Adirondacks Are Hot. That’s Good. Or Not.

NY Times ^ | October 27, 2006 | LISA W. FODERARO

[neverdem]

TUPPER LAKE, N.Y. — Those who love the Adirondacks most are worried they are being loved too much.

Personal watercraft, all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles shatter the stillness, from one season to the next. Nearly twice as many building permits were issued last year as in 1998, while home prices in some areas have doubled in less than three years. Two major development proposals that would resurrect defunct ski areas, one here and another in North Creek, could create a total of more than 1,000 units of housing and several hotels in what Peter Bauer, a leading environmentalist, described as “an unprecedented building boom.”

The Adirondack Park, an unusual mix of state-owned forest preserve and private land that is roughly the size of Vermont, has fallen in and out of favor for decades. Once a playground for the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers and Whitneys, who erected fabulous great camps at the turn of the last century, the park has been alternately viewed as a stunning refuge from overhyped second-home resorts and a remote backwater with black flies and bad food.

It has been more than a century since New York State created Adirondack Park, an expanse of rugged mountains and lakes that was, from the beginning, recognized for its magnificent scenery. The philosopher William James wrote to his brother, Henry, the novelist, that the “sylvan beauty” was “probably unlike aught that Europe has to show.”

Today, the park is clearly back in vogue, as shown by a spate of home building and boutiques peddling twig furnishings. While local officials embrace the boom for its anticipated tax windfall, environmental groups and others are anxious that New York’s great wilderness is becoming overdeveloped.

“In other parts of the country where they have 1,000-unit subdivisions, this may not seem like a big deal,”...

[neverdem]

Nancie Battaglia for The New York times
Don Dew, a real estate agent, in a former ski resort in a part of the Adirondacks that would be developed.

Nancie Battaglia for The New York times
The trails and forests that used to be part of the Big Tupper Ski Area would be part of a development that would add hundreds of new buildings on a 6,300-acre site.

[denydenydeny]

For a second there, I almost thought a private-sector job or two was going to be created in upstate New York.

Fortunately, the ever-vigilant Times is on the case.

[razorback-bert]

Thank God for the NYT, can't have ordinary people enjoying the woods.

[2111USMC]

I've never been there. But by the pictures, those look more like hills than mountains.

[MudPuppy]

I worked at the Massewepie Scout Reservation in the summer of 1982...very near Tupper Lake.
Sure was a beautiful area - I have many found memories of my summer there.

[timydnuc]

I like their chairs.

[BigSkyFreeper]

I've never been there. But by the pictures, those look more like hills than mountains.

Looks like the rolling hills of eastern Montana.

[neverdem]

I've never been there. But by the pictures, those look more like hills than mountains.

http://www.adirondack-park.net/

[BigSkyFreeper]

I like their chairs.

I agree. Very comfortable. I've got a couple I put out on the deck in the warmer months.

[Clemenza]

1. Lake Placid rocks, although it can get really icey in late January and February, ie dangerous for skiing IMHO.

2. The Adirondack Mountain Loj (that's how its spelled) is the best hostel in the US.

[cloud8]

Some places should be visited and not ruined and the Adirondaks is one of them. Seems like everyone who lives up north is in construction looking for a job from some developer who wants to rape the landscape. There are other professions.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

I almost thought a private-sector job or two was going to be created in upstate New York.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

[andyssister]

There are 46 Adirondack "high peaks". They have to be over 4000 ft. to qualify as a high peak.

Mt.Marcy is the highest at a little over 5000ft. So, no, it's not the Rockies, LOL, but it's a very beautiful area. I've climbed 5 high peaks and they were big enough for me!! :)

[goldstategop]

Its a great refuge from New York City. If you like mountain life, the Adirondacks are your neck of the woods!

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus

[chadwimc]

A lot of people want to enjoy the wilderness. As long as someone else is paying for it...

[cloud8]

> A lot of people want to enjoy the wilderness.

That's the problem. A 300M problem.

[I Hired Craig Livingstone]

Maybe one day the NY Times will stop putting "Or Not." in their article titles. Or Not.

God, what an annoying meme.

[Chode]

ever rent one of the lean/too??? the ones by the lake are the best. Marcy and Gonq trailheads right out of the parking lot too.

[Stars&StripesNE]

I was born and raised in upstate New York. My sister and I still own a beautiful place in the middle of the Adirondack State Park, that by the grace of God our parents left us. Nobody can build within miles of us. It's just a beautiful camp in the woods on the Sacandaga River.

It is God's country. It is my haven, my place to regain my strength and gather myself from the world which we have become.

Tupper Lake is placid in of itself. I am sick that developers have discovered the untouched world that I lived every summer.

I only get up there a couple of times a year - but it cleanses my soul.

John Denver called it his 'Rocky Mountain High'. I call it "Sailor's Delight" -- a name my Dad gave to the camp during World War II. (My Dad served in WWII, as did all his brothers and they found peace in our mountain retreat)

[panaxanax]

You're right, andyssister, they're not the Rockies, but they are a lot more accessible. The high peaks of the Northwests are beautiful to look at, but are forbidding.

We moved here (upstate NY) from the northwest 18 years ago and I have to admit I laughed when the locals called a little hump in the landscape a "mountain". The woods here are much more friendly to hikers and the fall is indescribable to anyone who hasn't witnessed it in person.

I'll never leave here, even though I threaten to do so every winter. A few years back, I had to get out my metal detector just to find my truck under the snow! ...just kidding.....sort of.