Director

Jul 1, 2016

Tom Ortmeyer
tortmeye@twcny.rr.com
315-265-8219

The Adirondack Mountain Club celebrated National Trails Day on June 4 by organizing and hosting volunteer trail crews at the Heart Lake facility. Projects included addressing trail erosion in the Wilmington Wild Forest and on the Cascade Mountain trail. New pit privies were installed at the Cascade Mountain trail head and the Avalanche Camp lean-to, and the Mr. Van privy was replaced. A group climbed Wright Mountain with a seasoned High Peaks Summit steward, and learned alpine summit rehabilitation (and carried as many rocks as they wanted to aid in the effort). Trail hardening projects on the Avalanche Pass Trail and the Van Hoevenberg Trail.

Trail workers camped at the Heart Lake campground. I’ve heard the place was “rockin” as the crews gathered under the new events tent at Adirondack Loj for a celebration dinner and music after completing their projects. Over 100 volunteers were participated this year—and there are a number of photos posted on the ADK blog showing the trail work activities, showing the hard work and the fun had by those participating.

Many of us will visit at least one of these locations this summer — if you do, please appreciate the trail work done on National Trails Day (or try out one of the new privys). Much more trail work is done every year by ADK pro and volunteer trail crews, DEC personnel, and others. Many other groups around the nation also did trail maintenance on National Trails Day, and I don’t believe there is a better way to kick off the summer hiking season.

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