and now Vermont) Staple of Bikepacking Resupply

Final resupply at Stewart's in Arlington, Vermont

Stewart's Shops, an upstate NY staple of bikepacking resupply that has expanded into Vermont. Final resupply of the trip. 22 miles and 2500ft gain ahead of us in the rain.

I ate a terrible hamburger (I crave protein and sodium on these trips) and downed a coffee for the caffeine. Bought 2 bananas, a 20oz root beer for the sugar which I dumped into a 20oz water bottle, a snickers bar, a Reese Peanut butter protein bar and gallon of water.

I refilled my 20oz electrolyte/carb bottle with a Mango Chili LMNT and dumped my last 4oz of maple syrup into it. I also still had two gluten free honey stinger cookies.

Besides maple syrup and hamburgers I never eat any of this crap in real life (not even bananas which are filled with sugar, unless you eat them green, in which case they are filled with healthy resistant starch).

I ate all but one of the honey stingers and 6oz of root beer on the final 22 miles.

Bikepacking isn't the time to lose weight or count calories or eat super clean (though you can meet your nutrition without going entirely off the tails). Any single day ride you can limp home bonked out, but multi-day trips the damage is cumulative for nutrition and hydration. Eating and drinking constantly is best to avoid starting out with zero energy. A lesson I learned riding the Moose River Plains loop in 2022 where I totally bonked out midway into day two on no sleep and horrendous fueling.

Maple syrup isn't cheap, but unlike expensive gels (or homemade simple syrups) my GI tract seems to have unlimited capacity to consume the stuff. It's possible I'm part Elf. I drank 22oz of it over 4 days (2 water bottles had 3oz each to start and I brought 16oz in flexible flask). Adding it to my electrolytes should speed up water absorption and help top off my glycogen stores.

I was tired at times but never felt under fueled. Oh, and I lost about 3lbs of actual weight (my fleece cycling jacket was noticeably roommier to end the trip and that isn't water weight). No matter how much you eat, you'll end up in a deficit over multiple days so don't stress.

Stewart's Shops, Poultney, Vermont

Rounadabout Manchester Route- Gravel bikepacking in Vermont and Eastern New York

Just a quick, this is what we did, it was fun, and go have at it post. 

The road to IP Road

I call it the Roundabout Manchester. I've had it on paper (or pixels) for about 4 years and it was pretty awesome to finally do it. I only live about 40 miles (an hour) from the start so it was sort of inexcusable to not do it. However, it wasn't a dog friendly route (even if I had a trailer those Cat 2 climbs would absolutely suck). It's a gravel bike tour with some abandoned Vermont Class 4 roads. 

Lots of good camping, resupply at good intervals. You can do this as an epic day ride, challenging overnight, or a 3 or 4 day trip. We did 4 not so equal days (day 1 only had 22mi and 550ft of 11000ft elevation total) but it worked out great. At camp almost every day with plenty of light. 

D&H in Granville, NY

Camping in Green Mountain National Forest

Exploring the Adirondacks by Bicycle - Bikepacking Wilcox Lake Wild Forest

With ~2 million acres of public land open to bicycles within and adjoining the Adirondack Forest Preserve, the Adirondacks are a blank canvas for exploration by bicycle. Just don't expect to ride your bike the whole time while finding which trails are rideable and which are not.

His Name is Marshall Church

His name, Marshall Church, loosely translated means American Wilderness. Read on for a little history lesson on why there was a continuity to my naming scheme.

Bob and George Marshall built the American wilderness movement in part based on the adventures of their youth in New York's Adirondack Forest Preserve; Senator Frank Church turned that movement into federal law protecting millions of acres with the Wilderness Act of 1964, which was heavily based on Article 14 of the New York State constitution -the Forever Wild clause.

If we peel away one more layer: It was Verplanck Colvin's surveys and lobbying for creation of the Adirondack Forest Preserve and Forever Wild that allowed the Marshall's to adventure in the Adirondacks in their formative years. The Adirondacks were in essence the birthplace of the federally conserved American wilderness and the modern conservation movement.

In total the Marshall and Church names have 3.4M federally protected wilderness acres including my favorite place that isn't the Adirondacks, the 2.3M acre Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. However, the scope of land preserved thanks to my trail dogs namesakes (Colvin Harrison and Marshall Church) is in the millions of acres and a good part of why the US has 12% of the world's IUCN protected wild lands but only covers 6% of the earths surface.

1996 Trek 7900 Multitrack Garage Queen Drop Bar Adventure Bike

Rear end detail of a Trek 7900

This bike has been really good value for me. I paid $265 for it in 2021 with the express plan to drop bar convert from a flat bar 8spd to a drop bar 9spd. Other than the shifters, bars and cassette, I was able to do the upgrade maintaining the stock Shimano XT drivetrain. Along the way I've minimized expense of marginal upgrades. Every upgrade is with purpose and with the idea of building a more robust bike for gravel and bikepacking/bike touring.

Shown in the photo are the latest upgrades. 36H Velocity Cliffhanger rim on a Shimano XT hub. I prefer rear wheels (and fronts) with 36 spokes. It makes the wheel significantly stronger, not much heavier and makes repairing a (less likely) broken spoke easier. The upgrade happened after the original rim blew a spoke on the last 3 miles of a 200+mi bike tour. I've always preferred more spokes then less. I don't care about marginal weight, just durability, so I used it as an opportunity to get a stronger wheel. Oddly enough the original Trek wheels are really good. So I was surprised I popped a spoke on smooth terrain. Moreso because before I got the bike it was hardly ridden and when it was it was a fit woman using it on bike paths. Spoke fatigue shouldn't be a thing. 

In the background (out of focus) are the Avid Shorty Cantilever brakes. These may appear to be a boutique upgrade but they have the stopping power of V brakes with the modulation of cantis and the ease of setup of a V. These are the best of all worlds and are about the best upgrade for a rim brake bike you can make. These are the equivalent of adding bigger rotors or going hydraulic on a disc brake bike. With bike loads in wet conditions these are much appreciated. 

The rack is a Tumbleweed Mini Pannier which is a fantastic steel rack that should outlast the bike by a few decades. 

Trek 7900 at Cohoes Falls. Cohoes, NY

Cycling: Is the Saratoga Battlefield the best Cycling in the (recreationally) Cycling Rich Capital Region?

Miyata 912 at the Saratoga Monument

Saratoga (Battlefield) National (Historical) Park is some of the best cycling in the Capital Region of New York State, which says a lot considering the myriad recreational cycling opportunities in the region that is also at the crossroads of the 700mi Empire State Trail.

Whether or not the Capital Region has great bicycle commuting infrastructure is up for debate, but the recreational cycling infrastructure is phenomenal. With hundreds of miles of protected bike and multiuse recreational paths within the region, as well as hundreds of miles of accessible sparsely traveled gravel roads in the surrounding hill towns, all within a short distance of the state capitol. Adjoining to the east, Vermont, with it's legendary gravel and mountain bike friendly culture. A little further north or west there is the virtually unlimited potential for backcountry MTB and adventure bikepacking in the Adirondacks

Even with the abundant options for cycling, it's possible the 10+ mile rolling historical loop, circling a pivotal battlefield of the American Revolution, is the best pedaling in the region.

Battlefield Loop map and stats with elevation profile (orange line at bottom of image)

Cyclist are free to cycle at any time, but after 430pm the gates are closed to cars each day, and the course remains open to cyclist only until dusk (though I've finished many a final lap in darkness). The best part, this isn't some straight boring flat bike path or tiny 3mi loop. There are a few descents you can tuck and coast over 30mph and easily hit close to 50mph pedaling. The final 2 miles to complete the loop involve a consistent climb on a straight roadway, gaining a chunk of the nearly 700ft total gain. Not the most fun way to finish a lap but makes for a great workout on the final push.

Unless you are in elite fitness and the steep climb and final ascent to complete the loop won't even raise your heart rate, this isn't your typical zone 2 bike path where you maintain constant watts and heart rate. The rolling terrain is best for your tempo/threshold rides where you go out and crush it for an hour or two. Or...it's a great place to just go ride, stop at the historical displays, maybe bring a picnic lunch, enjoy a chill day cycling around the guided loop, instead of driving your car. Totally up to you, but no matter what you choose it's a fantastic ride. 

Miyata 912 on the Battlefield

Pit Stops Matter: Why Weight and Aerodynamics Are (mostly) Irrelevant on Flattish Bike Touring (Bikepacking) Routes

Setup: touring is 4 panniers, bikepacking is the typical bar, frame and seat bag. Watts (effort) and rolling resistance are identical in both setups, only weight and aerodynamics are variable. Added into total time is a very modest +20 minutes per day for bikepacking to resupply. Race mode assumes less time. Times are based on modest 50mi days.

One of my favorite past times is seeing how long in a social media post with a loaded touring bike it takes for someone to ask "how much does that weight" and "that's a lot of stuff for a...tour" .

A few things to keep in mind before I get into the actual data.

Your base gear is mostly the same for a weekend, week, cross state, cross country or around the world tour. Depending on how remote the longer trip is you may bring more repair gear, or more of this or that. But it's also likely you'll filter out some stuff that is more faff than it's worth. While some people would say that's what you should be doing to get the load light for every trip, in cycling weight doesn't matter very much. Bikes are very efficient, and unless you spend all day climbing in the alps, weight just doesn't matter. Aerodynamics and rolling resistance actually have a greater influence in most cases. So bringing that saw to help build a nice fire and a chair to sit around it on a weekend trip isn't going to matter much. But on a month long trip, having a fire and camping might not be a nightly priority. So those things might get left behind. You may also need more things on a longer (remote) trip. Like a way to charge devices and charge devices that charge devices. Like a solar panel and extra battery storage.

Photo: (C) loadedtouringbikes.com

For me, I prefer not to spend time on my trip time stopping at a store. There's three reasons. Dietary restrictions, cost and time.

Even if the first and second don't apply to you, the third is actually relevant to anyone. I was listening to a podcast with Ted King and he and Jan Heine (owner of Rene Herse) brought up something I already knew from virtually any sport, or even just driving a car over a distance. Time lost by not moving is time that is virtually impossible to make-up. If you stop for a few hours on a drive, no matter how fast you drive you cannot make that time back up. If two groups of travelers start out at the speed limit, one stops for an hour the other doesn't. It's very unlikely the second car catches up without significant risk of a speeding ticket. We also know this is true in car racing. It's why having the best pit crew is almost as important as having the best driver. Pit stops matter!

Photo: (C) Evan Christenson Insta: @EChristenson

The same applies if two equal riders are riding together, one stops for an half and hour extra each day for food and the other just keeps plugging along, there is virtually no way -regardless of bike weight, aerodynamics and rolling resitance- that the rider who stops finishes with or before the rider who doesn't.

So bringing everything you need on a weekend to week long tour actually will have the more laden rider finish in front of the bare bones rider (at the same effort level), even at speeds as fast as 18mph, which is quite fast average for non competitive touring/bikepacking. The only rider that finishes ahead, the speeder who rides fast and rarely stops but for the bathroom and maybe a quick Coke grab out of the convenience cooler. That strategy isn't valid for most bikepackers. It's hard to do it in a race, and even harder when you aren't competing.

Refueling in Arlington, VT on a 65 mile, 6500 vertical gain NY/Vermont gravel grind

Data and how I came up with these numbers:

My data basically normalizes energy expenditure (effort= input watts) over identical terrain which in this case is the Erie Canal. I normalized rolling resistance between the two riders which you could argue is unlikely to be true, but let's assume the rolling resistance difference in the real world is very marginal (it's 12lbs difference, not 100lbs) if the touring rider uses an appropriate tire higher volume (fast rolling premium tubeless, latex or TPU tire). If they are riding 25mm Gator Skins, I imagine the losses will be significant with a big load.

With riding identical low rolling resistance and used commonly believed to be true watt penalties to calculate aero losses with each setup in  this worked out to be about 10-20 watts or about 3-5% lower speed at the same effort (watts). 

Weight only worked out to be a few watts no matter what calculator I used, and I knew this to be mostly true from when I rebuilt my road bike a few years ago and realized dropping 1-2lbs had virtually no benefit UNLESS I was climbing the steepest mountains all day, and to  convince myself that titanium bottle cage bolt and lighter seat mattered, I literally calculated best case climbing the steepest roads I could map out in calculators, I actually still have the screen shots of the 15 second savings. But when sanity caught up, it wasn't enough to fret over as a non-competitive cyclist. And when you had to go down those hills, the heavier bike actually was faster. Of course, descent increases average speed much less than ascent, so they don't cancel each other out. 

The results: 

• The rider at 12mph with bikepacking rig is the baseline, the rider with panniers at the same output is really averaging 11.6mph in my calculations based on aerodynamics and weight.

• For 15mph with the lighter bikepacking rig, the touring rider (with 4 panniers) is riding at 14.4mph, again, watts/effort/rolling resistance is the same. The losses are weight and aerodynamics.

• And 18mph bikepacking rig is 16.9mph in kitchen sink touring mode.

From here we can calculate time to ride 50 miles per day (average speed and miles). And compare the times. The bikepacking rig with minimal food is faster because it's more aerodynamic, not because it's lighter. However, once we add extra stops for food (and I was very conservative) the bike touring rig wins. And remember, I'm only assuming the bikepacker buys food and cooks at camp side by side with the bike tourer. If the bikepacker doesn't choose to eat at camp, these numbers increase quite a bit. You absolute cannot make up restaurant stop time, this I keenly know from long distance drives. 

Eating at restaurants vs camp would change these numbers significantly. Minimum I'd estimate if say fast food was 3 meals a day, would be 60 minutes, vs the 20 extra i worked in. 10 minutes from order to reception and scarfing down your burrito or burger and coke another 10 minutes. Of course that is incredibly fast. Ordering ahead only saves a few minutes unless you can order and ride at the same time. Crashing also cost time so I would recommend pulling over to spend 5 minutes ordering.

For me, I'd rather spend the time (and money) I would spend shopping enjoying my campsite and downtime. I can also spend more time on photography, site seeing, and grabbing a beer when I want to, not because I have to...and still meet my mileage and time goals.

I also understand for a lot of people, perception is everything. If the bike looks fast (and I'll admit bikepacking bags look sleeker and are modestly faster if everyone adheres to the same stops), you are perceived to be fast. However, fast is total trip time, not perception. And the less you stop, the faster you are, and no perception is going to change that. 

Looks fast(er)...

...IS faster

What's on the agenda for 2026? How about filling in the Adirondack bikepacking map?

Current established ADK bikepacking routes, most created by me with a few excecptions/enhancements such as a modified Wardsboro Loop and the old standard, Limekiln-Cedar River Road loop.

TLDR: This is almost a low hanging fruit type route with high accessibility from major upstate population centers. The route validates that there is insane and almost entirely untapped potential for bikepacking in the Adirondacks. It also begs the question? Why isn't there more established bikepacking in the Adirondacks? 

When looking at the above map, the southwest Adirondacks are lacking a true off-road bikepacking route. 

Can a route be created there? 

Although strictly in the deeply digitally scouted phase, which includes using multiple map sets, often overlayed because no single map set contains all the information, satellite imaging, and street view (losing Bing streetside this year hurts for digital scouting, TomTom had much better coverage than Google maps of rural areas) and trail descriptions/trip reports, mixed in with some on the ground knowledge from exploration unrelated to cycling, it's looking like there might be one of the better route opportunities to date in the entire Adirondacks for off-road remote wilderness bikepacking. 

Stats (as currently envisioned):

65mi, 5750ft, 85% off-pavement, about 40-50% off road (trails). 

What makes that so exciting is the central accessibility to the population centers of Syracuse and Albany. It's basically equidistant to both -less than 1.5 hours total drive from either. 

The route being proposed is the ideal archetype route for bikepacking in the Adirondacks, with a healthy mix of gravel and trails -focusing heavily on trails- and very little pavement, only used when absolutely necessary to continue the route. Worst case, every unverified trail is entirely unrideable by any sane rider and the noted alternate routes are used, it's still approximately 60% off-pavement and a mostly wilderness experience within the public boundaries of the Ferris Lake Wild Forest unit of the Adirondack Forest Preserve.

The obvious nature of this route should make you wonder why there isn't more bikepacking going on in the Adirondacks? 

Bikepacking: Testing Out the K9Sportsack

This was the initial day of the K9Sportsack back in September of 2025. By November we used it to do a 66mi (3 day, but really overnight) bikepacking trip in Arkansas in the Ouachita National Forest that would not have been remotely possible without it.

Adventures of 2025 in Images

Still far from complete but I feel like this is the bulk of what I'll post for now. Keep in mind I've added photos all the years in review from 2008-2024 over the last few months, so the album with never truly be finished. But either way, enjoy a little slice of my adventures in 2025!

Direct link to the Flickr album can be found here: 2025 in Images or you can click the highlighted links below each photo on the photo collage to see full size individual images. Order is left to right, top to bottom. So 1-5 is top row, 5-10 is the second row and so on.

1. Marshall on Hurricane, 2. Skiing with Marshall, 3. Deore Purgatory, 4. All That the Light Touches Is Yours..., 5. Love, 6. Moose River Madness, 7. Marsh and Sen, 8. Enjoying the Campfire, 9. Seneca Falls, NY -Cayuga-Seneca Canal, 10. Buc-ee's, 11. Ouachita Trail Single Track, 12. My name is Marshall..., 13. November 2025, 14. Memphis Zoo, 15. Memphis Zoo, 16. Finger Lakes - Erie Canal Trail Bike Tour, 17. Sweet Relief, 18. I'll Always Rembember Us This Way, 19. Erie Canal Bicentennial Bike Tour, 20. Mid-fat at the Lake, 21. Bikewhat....?, 22. Spring on the Erie Canal Trail - New York, 23. Marsh on Moonshine, 24. Seneca, 25. Preview to Heart of the Finger Lakes Bike touring, 26. Looking out at 2026...Let's Roll!, 27. Breaking Away, 28. The Road to Paradox, 29. Autumn sunset on Blue Mountain, 30. Mashall backpacking in the Adirondacks

1. October Roads, 2. Autumn bikepacking in the Adirondacks, 3. Autumn at the Lake, 4. 1991 Trek Multitrack 7900 on the Erie Canal, 5. Transition season in the Keene Valley -Adirondacks, NY, 6. Cup of Contemplation, 7. Adirondack Autumn Views, 8. Big Wheels Keep On Turning, 9. Camping with Dogs: Seneca, 10. The Road to Paradox Panorama, 11. Sun Beams Over the Northern Adirondacks Descending Haystack Mountain, 12. Adirondack Groads: Gravel bikepacking in the Northwest Adirondacks, 13. Aim and the Marshmallow Man, 14. Gully Piton, 15. Grass River Revival, 16. BCXC In the Western Adirondacks, 17. The Pyramid, 18. Father and Daughter, 19. Oooops.....!!!! (WATERSHED BREWING - GENEVA, NY), 20. Marshall and crew on the Crows, 21. Mountain Biking Vermont: Green Mountains Fall Foliage at Sunset, 22. Rollin out, 23. Sunset snowshoeing at Moreau, 24. Descending Sugar Hill into Watkins Glen, 25. Bikepacking: Hector Falls - Hector, NY, 26. Crooked Lake Ice Cream Company - Hammondsport, NY, 27. I Love New York - bike touring / bikepacking edition, 28. Ski Trail, 29. Overwatch: Backpacking in the Adirondacks, 30. Sunset after glow over the Northern Adirondacks (panorama)

Essex Chain’s deteriorating logging roads: Missed recreational opportunity in an Adirondack landscape long shaped by human activity

Essex Chain road surface

I am a wilderness advocate and am not in favor of roads being built or maintained in wilderness areas. While I don't necessarily believe bicycles are anathema to the wilderness experience, I am ok with them not being allowed on hiking trails in wilderness areas. With over half the Adirondack Forest Preserve being open to bicycles, there is plenty of space for everyone to have a slice of the pie. From a personal perspective, I am never about denying other user groups access. I am more for everyone respecting the access rights of other user groups and doing their part to make it all work. 

However, you absolutely can, even in wilderness areas, allow bicycle travel via linear recreation corridors or bicycle corridors (as they are implemented within the Catskills Forest Preserve). These corridors wouldn't necessarily be on hiking trails (in the Catskills some are and some aren't but they also go over mountains in the Catskills whereas you could route them on logging roads in the Adirondacks) and wouldn't infringe on anyone's wilderness experience. In a lot of wilderness areas these corridors actually already existed as logging roads. Wilderness is more a state of mind then a reality. Virtually no area of the Adirondacks is untrammeled by man. And no matter how we try to cover it up, the signs of man will always be there by those with a keen eye. So spiting recreationalist and also dividing them into worthy and unworthy user groups with the concept that their 2-10ft wide sliver of infrastructure (trails and logging/woods roads) is going to ruin the environment and wilderness experience, is simply gaslighting. It just gives groups an excuse to be recreational bigots. Like anything, if you give someone the moral high ground to justify exclusion, they will likely fight to stay on top of that hill. 

In the case of the Essex Chain, it's a low use area with a massive logging road infrastructure that could have been phenomenal for family bikepacking, canoe camping, and backpacking. Being a relatively small unit, especially without the proposed bridge over the Cedar River, it's not a place the more hard core recreational users will ever flock to. It's also difficult to get to and then into (especially if paddling). The upside, it came pre-built with all the infrastructure necessary for ideal recreation for equestrian, XC skiers, and the disabled.  Instead, through a series of compromises they made Essex Chain as unfriendly as possible for everyone. As a result the roads weren't intentionally rewilded and bikes were allowed to access them, but they were not longer maintained at all beyond the MAPWD section (which is in phenomenal shape, despite and in part motor vehicle use beyond it's locked gates) to Fifth Lake. In many areas, especially closer to the Cedar River, these roads are no longer followable at all. This was a huge loss in a place (the Adirondacks) where even cutting a standard 2-foot wide hiking trail requires years of studies and then approvals, followed by the inevitable years of legal battles. Imagine having trails already cut and then deciding to abandon them simply to achieve a made up ideal in an area massively trammeled by man but even with (minimal) road maintenance would have still mostly reverted to nature within the unit boundaries, aside from the linear recreational corridors.  

I understand there is very small subsegment of folks that believes that our wild lands should be completely undeveloped. I respect that. For the folks that despise recreational infrastructure, they simply can choose to avoid it. In total, recreational infrastructure probably occupies less than 5% of total forest preserve and easement land area. That means that the small subsegment that eschews infrastructure has unfettered access to 95% of the forest preserve. Lands we all pay taxes to keep. Lands that are for all residents to use. 

This post isn't arguing we build more trails (at least not without any oversight) bur rather that we maintain and redesign existing trail beds. Even if every feasible snowmobile trail in the Forest Preserve was hardened (this merely means avoiding or bridging swampy sections that are frozen in winter) and maintained for 4 season use, likely no additional trees would need to be cut. And in essence no new infrastructure would actually be built on untrammeled lands.

Hiking trail as wide as a road (photo: Adirondack Council)

Pragmatically looking at it on a grand scale those roads are about as insignificant as anything that could be done to develop the Adirondacks, but would have made a huge difference in dispersing use and helping to protect other areas from looking like tanks rolled through. It also would have made more of an economic difference to local communities whom tourism is at least somewhat important. 

When you look at the trails in the High Peaks Wilderness, you realize bikes and logging roads aren't the bad guy. You realize that without properly designed trails, hikers are just as destructive and capable of creating, merely with the soles of their boots, a path as wide as those logging roads that were incongruent with nature. A trail or roadbed is merely a linear recreational corridor that concentrates use, preventing the rest of the forest from being impacted. It's a sacrificial sliver of our public recreational lands. It's not the end of wilderness or the death of our environment. 

This hiking trail, which likely never
saw a bike, has nearly 3ft of erosion
(photo: Adirondack Council)

Hardened trail being built in the largest wilderness area in NY
and the east coast. This is actually the approved surface by the
most restrictive protection group in the Adirondacks.
It doesn't look very wild to me.
(photo: Protect the Adirondacks)

From a Never Bike Tourer to Bikepacking in the Adirondacks: The Full Circle Journey of Exploration and Discovery

Adirondack bikepacking routes I created as of Dec 31, 2025

Back in 2020 during Covid I took my bikes to Arkansas to visit family. I hadn't ridden in Arkansas in 20 years and I was excited to ride there, even if it was a long way from my old stomping grounds. I got back from a ride and a family member asked me "with all the outdoors stuff you do, have you ever done any bike touring? Would you consider it?"

Without hesitation I said, "no, absolutely not." The reason I gave was I do a lot of slow deliberate wilderness type activities and to me, riding was about going fast. 50mph descents with my hair on fire. It was about cranking through turns and maintaining a high average speed and crushing sprints where I felt the need to. Every ride was an individual time trial. I was enjoying picking off Strava KOMs (I'm a good sprinter so those flat KOMs are actually achievable) and just having fun riding. No need to burden myself with a ton of gear and turn every ride into a multi-day planning and packing event. 

Not too long after that I got more into gravel riding. Despite what the bike industry tells us, gravel isn't a new thing, when I was a student at the University of Arkansas we often rode gravel on mountain bikes, usually to bridge single track sections, sometimes to get to trails in the Ozark NF or Arkansas State Parks from campus, and after college I rode a lot of gravel on my hard tail because my back just couldn't handle the multi-use (hiking trail) single track that was the norm in New York. Plus, gravel was that sweet spot between MTB and road. It was out in nature, quieter roads, sometimes it could be chunky or even mildly technical (Vermont Class 4 roads are a great example of this), but it was still spinning gears and riding fast. 

Ted King on a paved section of the 1000 mile Arkansas High Country Race in 2020 (credit bikepacking.com)

 

I'm not sure how or why (besides targeted Google advertising, of course) but I saw the Arkansas High Country Race and Vermonter Ted King had won it. I thought that looked cool. They rode fast (relatively speaking), they traveled fairly light, and they looked like they were still riding hard. It erased my pre-conceptions of a bike tourer having 100L of panniers filled with heavy cast iron. In my mind, bike touring was essentially backpacking in the 1970s. Except, like backpacking, bike touring has evolved and with it came the ultralight bikepacking. This isn't much different than the evolution of backpacking where people went from cast iron to JetBoils with titanium mugs, or 10lb canvas tents to 1lb frameless tarp tents, and external framed packs to carry that load to lighter, more compact and nimble internal frame packs. 

Bikepacking is a volatile term. Sometimes it's used to blanket describe riding a bike to multiple points over multiple days. To others its covering the same terrain in the same style you would backpack. Too me, bikepacking is anywhere you NEED to use a water filter. So gravel roads or even paved roads in the middle of nowhere can be bikepacking. Bike touring is anywhere you simply fill your water from a hose, fountain machine, or buy bottles. I realize people can and will endlessly debate what it means to them, and I'm not here to tell you what it is or it isn't. That's up to you. I once debated someone that said if you weren't literally pushing or even carrying your bike for most of the trip, it was bike touring. To me, if I'm carrying my bike half the trip, I'd rather leave it home and go backpacking. I didn't buy a bike, deal with all the mechanical nuance and cost, just to need a pair of hiking boots. I want to ride it!

(credit bikepacking.com and Restrap)

So how did I get from "hell no" to "maybe I'll try it" to "I'm all in" and now creating routes in the vast Adirondack Wilderness? Well, sadly my dog Colvin, died in 2023. In his early years we did some mountain biking, but by the time I got back into riding, even though he was still bagging difficult peaks for a 10yo dog in 2020, it was too much to ask of him to ride with me. His final years were spent hiking, sometimes very hard peaks or routes which he enjoyed, and that was best for him. I'd ride on rest days for him but we focused on getting him out into the mountains and local trails as much as possible. About 7 months later in the summer of 2023 I got my next gen trail dog, Marshall. By 2024 I realized this was the time to get back into mountain biking and off-road bikepacking and make use of Marshall's endless energy. He is my first truly high energy dog in the sense he doesn't have a chill switch. It's go, go, go. 

You have a small window (about 5 years, ages 2-7) to ride hard with your dog. Hard? This absolutely doesn't mean abuse them with overuse, it just means where they can ride* day to day and recover optimally. Where riding at 20mph for short stretches and 15-30mi days are not pushing them to the limit. After that window you need to start considering the dogs recovery much more, mayber sticking to more technical single track where you are riding much slower and even moving on to a cart and bike touring. I will say people tend to overthink how fast a MTBer is riding. Typically average speed is under 10mph for the day, usually between 6-10mph for single track trails. That is a 6-10min mile, and trust me, your dog isn't working that hard in proper temps running 10 min miles over a typical 10-20mi day if they are already properly conditioned.  A 10min mile is 250min or about 4 hours of activity over an 6-8 hour day of riding if you stop and smell the roses, filter water, go for a swim, and take some photos.  Again, not a serious strain on a properly conditioned dog in the optimal age range. Add in a backpack like the K9 Sportsack and you can ride probably around 40-45mi on the high end if you bag the dog for long gravel descents, pavement, and long flat stretches of gravel. 

*when I use the term ride, I'm riding and the dog is running or the dog may be in the Sportsack, but he's never at the wheel, my dog training skills only go so far and he loves to run as much as I love to bike

Well, that is the backstory on how I got into bikepacking and why I began developing routes in the Adirondack Forest Preserve. I'll be posting those routes here along with maps, route GPX, photos and trip reports. 

As a side note: I've gotten some mild natured hate from some gate keepers in the Adirondack cycling community. Don't ruin a good thing for us was the consensus. But I promise you this, in 3 years of Adirondacks bikepacking, mostly on weekends, I have NEVER seen another cyclist either day riding or bikepacking. NOT. ONE. What that tells me is not only are ADK backpackers a secretive bunch (afterall, to get mad means you do ride, but to see no evidence means you keep it quiet), but they may not even exist at all in numbers necessary to prove they do. I guess what I'm saying is I understand the sentiment but I don't believe sharing my routes is going to change bikepacking in the Adirondacks dramatically in the near future. And if it does long term, it will likely mean better infrastructure and more potential route terrain. I do, however, hope it changes the anti-bike culture in the Adirondacks which is sort of ingrained in people due to the Forever Wild wilderness ethic that permeates folks who know of and love the Adirondacks.