By Mat Bozek
My family has had a camp near Old Forge NY since the 1950s. I haven’t spent much time there for many years, and Judy and I decided to take advantage of the camp this fall and do some hiking and paddling. Old Forge is the start of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail – an ancient Indian trading route that goes all the way to the Canadian Border in Maine. The Allagash Wilderness Waterway in Maine is the final segment – I did that in 1982. Old Forge is also the start of the famous “Adirondack 90 Miler” canoe race, though there are many other boats like kayaks and guide boats and war canoes. I remember sitting on the dock watching as the racers went past, thinking I’d like to do that trip someday. We would be doing about 70 miles of that route now. We day tripped to Old Forge earlier, so we just started from the dock. The entire route is within the “Blue Line”, the boundary of the Adirondack Park. per Wikipedia.