Adirondack Explorer

BY GWENDOLYN CRAIG A Miami, Fla. developer looking to build a luxury, large-scale subdivision in the town of Jay submitted more permit information to the Adirondack Park Agency in April, but the agency declared the application incomplete—for the thir

In the summer of 2008, two San Francisco roommates inflated an air mattress in their living room and called it a bed and breakfast—Airbed and Breakfast, to be exact. Using startup capital earned by selling Barack Obama-and John McCain-themed cereals

In April, hundreds of New Jersey residents were evacuated from a fire that ripped through almost 4,000 acres. The wildfire ignited in the Pine Barrens about 50 miles from Philadelphia, closing roads in rural Manchester Township. In June, the Adironda

The American three-toed woodpecker was always rare in New York, but warmer winters in the Adirondacks—probably the bird’s only stronghold in the state—may have pushed this winter-tolerant species farther north forever. “The three-toed woodpecker is g

On an early May night, Paul Smith’s College sophomore Nik Main sat in a mostly empty classroom, taking turns with a few others listening to call notes from birds migrating overhead in the dark sky. The calls were coming down into the classroom throug

On Oct. 12, 1912, Ray Collins of Colchester, Vt., took the mound for the Boston Red Sox in the World Series, facing the New York Giants and future Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson. With a 4-2 eighth-inning lead, Collins got pulled for a reliever in an

The East Branch of the Ausable River in Jay has a new bank. But it still needs to be dressed. Twigs hardly a foot high stick out of bare dirt, cobble and coconut fabric spread across wide sections. While the sticks look dead, fresh growth has sproute

Walking into the Westport train depot is like beaming into the 1880s: narrow amber-colored wood paneling, dark brown trim, wooden benches with bentwood armrests, a grated ticket window, its sign in a font that reminds one of handlebar mustaches and s

With the Adirondack Mountains to the west, New York’s shoreline on Lake Champlain is branded recreationally as the Adirondack Coast. This 120-mile lake flows north, making this coast’s unofficial starting point the lake headwaters in South Bay, just

Located about 25 minutes west of Warrensburg, Crane Mountain is a popular hiking spot but something of a sleeping giant in the climbing world. With more than 250 routes and located much closer to New York’s big population centers than the climbing me

On a sunny day in May, just ahead of the black flies, three of us pedaled from Cranberry Lake village onto the North Tram of the Grasse River Railroad. The last train chugged along this route almost 100 years ago, but it’s still possible to follow it

“Damn” I thought as I wiped the mucus dripping from my nose with the palm of my hand. It was about 8:20 a.m., and I just finished running from the Pilot’s Knob trailhead up Buck Mountain, overlooking Lake George. I forgot how hard it is to run direct

The yellow-bellied flycatcher is a small (chickadee size), migratory, boreal bird that flies under the radar for most people. Little is known about this elusive species nicknamed the “moss tyrant” (“tyrant” taken from the flycatcher family name Tyran

Tick populations, once patchy in the Adirondacks, are now widespread. The highest density of ticks remains in the southern parts of the Blue Line, but researchers are detecting more in northern areas and at higher elevations. The Adirondacks used to