Great fishing, overnight paddling, scenic hikes, and more.
Reel in fish and fun in the Adirondacks
1.
Multi-day paddle trips
With a warming spring sun upon us and the Dark-eyed Juncos, Song Sparrows, and Brown Creepers singing early spring to my yard, our lakes and waterways are beginning to open up. Such gaps in the ice have been quickly colonized by migrant ducks, and we paddlers won’t be far behind, so it is time to start unearthing our paddling gear and warming up our canoeing muscles in preparation for the upcoming season.
2.
Spring hiking tips
Locals call it mud season, I call it lovely. There’s nothing quite like spring in the Adirondacks. Everything is changing — wildflowers start appearing along trails, birds return from their southern sojourn, and the melting snowpack sends water pouring into streams, making them more dramatic to see. And of course, everything is wet, wet, wet. It is mud season, after all.
3.
Invent your perfect meeting
Planning a conference can be a huge undertaking. They provide opportunities for professional and academic development, as well as networking and social interactions between colleagues and business partners. When hosting a meeting in any venue or destination, you need to first consider the kind of experience you want to create for your attendees. Where you hold your meeting can say a lot about the event itself, and that's where the Lake Placid Conference Center and Visitors Bureau comes in!
4.
Learning to fly (fish)
The Ausable River is hard to miss when visiting the Adirondacks. The river winds and moves through our many mountain towns. The famed West Branch flows through Lake Placid and Wilmington and the East Branch through Keene and Upper Jay until the two meet in Ausable. From there you can follow the Ausable River right into Lake Champlain where it is fed into.
For me, the Ausable River's beauty is most notable through the Wilmington Notch, where on an early summer morning or just before nightfall, fly fishers wade in, hopeful of catching a brook trout. Those same fly fishers caught my eye when I moved to the Adirondacks a few years ago, and I was certain one day I would join them.
While most of my interests are fast paced and more intense — like skiing, mountain biking, and running — the mesmerizing rhythm of the cast and the therapeutic-like atmosphere that these fly fishers seemed to be experiencing was exactly what I was missing.
5.
Tasting hoppy
The beer went down smooth, and at the end there was a distinct hint of orange. It was clean and crisp, so I went in for another sip.
"I don't like the flavor to be overpowering," said Nate Drake, owner of Township 7 Brewing Company. "I do my dark beers the same way. The idea is to make them flavorful and not heavy. I don't like to chew on my beer."
I visited the small brewery on a bright Friday afternoon. It's located just west of Malone on Route 11B. There are farms in every direction, so it feels like the middle of nowhere. I commented on that, and Nate corrected me: He likes to think of it as the middle of everywhere. Fair enough. I put the glass to my lips and tipped it up in agreement.
6.
Find the perfect catch
As quoted by our office fishing advisor Cole, "it all starts with a worm." When you are looking for your bait and tackle, Tupper Lake offers a variety of places to stop and pick it up. But it is when you are picking up your fishing essentials that you can get your first tip on where to cast that line. Those who sell bait and tackle often speak with the locals about where the fish are biting, so if you are new to fishing in the area, don't let this opportunity pass you by. Ask them for the latest scoop on the local fishing scene.
7.
Dip into a fish hatchery
Every morning, Chris Barber slips on a pair of full-length rubber boots, grabs his plastic bucket, push broom, and pool net, and heads outside to clean the ten ponds at the Essex County Fish Hatchery. The ponds aren't ponds in the traditional sense. They're made from concrete, kind of squared shaped, and housed beneath black netting that keeps predators at bay. Chris starts his day by standing thigh deep in the frigid water, scrubbing the walls of each pond and skimming leaves and other debris off of the water’s surface as hundreds of fish swirl around him.
8.
Sunny hiking in Saranac Lake
Rising temperatures make spring hiking feel like a dream, yet the ground at times bodes a more nightmarish essence. A trail can vary from muddy, soggy, leaf-covered ground to loosely packed snow that lends itself to postholing, and maybe even some slick ice here and there.
However, don’t let these trail conditions scare you away. There’s still lots of fun to be had because let’s face it, when it’s 60 degrees and sunny in April, nothing can bring you down. At least, that was my experience hiking Jenkins Mountain at Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center.