Riding the rail trail to Saranac Lake
Ordinarily the drive from Olean to Lake Placid is less than seven hours, but it was already dark when I arrived on Sept. 18 after getting a late start. Since the parking areas for trailheads in the Adirondacks can be small and difficult to locate — particularly in the predawn darkness — I wanted to find the Adirondack Rail Trail before dark so I wouldn't waste time looking for it in the morning.
I also wanted to get a better understanding of what the trail surface was like because for a novice cyclist like me the trail surface determines everything from the level of exertion required to how long a trip will take to the possibility of a crash or a tire puncture. There are plenty of websites that provide detailed information about the trail but there's no substitute for actually seeing it. Indeed, one of the websites described the trail surface as "firmly packed stone dust," which meant nothing to me.
My concerns were put to rest when I arrived at 7:30 a.m. the next morning. The parking lot was huge by trailhead standards, which took me by surprise — until I saw a sign that said no motor vehicles on the trail except snowmobiles. Snowmobiling is a big part of what keeps the economy going in the Adirondacks during the long winter months and it was clear that the parking lot was designed to accommodate large vehicles with trailers.
Since the trail itself must support the weight of snowmobiles that are coming and going, it is wide and firm without ruts, potholes or wrinkles. The surface is small stone chips, which felt very secure against tire slippage, even when riding over wet leaves and pine needles. In short, it was perfect for a cyclist at my level.
Phase 1 of the Adirondack Rail Trail is the first section that was completed and it covers the 10 miles between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake, My plan was to cycle the 20-mile round trip distance by noon so I could spend the rest of the day birding on Whiteface Mountain with an emphasis on locating my target bird, the boreal chickadee. Phase 2 of the trail runs west for 15 miles beyond Saranac Lake and my plan was to do that the following day.
Phase 3 will connect the trail to Tupper Lake but it is still under construction.
The Adirondack Rail Trail is, as the name implies, a former railroad line and the engineers who laid out the route for the railroad in the 1800s tried to keep the road as level as possible. But the shortest distance between two points mattered more and after a few minutes on the trail it was clear that the run to Saranac Lake was downhill at a gentle grade. Since I didn't see anyone else when I started out, I got rolling pretty fast while staying alert for squirrels, deer, bear and even moose that might cross the trail.
To avoid stopping every time I saw a bird, I established criteria for when I'd stop and deploy the Merlin Bird ID app. First, it had to be a flock of birds, which I arbitrarily defined as three or more birds. Second, the flock had to be at or below eye level. Third, I had to be able to stop safely.
Although I heard pileated woodpeckers, blue jays, common ravens and crows all along the trail, my criteria were met only once, and that was while I was cycling through a meadow about halfway to Saranac Lake.
When I unlocked my phone and opened the app, it struggled to identify where I was, which may have been because of spotty cell phone coverage on that part of the trail. But once it locked in, it offered as "best suggestions" Canada goose, Northern flicker, Eastern phoebe, blue-headed vireo, American crow, common raven, golden-crowned kinglet, white-throated sparrow, swamp sparrow, cedar waxwing, robin, red-breasted nuthatch and pine warbler.
To say the least, I was astonished that the app was picking up much more than I was hearing and was analyzing the chips, clicks and partial songs characteristic of autumn birds before making "best suggestions." Admittedly, I had to take the suggestions on faith but the flock was a typical loose association of autumn birds and none of the birds identified by the app would be considered unusual in that location. Even without the app, a wave of birds is what we look for in autumn and it was pretty cool to see the app light up as it generated the list of "best suggestions."
As I resumed my ride another bird caught my attention as it flew across the trail and I could see that it was a Canada jay — which was called a gray jay before 2018. That was the first one I'd ever seen — a so-called "life bird" — and it was also the first time on the ride that I wished I had my camera with me.
If there was a disappointment during the ride, it was the total absence of waterfowl or wading birds even though there were lots of ponds and lakes. I don't know a lot about the water ecology in the Adirondacks but from what I've read, acid rain is still a problem, even though it's lessened, and it seems it will take generations before the pH levels in the so-called "dead" bodies of water return to pre-industrial levels.
Still, the experience of cycling through the forests, lakes and meadows before crossing the old New York Central railroad trestle into Saranac Lake was something I won't forget. And to sit at the restored Union Depot and consider a time when as many as 20 scheduled trains a day stopped in Saranac Lake carrying the likes of Robert Louis Stevenson, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain and many others is a singular experience. The Scotsman Stevenson, who wrote one of my favorite late Victorian-era novellas, "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," suffered from what was believed to be tuberculosis and the mountain air was thought to be curative.
After a brief rest and a bottle of water from a nearby convenience store, I was back on my bike pedaling up the gentle grade to Lake Placid. Since it was later in the morning there were more walkers and cyclists on the trail and my pace became more leisurely. But, to be honest, I was looking forward to birding from the comfort of my car for the rest of the day.
Images of some of the birds mentioned here can be seen at:
