Jackrabbit Trail’s coming of age

2 2 1 2 0 2 g n i r p S / r e t n W i • e d i u G n o i t a c V a k c a d n o r i d A / e s i r p r e t n E y l i a D k c a d n o r i d A

(Editor’s note: This story originally ran in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise in February 2020.)

By AARON CERBONE Staff Writer

SARANAC LAKE — It all started with a letter to the editor.

Today, the Jackrabbit Trail is one of the most popular cross-country skiing treks in the area. It is a bright red and yellow line streaking across the Green Goat winter trails map, connecting towns and ski centers to each other.

The idea got its legs in 1985, when Dieter Heckmann, a seasonal visitor from Germany and vice president of the World Masters Cross-Country Ski Association, wrote a letter to the editor in the Lake Placid News.

Now, with the recent finalization of the Sentinel Range Unit Management Plan by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, there are improvements coming to the trail as the Barkeater Trails Alliance, the organization which maintains and manages the Jackrabbit Trail, plans to make traveling the entire length of the trail a smoother trip.

The 42-mile trail winds its way from near the Pitchoff Cliffs in Keene to the Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center in Paul Smiths. Along the way, it passes through Lake Placid, Saranac Lake and many of the area’s major ski trail systems: Cascade XC Ski Center, Craig Wood Golf Course, the Lake Placid Club, the Peninsula Trails and trails at the VIC. It also passes within walking distance of ski trails at Mount Van Hoevenberg and John Brown’s Farm.

Past

Heckmann’s original proposal was to make Lake Placid a bigger cross-country ski destination by styling its trail systems similar to places in Scandinavia and Europe where trails run adjacent to lodging and branch from residential areas, leading to larger trail systems.

Using Mirror Lake as a starting point, he proposed a network of trails heading to all the major ski areas.

Ed Damp, Chairman of the Lake Placid Sports Council, read the letter and thought it was a great idea. He set up signage directing people from downtown Lake Placid across frozen lakes to Whiteface Inn Lane to where they could ski to Saranac Lake.

“That letter and Ed Damp’s response got a number of us thinking, ” former Adirondack Ski Touring Council executive director Tony Goodwin said. “We had a couple of meetings of active local cross-country skiers and said, ‘Gee, I think we could probably tie this whole thing together if we set our minds to it. ’”

So they founded the Adirondack Ski Touring Council.

“There was a lot of excitement, ” Goodwin said.

At the time, there was nothing else like the Jackrabbit trail in the area.

“Going back to the good old days of the 1930s and ‘40s there were quite a few trails like this that had either not been maintained, or development had built houses right across where the trails were, ” Goodwin said.

With excitement came large groups of volunteers.

“It’s always exciting to build something new, especially if you can build something big, like a trail, with your own hands, ” Goodwin said.

In 1986 the council mapped the first stretch of the trail, from Lake Placid to Keene, on existing trails and golf courses. In several places, though, the trail crossed private land.

The landowners whose property the trail passed through had to be convinced to allow the trail. Goodwin said the council spent a lot of time explaining that they would not be liable if someone got hurt on the trail on their property. State General Obligations Law can protect landowners from liability for non-paying recreationalists on their property.

Eventually, all the landowners agreed and Goodwin said the trail still relies on these private landowners allowing access on their lands.

All there was left to do was name it.

Goodwin said a contest to solicit name suggestions was curtailed when he read an article in CrossCountry Skier Magazine about Herman “Jack Rabbit” Johannsen, a legendary Norwegian cross-country skier who lived for a spell in Lake Placid.

Goodwin said Johannsen embodied the spirit of the trail; frequently skiing from lodging to the wilderness, and back again. Johannsen was known to ski from the Lake Placid Club to the summit of Mount Marcy in a day — a round-trip of more than 30 miles. He was skiing even when he was 108 years old.

The Jackrabbit Trail was dedicated in March 1987. Johannsen himself died two months earlier at the age of 111. His daughter Alice, who was 75 at the time, attended the ceremony to share stories of her father’s adventures and cut the ribbon on the trail. She said she had brought him the news of his legacy being carried on in the trail name just weeks before his death.

That year, the volunteer crews cleared the route from Whiteface Inn Lane to McKenzie Pond Road, a path that had not been maintained in many years.

That same year, the trail from Saranac Lake to Lake

Photo by Barkeater Trails Alliance

Jackrabbit Trail

Clear was also established. The last leg of the current trail, from the Lake Clear Junction to the VIC, was finished in 1994.

The original plan for the trail was for it to end in Tupper Lake. This would have taken it through the Saranac Lakes Wild Forest, and needed to be included in that land’s UMP. The UMP was taking too long to pass back then, Goodwin said, so they compromised for an end in Paul Smiths. That UMP was not passed until 2019.

In 2014, the Adirondack Ski Touring Council combined forces with the Barkeater Trails Alliance — which had been around since 2009 — and adopted BETA’s name. The expanded organization is now responsible for the stewardship of the Jackrabbit Trail.

BETA Executive Director Josh Wilson took over the leadership role from Goodwin around that same time.

Popular present

In 1994, Jim Grant wrote about his experience skiing the length of the trail — at the time, Keene to Saranac Lake — for the New York Times. He said the trail offered “nearly guaranteed solitude. ”

That is less true today. While it still leads deep into the wilderness, on days with good weather and plenty of snow the Jackrabbit Trail is hopping.

Wilson said BETA does not keep data on how many people use the trail in a day or a season, but anecdotally, he sees and hears of a lot.

“You have to be pretty quick to get out right after a storm to break trail, ” Wilson said.

The trail is close to what Heckmann envisioned — linking Nordic ski centers with residential areas — and it’s true to the style of skiing “Jack Rabbit” Johannsen says led to his long life.

Wilson said he likes how versatile the trail is. It can be used however someone wants to use it.

He said it makes the backcountry accessible. It can be skied on its own or as a route to other ski centers. It can be skied in sections, and skiers have several options of towns to stop in during their trip.

“The most popular areas are kind of naturally in the wilderness, where you have these long stretches of really good trail, ” Wilson said.

While the Northville-Lake Placid Trail is sort of the area’s Appalachian Trail, the Jackrabbit Trail is “our skiing Appalachian Trail, ” Wilson said.

The trail can be skied in sections or thru-skied.

For trail conditions, visit www.betatrails.org.

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