Final Rail Trail Phase Now Complete
All 34-miles of the Adirondack Rail Trail are now complete allowing riders to travel the corridor between the communities of Lake Placid, Saranac Lake, Lake Clear and Tupper Lake.
UPDATE: The Adirondack Rail Trail Association has received a $99,000 in a federal grant from the Northern Border Regional Commission’s Catalyst Program Grant. The Funding will be used to connect trails to communities, improve planning and maintenance.
I happened to be out west when the state opened the third (and final) phase of the Adirondack Rail Trail in October. I was eager to check it out, so I headed to Tupper Lake on my first weekend back home in early November.
Phase 3 extends 8.5 miles from Tupper Lake to Floodwood Road. I had ridden this stretch a few times after the railroad tracks were removed but had forgot how scenic it is.
With the opening of this stretch, it is now possible to bike 34 miles from Lake Placid to the restored depot in Tupper Lake. From the depot, you can get on the Crossroads of the Adirondack Trail and ride another 2.5 miles to the village’s uptown business district.
The state has built a huge parking lot for the rail trail on Washington Street, but I chose to start my ride at the depot. Although tracks at the depot remain in place for a tourist train, you can cross them on a paved walk. You then turn right and follow the depot’s walkway for a tenth of a mile to a gravel path that leads to the rail trail proper.
A half-mile from the depot, you pass the bikers’ entrance to the Washington Street lot and soon come to the first of eight vehicle barriers en route to Floodwood Road. On my earlier rides, before Phase 3 construction began, I had encountered all-terrain vehicles and motorized dirt bikes and wondered if they could be kept off the finished trail.
The Department of Environmental Conservation, which manages the trail, said there has been one incident of ATV trespass. The driver spun the ATV’s wheels, creating ruts. As result, DEC has stepped up its monitoring.
“Gates installed on the rail trail appear to be deterring ATV activity, or limiting the areas impacted,” said Lori Severino, a DEC spokesperson.
During my latest ride, I saw only walkers and fellow cyclists. All told, I passed 16 people enjoying the trail on this cool but beautiful fall day. I stopped to chat with one couple, Min and Lauren, who drove to Tupper from New York City to bike on the rail trail after learning about it on TikTok.
“We were looking for new places to ride, and this was popular,” Min said. “We came just for the trail. It’s worth the drive.”
This was a reconnaissance mission. Min and Lauren plan to return with their family for a longer rail-trail vacation.
Like most of the rail trail, the stretch between Tupper and Floodwood is surfaced with packed stone dust. Min said he had no trouble riding on a road bike with skinny tires. (Lauren was on a hybrid bike with somewhat wider tires.) “I didn’t expect it to be so flat and smooth,” Min remarked.
The scenery of Phase 3 changes as you progress north. For the first half of the ride, you traverse large wetlands with wide-open vistas. Later on the corridor becomes more forested, and you pass a number of small ponds and two big ones--Rollins Pond and Floodwood Pond. My favorite of the small ones is a nearly perfectly round kettle pond ringed by a bog. It’s a little over a mile from Floodwood Road.
Phase 3 ends at the Floodwood Outpost. The store had closed for the season, but in the warmer months you can stop here for snacks and other supplies. In the small parking area across from the store, I spotted cars from New Jersey and Connecticut.
On the way back to the depot, I counted 10 pulloffs along the trail. Severino said benches will be installed at many of the pulloffs in 2027. In the same year, the state also will install educational and way-finding signs. (Phase 3 already has mileage posts.) Signs and benches also will be installed in 2027 along the rest of the rail trail as well.
Several days after my ride, a friend told me that she regarded the stretch between Tupper Lake and Floodwood Road as the most scenic part of the Adirondack Rail Trail. It’s a reasonable opinion, but I hesitate to pick a favorite section. They’re all different; they’re all spectacular. I will say that the 17-mile round trip from the Tupper Lake is a wonderful introduction to a rail trail that Outside magazine recently praised as one of the best in the nation. I’m looking forward to biking the whole 34 miles next spring.
