The High Peaks region of the Adirondacks is a sought-after jewel for the hiker who wants his or her breath taken away by a rugged physical challenge or by views of unbroken wilderness stretching for miles on all sides. Home of 5344-foot-high Mount Marcy and 41 other summits above 4000 feet, the High Peaks in the northeast section of Adirondack Park—near Lake Placid and bordered on the east by Interstate 87, the Adirondack Northway—covers hundreds of thousands of forested acres.

Most of the region is in the state-owned Forest Preserve and has wilderness status. No motorized vehicles are permitted and man-made structures are limited to campers’ lean-tos and forest ranger quarters.

“You have the most rugged and dramatic scenery and the largest wilderness area,” says lifelong Adirondack hiker Tony Goodwin of Keene, explaining the supremacy of the High Peaks as an attraction for hikers in the Adirondacks.

Goodwin says you can get farther away from a road in the High Peaks than anywhere in the eastern United States, and the region features the Adirondacks’ only offering of fragile alpine vegetation, limited to a handful of summits cresting above the timberline.

Goodwin should know. He edited the most recent edition of the Adirondack Mountain Club’s guide to the hundreds of miles of foot trails penetrating the High Peaks. He tramped more than 400 miles in the summer of 1984 to update the guide, pushing a surveyor’s wheel to check distances and recording the most-easily recognizable landmarks for trail descriptions.

While the trails are generally well marked and easy to follow, the guide helps hikers accurately track their progress and gauge the distance to the next water source or sought-after view or campsite.

The new guide, which includes a topographical map of the area overlaid with the various trails, also updates the list of backcountry campsites, ensuring a hiker won’t head for a lean-to that no longer exists.

The various editions of the Adirondack Mountain Club’s guide have been used for years as both a trip planner and field companion.

Goodwin’s edition contains suggested hikes of varying lengths and difficulty for each section of the High Peaks. This feature is helpful to hikers with time constraints who want to hit the trail as soon as possible after driving to the area and picking up the guide. You can park your car at a trailhead, take a suggested round trip that is a short as three miles, and be rewarded with superb views. The guide contains a short account of the Adirondacks’ history and unique natural characteristics. It also includes such tips as how much time a hiker should allot to cover the rugged and steep terrain—the rule of thumb is 1 1/2 miles an hour—and lists the most important state regulations, such as no camping within 150 feet of a water source, except in designated areas.

“It’s a guide to the area, not just to the hiking trails,” Goodwin says.

Also listed are the region’s public campgrounds, which make excellent base camps for hikers who want to descend from a day in the mountains to a barbecue and a cold drink.

New camping regulations and greater environmental awareness by hikers has also limited some of the deterioration that comes from overuse of wildlands. Goodwin says these developments have negated the need for a permit system that many hiking areas around the country have been forced to resort to, to ease the strain humans place on wilderness.

“It would significantly reduce the wilderness experience,” Goodwins says of a permit system to reduce backcountry traffic. “To my way of thinking, this would be an absolute last resort.”

And while the High Peaks attract more visitors than other parts of the Adirondack Forest Preserve, they still offer an opportunity for solitude very hard to find.

Goodwin says wild mountain tracts elsewhere, such as New Hampshire’s White Mountains, cannot match the High Peaks’ seclusion.

“Compared to the White Mountains,” Goodwin says, “these trails are vacant.”

The trail guide to the High Peaks region, and other Adirondack hiking areas, can be obtained by writing:

Adirondack Mountain Club

172 Ridge Street

Glens Falls, New York 12801

(The Daily Messenger, Canandaigua, N.Y., August 28, 1985)