Tracking the Trail

Posted On June 11, 2024

An Updated Look at the Adirondack Rail Trail

Including a sneak peek at renovations underway inside the Rail Trail’s historic train depot!

(I am, after all, still an Adirondack Outlaw. Gotta keep up my street cred.)

Since I was in town for the weekend, I thought I’d trek a mid-June sneak peek along The Adirondack Rail Trail.

It was a cool, rainy Friday afternoon, so Rail Trail traffic was light. But as Mom always said,

“You aren’t made of sugar. You won’t melt.”

So, I used those mom words of wisdom to my advantage.

The first thing I noted was the plethora of permanently installed signage and gates.

I guess they don’t want anyone to miss the fact that there’s a bridge up ahead.

I understand why.

That first bushwack off-trail step is a doozy!

My favorite hometown park is in nice shape.

Kudos to Saranac Lake’s Village Improvement Society.

I also took note of the Belvedere Restaurant’s sign.

During my Rail Trail trek last fall, that sign was trailside.

Then I heard there was some sort of power struggle & the sign came down. It’s too bad that happened. It seems to me that part of the point of this whole project is to support local businesses.

I’m glad to see, in the end, where there was will there was way.

There is also new bridge overpass fencing above Woodruff Street.

Which is probably a good thing, given that spot’s key vantage point for young sharpshooters with a penchant for launching snowballs at moving targets.

(Not that I would have any direct knowledge of such things.)

One thing is for sure.

In the event Saranac Lake is ever invaded, someone certainly took great pains to ensure there was an imposing array of defensive barricades.

(I guess someone wants to ensure a rogue outlaw ghost train doesn’t sneak through.)

On the Saranac Lake end, the currently completed portion of the Rail Trail ends down on Broadway next to where Aubuchon’s Hardware Store was.

While I was down on that end of the trail, I decided to sneak a closer peek at the work being done on the old train station.

The currently ongoing exterior work involves aesthetic & structural upgrades and replacing the roof.

They have also already added plenty of parking options. There’s handicapped parking, angled parking, straight parking, crooked parking, trailer parking…

All the kinds of parking.

I took a few sneak peek snapshots peering in through the windows (which are filthy and looked to me like they have not yet been upgraded or replaced).

Hey! The signs say, “No Loitering.”

I wasn’t loitering. I was taking pictures.

Anyways, I’m not sure what the final plans are for this space.

All I can say is that from what I could see,

once finished it’s gonna be super cool!

As a side note: For any aspiring outlaws out there finding themselves for some reason in sudden need of escaping and evading the local constabulary, I also checked to make sure the bushwack route through the woods up to Margaret Street was still there.

(Not that that is something I know anything about.)

From there I scooted back up to Triangle Park and my truck.

I snapped a few more photos on the Moody Pond Bridge side.

Legend has it that before the old wooden ramped bridge was replaced, it was possible, for anyone courageous enough, to build up enough speed, to jump the entire span of that bridge…

in their friend’s father’s Mazda.

But that’s just local legend, not something I’d have any direct knowledge of.

I then drove up Pine Street to where the Rail Trail runs out past Pine Ridge cemetery towards Ray Brook.

There is something about the disjointed logic of that “NO ATVs” sign that just plain cracks me up.

Finally, I cruised out McKenzie Pond Road to the Rail Trail’s roadside parking lots in Ray Brook.

Both parking lots are now complete. Nicely landscaped with plenty of parking, benches, trash cans & porta potties, though, given their highway location at the end of the paved line and the snowmobile exception, I find the “No Trailer Parking” signs perplexing.

That all said, in summary, the new Adirondack Rail Trail is becoming by the day more awesome.

Especially for any Adirondack Outlaw finding themself in need of an escape route.

Oh!

My “Hometown Heroes” sign has migrated!

I’m counting the move as a promotion.

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Until Our Trails Cross Again:

ADKO