The Quadruple Crown.

               The triple crown of long distance hiking: the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail.  However, a fourth National Scenic Trail is on the horizon.  The 4600-mile-long North Country National Scenic Trail (NCNST) was proposed in the 1980s and would stretch from Crown Point in the Adirondacks to Forestport in North Dakota.  While nearly half of the trail is completed, a debate rages in the Adirondacks over possible routes through the park, and as of 2014, no consensus had been reached (Ingersoll).

               There are three suggestions for a route through the Adirondack Park: a Northern route, a Central route, and a Southern route.  The Northern route would pass through the High Peaks region, but because of heavy traffic placing significant ecological strain on the area, this route was almost immediately vetoed and was completely rejected from consideration in the 1990s (NCNST 2014).  The Southern Route, proposed by Barbara McMartin, has the advantage of passing through the little traveled southern part of the park, but at the cost of extensive necessary trail construction and several major road and river crossings (NCNST 2014).  The Central route (and best candidate for a continuous trail across the Adirondacks) reconciles the problems with the previous two plans.  It avoids the high traffic areas (especially the High Peaks) and mostly follows existing trails without significant road crossings (NCNST 2014).

               A closer examination of the Central route plan, however, reveals that while technically most of the proposal follows existing trails (51% -- 81 miles), the remaining 49% (77.4 miles) requires 38.3 miles of new trails and 39.1 miles of hiking along a road (Ingersoll 2014).  Trail construction, while costly, does not impose a threat to hikers or to the land, but the 39.1 miles of road-side hiking endanger the hikers and place strain on park traffic (Ingersoll 2014).  Further, walking along a road is not attractive and it will encourage potential hikers to skip these sections or discourage them from hiking the trail altogether.

               The Adirondacks represent one of the most exciting landscapes along this new National Scenic Trail, and unless a decent trail traversing the park can be agreed upon, the Adirondack section may never join the rest of the NCNST.  The North Country National Scenic Trail offers a wide array of landscape diversity across the Northern and Mid-Western United States, and the Adirondacks should take advantage of the opportunity join this route and boast about its forests… not its roads.

[Writing Center edits forthcoming]

References:

Ingersoll, Bill.  14 July 2014.  “Routing a National Trail through the Adirondacks.”  Adirondack Almanack.  URL: < http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2014/07/bill-ingersoll-routing-a-national-trail-through-the-adirondacks.html>.

North Country National Scenic Trail: Revised Draft Adirondack Park Trail Plan.  June 2014.  Department of Environmental Conservation.  URL: < http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/39658.html>.