This area is near and dear to my heart, having spent much time there in my youth, and still having relatives in upper New York State. This link is best to get you started:
http://www.adirondackexperience.com/...on/hiking.html
You also need to become familiar with the back country regulations:
http://www.adirondackexperience.com/...gulations.html
If you want something less "primitive," I recommend the Hemlock Hall Lodge in Blue Mountain Lake. This is a turn of the 20th Century rustic lodge, which serves good home-cooked meals, family style, on Blue Mountain Lake, no internet or TV, but a wonderful porch where you can sit in peace and quiet and enjoy a good book. Be sure to also visit the Adirondack Museum and allow at least a full day for doing so.
http://www.adirondackexperience.com/attractions.html
Winter overnight camping on cross country skis in the Adirondacks is not for the inexperienced or faint hearted. Above 4000 feet this time of year the terrain is dangerous. But in spring, summer or early fall, it is a delightful experience which can be enjoyed by the whole family. The Adirondack Reserve is less commercial and many of the old camps and hotels retain their rustic flavor.
Russian expats tell me that our Adirondack architecture and furniture reminds them of czarist-era dachas back in their old country. Many of the lodges built in the 1920s were vacation homes for Russian emigrees, to get out of New York City in the summers, so that would make perfect sense.
A delightful DVD which gives the historical background from PBS is
http://www.amazon.com/Adirondacks/dp...he+adirondacks
On six million acres in upstate New York, the "Adirondack Park" is the largest park in the lower 48 states. Its land is divided almost evenly between protected wilderness and privately owned tracts creating a pattern of ownership that maintains a delicate relationship between progress and preservation. Through the perspectives of several characters, this program explores the history, seasonal landscape and current state of the Adirondacks.
Released by PBS in 2008, this controversial documentary showed what kind of a place a six-million acre State Park was and could be in modern times. With a nearly 50-50 split of private and public ownership (it was once considered to be a National Park), the Adirondacks are shown what they are - remote yet accessible; wild and public. The documentary traces a fine balance between the publics' right to own and use the land against private owners who choose to log, develop or possibly destroy the integrity of the park's landholdings. PBS and director Tom Simon present a fair and balanced view of this rarest of parks. With amazingly beautiful shots of mountains, lakes, rivers and streams, the film traverses across the entire park showing the immense beauty and value of such a large piece of public land within such close proximity to major metropolitan areas (New York City, Montreal, Albany, Syracuse, etc.). The cinematography is the star here with helicopter gliding shots throughout. As if to emphasize the point of private vs. public, the film ends on the development of the Big Tupper ski area and numerous condominiums and recreation facilities. It shows the Town of Tupper Lake in its impoverished condition against a community that gravely wants to leave the area wild forever. It has been an ongoing struggle since the park was established.
"At the 1894 Constitutional Convention, a new covenant to achieve meaningful protection of the Forest Preserve was included in the new Constitution. Henceforth, the Adirondack Forest Preserve would be "forever wild."
"For years the State had been acquiring and holding lands, often denuded, to be sure, which lumber interests did not pay the taxes on. It was this nucleus of property that gave the idea for the Park. Curiously enough, in this way, avarice was its own undoing ... In 1885 the Forest Preserve was created, and the popular vote in 1894 set it aside for the use of all the people forever."
-- T. Morris Longstreth, The Adirondacks, 1917"
Originally Posted by Outpost75
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