LET’S SAY YOU’RE NEARING A SIGNIFICANT BIRTHDAY.
Let’s say you’re turning 55. And let’s say you have a group of friends circling the same drain. Let’s also put it out there that this group is pretty game. They like to do things. They welcome a challenge. Not marathon runners, but not the types who are ready to settle in for cards and cookies. Now, on top of that, let’s say it’s deep winter. And let’s add the fact that some of these 50-somethings have kids and spouses who are tolerant of adventures that only last so long.
What could you do to unify all these themes into a relatively short and invigorating tussle with the elements? What challenge could you present that tricky knees and rising blood pressure could overcome? What would get the spirit racing toward a goal while also providing opportunity for a comfortable bed at day’s end?
I suggest cross-country skiing the Jackrabbit Trail. Stretching 33 miles from Paul Smiths to Keene, the Jackrabbit rises and falls in typical Adirondack fashion. It’s got plenty of flat, too, and is conveniently punctuated by wholesome lodging and dining in Lake Clear, Saranac Lake, Lake Placid and Keene.
This is just the adventure I proposed to my New York City friends Sean, David, Jenny and Sarah. Each had in their own way hit a life pause. Sean had just ghostwritten a celebrity autobiography. David, who leads a democracy organization, was dreading an impending empty nest. Jenny had just closed on an apartment in Brooklyn. Sarah was wrapping a documentary about nurturing healthy gut bacteria.
Miraculously, all of us were free for an extended long weekend in January. Equally miraculously, snow, glorious snow, had fallen in abundance, coating the trail from end-to-end in thick powder. When we rendezvoused at Lake Placid’s Cascade Ski Center last winter to rent our equipment, we caught snowflakes on our tongues and jumped about.
The only problem was that most of us didn’t really know how to
