News for the ‘Exploring the Region’ Category
By Sharon O’Brien, ANCA’s Scenic Byways Program Coordinator
The new recreation path that will be built alongside the tracks within the Remsen-Lake Placid Travel Corridor will retain access to nature observation for key groups of people typically underserved: people with mobility challenges, as well as families with small children and senior citizens. As currently planned and funded, the recreational path will connect Saranac Lake and Lake Placid, two communities along the 170-mile Olympic Scenic Byway. This exciting project allows us to begin implementing local and regional goals from three adopted management plans for Adirondack North Country Scenic Byways, including improved accessibility.
The project will serve the interests of all and does not neglect those with limited access to wilderness due to mobility challenges. The town of North Elba, with ANCA’s assistance, will be constructing a path for walkers, hikers, cross-country skiers and bicyclists while maintaining a corridor for snowmobilers. Of importance, this trail will work in conjunction with the Adirondack Scenic Railroad, which has been using its open-air car to provide a safe and up-close view of nature for those with mobility issues. One coach car with lifts at both ends and wide doors is also available on every summer run. It has been adapted as the dedicated “Access Car” and holds up to six wheelchairs.
Our goal is to raise $100,000 from individuals and businesses by the end of 2011. We are well on our way – but we need your help to get us over the top.
Join our network by giving online here or by printing and mailing this form
With our networks of partners across the region, ANCA has identified four project areas to help transform our region and localize our economies:
- Food: Uniting the emerging local food economy through mapping the key players and identifying gaps in the system
- Energy: Expanding the region’s capacity to meet its own energy needs by bringing thermal biomass resources and programs to pilot communities
- Work: Creating a dynamic support network for entrepreneurs
- Identity: Launching an Adirondack Branding Initiative
Read about our work in the region and our goals for the upcoming year in the newsletter here
We invite you to join us as we begin this exciting work throughout the region.
ANCA’s Bike the Byways website is featured in New York State Department of Transportation’s Fall online magazine: https://www.nysdot.gov/e-zine/fall2011/scenic-byway
 Seeing the fall foliage from New York State’s scenic roads is easy, thanks to a new map that brings them together for the first time.
The Adirondack North Country Association and the New York State Department of Transportation have teamed up to produce the map, which gives visitors a chance to see all 21 designated Scenic Byways spanning more than 2,000 miles of roads in one convenient, folded map. One side highlights the 14 routes in Northern New York, the other side shows all the Byways statewide. The 93 million people who live within a day’s drive of the Adirondack region can find their way to communities that serve as a gateway to the area’s majestic mountains, countless waterways, and other natural wonders. Ronald Ofner, Executive Director of the Adirondack Regional Tourism Council, which assisted with the project, believes having the statewide locations of scenic drives on one handy map will allow travelers to plan extended trips that encompass various themes or geographic areas. The project was funded by a grant to the NYS Scenic Byways Program, at the New York State Department of Transportation, through the Federal Highway Administration and the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century. |
| Copies available!
Those that wish to receive a quantity of maps to share with visitors can contact Mark Woods, NYSDOT Scenic Byways Coordinator, at ScenicByways@dot.state.ny.us and (518) 457-6277.
More information on the Adirondacks’ Byways can be found |
A $1.2 million grant awarded to the Adirondack North Country Association will go toward completing a long-anticipated recreational path from Lake Placid to Saranac Lake within New York State’s Department of Transportation’s rail corridor.
The Federal Highway Administration grant is awarded to ANCA through the New York Department of Transportation for projects under the National Scenic Byways Program. ANCA worked with Essex County Office of Community Resources, Holmes & Associates, and the Town of North Elba to submit the grant application.
The grant will be used for the first phase of the Olympic Byway Recreational Path project: An 8-to-10-foot-wide multi-use path to be built along existing rail tracks connecting the Village of Lake Placid with the hamlet of Ray Brook. Once complete, it will allow access for outdoor enthusiasts – including hikers, bikers, runners, cross-country skiers and snowmobilers – throughout four seasons.
ANCA’s new biking website, Bikethebyways.org, has received a fair amount of attention recently in regional and national media.
In a New York Times article published Aug. 7, titled “Bike Vacations Offer Freedom and Frugality,” author Sean Patrick Farrell writes about how a growing number of city residents are going pedaling for their vacations.
The benefits are many, he writes, including a good workout, a chance to take in scenic vistas, and also a way to have a low-cost vacation.
He interviews one young woman, Allison Burtch, who spent a week in the Adirondacks. While touring by bike, visitors still spend money on accommodations and meals, she said: “You always spend more on food than you want to because you’re ravenous,” she said.
The article references ANCA’s website here: “Good roads remain the Grail of the touring cyclist. Tim Holmes, who helped develop a new Web site of routes in the Adirondacks, Bike the Byways, praises the six-foot-wide shoulders on that region’s roads — a particular selling point for any rider who has shared a narrow highway with cars whizzing by, only inches away.”
The complete story can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/nyregion/more-new-yorkers-taking-vacation-escapes-by-bike.html?emc=eta1
Seven Days bike story
Also, in the July 27 issue of Seven Days, an alternative-weekly paper based in Burlington, Vt., author Kevin Kelley writes about ANCA’s website as well as his experience biking on the Lakes to Locks Passage Scenic Byway, on the 50-mile portion of this byway between Port Kent and Crown Point: http://www.7dvt.com/2011northern-new-york-bike-ways.