Protecting a Legacy

Why and how ADK trail crews do what they do, by Kayla White and Julia Goren

Whether it’s a regular oil change, a chimney cleaning, or an annual checkup, maintenance is a part of life. Trails are no different from any other infrastructure—like a car, a house, or even a body, they need regular attention in order to perform properly.

Trails need maintenance once they are constructed to minimize soil erosion, to keep obstacles off them, and to keep them well defined so users can easily follow them. Even sustainably built trails need maintenance over time, albeit minimal maintenance, compared with trails not constructed following sustainable design principles. ADK’s professional and volunteer trail crews dedicate their time not only to building new trails, but to maintaining the large network of preexisting trails in the Adirondack Park that desperately need attention.

Trails of the Adirondack Park are largely legacy trails, meaning they were either created by people choosing the shortest distance between point a and point b and following their feet, or constructed prior to the development of modern design standards. As a result, without regular maintenance, these trails are highly prone to wet spots, erosion, and gullying. Some examples of trail maintenance include clearing drainages, clearing blowdowns, brushing, and marking the trail. Clearing drainages involves removing debris, such as leaves, branches, and soil, that accumulates in water bars or other drainage features so that water can flow effectively off the trial to prevent erosion. Think of this as similar to cleaning the gutters on your home regularly so that they function.

Clearing blowdown is important because if downed trees are left blocking the trail, hikers will walk around these obstacles, contributing to trail widening and off-trail travel. This causes trampling of plants and soil compaction, which contributes to erosion.

Brushing involves keeping the trail corridor from becoming overgrown. This can be accomplished through side-cutting, trimming back branches, and cutting other vegetation that is growing in the trail. Good side-cutting cleanly trims branches at the tree trunk, which leaves the tree less susceptible to infection and trail users less likely to poke themselves on something sharp.

Marking the trail can include putting up trail markers on trees. There is an art to this. When it is done properly, the trail is not over-marked nor are recreationists likely to lose confidence that they are on the trail. Above treeline in the alpine zone, marking the trail includes painting yellow blazes on rock, building cairns (rock structures), and maintaining scree walls (lines of rock) to keep hikers on the trail and off fragile alpine plants.

Thanks to the generosity of donor and former ADK trails director Willie Janeway and to start the 2025 season off right, ADK is investing in an additional week of training for its professional trail crew. The focus during these additional days will be on skill building, including a new emphasis on recovery maintenance. Recovery maintenance is necessary when maintenance has been deferred so long that drainages, for example, essentially need to be rebuilt in order to be functional.

Training also includes the annual patrol of trails in the High Peaks, which has been funded by the Adirondack 46ers for the past twenty years. During patrols, the crew hikes many of the most popular trails, and removes blowdown and clears drainages. Historically, these have been done over two days during training. This year, ADK is investing in a full week of patrols in the High Peaks Wilderness to prioritize quality trail maintenance.

During the 2025 summer season, the professional trail crew will be back in Avalanche Pass, rebuilding and clearing drainages that are in need of extensive recovery maintenance. This work is also made possible by the generosity of the Adirondack 46ers.

The professional trail crew will also be doing four weeks of brushing along the Northville-Placid Trail (NPT). Last year was the centennial of the completion of the NPT, and ADK’s professional and volunteer trail crews started much-needed brushing projects in the West Canada Lakes and Silver Lake Wilderness Areas. We also did necessary repair work, such as replacing bog bridges near Long Lake.

Without this regular maintenance, small problems on the trial can become larger ones over time. As storm events, become more intense due to climate change, the need for keeping up on maintenance and repairing trails after storms becomes essential. Furthermore, there is already a long list for backlog trail maintenance projects on the Forest Preserve. Luckily, ADK’s professional and volunteer trail crews will be hard at work this year making sure trails stay clear for you to enjoy.

This article was adapted from the Spring 2025 issue of Adirondac magazine.