Adirondacks trip

Here’s the route we’ll be taking for our trip to the Adirondacks.  It’s our first time going, so we found a trip off of Everytrail.com with easy parking and a looped trail.  The trail is only 7 or 8 miles (total loop), but there are a bunch of trails that go off of it so we can make it longer, to accommodate the 3 nights we’ll be spending there.

If you’re into hiking/backpacking, and have a GPS/Iphone/Android, you should definitely check out Everytrail. I had a hell of a time trying to find:

• A trail inside NYS owned-land (to camp in backcountry for free)
• Where we could park the car legally
• That is a looped trail (to minimize the not-very-fun backtracking)
• Bonus for the trail being part of a network of trails (for trip and future variation)
• Bonus for the trail’s GPS coords/pictures

If that sounds like what you want (and you live in NY), follow these steps to camping freedom:

1. Load up Google Earth and select the “Everytrail” layer.  It’s an option that comes by default
2. Find a trail you want to go on by clicking the icon and viewing the description
3. You have the trail, but is it on NYS owned-land? Check http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/45415.html (state land is available to the general public for “primitive camping,” meaning you hike in and can camp anywhere that isn’t very close to the trail/water).  For more info…
   1. Explanation of backcountry camping: http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/41282.html
   2. State land camping rules: http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/7872.html
   3. Free primitive camping in the Adirondacks
4. So you’ve found the trail, and confirmed that it’s on state land (the green overlay on the interactive map means it’s state/DEC land), but how to get there and where to park?  For the most part, all state-land has access roads around it.  Drive around until you can find it, or…
5. Look for the parking symbol in the DEC interactive map, click the “info” button on the top, then click the parking symbol.  It’ll give you the name of the road and with a little Google Maps magic, you can get directions there.

Everytrail has a handy “get directions to this trail” button, but when I used that for the route below, it took me to the wrong place.  All I did was used Google Earth, clicked where I wanted to park, and clicked “Get directions here.”  Easy.