Two Other Rail Trails – Near the Adirondack Rail Trail

By Phil Brown

If you’ve come to the North Country to bike the Adirondack Rail Trail, you’re in for a treat: 34 miles of blissful riding through forests and past lakes and ponds accompanied by the songs of birds rather than the roar of traffic.

While visiting, you might want to explore two other rail trails. In fact, you can link all three rail trails in a spectacular 29-mile loop. This is an adventure ride with a variety of scenery and conditions. It’s not for everyone – or at least not every bike. You’ll find roots or sand in places. I recommend a gravel or hybrid bike. A light mountain bike would also work.

The Bloomingdale Bog Trail is part of the loop. This route is fairly popular with hikers and birders. You can read about it in guidebooks. The third trail is more obscure, especially to outsiders. It follows the former New York Central rail bed, which is now a utility corridor. 

Since the New York Central corridor provides the crucial connection, I dubbed the route the Third Rail Loop. Whatever you call it, I rode my gravel bike on the loop this past Memorial Day. I started at the Saranac Lake Union Depot, which has plenty of parking. It’s also a good place to end if you want to get something to eat or drink in town after the ride.

Nearly all of the loop is on the rail trails. Roads are used to make connections between trails. In the description that follows, distances are measured from the depot unless specified otherwise. Mileages were calculated by the Ride with GPS app.

Bloomingdale Bog Trail – This trail follows the corridor of the Chateaugay Railroad, which reached Saranac Lake in 1887. It was later acquired by the Delaware & Hudson Railway, which shut the line in 1941. An artifact of this history, a rusting railroad car, can be seen in the woods about a mile up the trail.

When embarking on the Third Rail Loop, your first task is getting to the Bog Trail. From the depot, pedal west on the Adirondack Rail Trail for 0.3 miles to NY Route 86. You could follow the highway to the trailhead, but there is a better route that avoids most of this busy road.

Turn right on Route 86 and go a tenth of a mile to Old Lake Colby Road. Veer right and follow this quiet road to its end at 1.7 miles. Turn left and cross Route 86 to get on County Route 47. Take this short road to its end at 2.0 miles. Turn left onto Route 86 and follow it to the access road for the trailhead at 2.6 miles. There is no sign; look for the road on the right as you coast downhill.

After passing a small parking area, turn left to get on the trail (there is a vehicle barrier). For the next eight miles, follow the trail to Oregon Plains Road.

At the start, the trail passes a pond on the left and an alder swamp on the right. On my ride, I heard a lot of birdsong and stopped to listen. Within a few minutes, the Merlin app identified nine avian species, including northern yellow warbler, least flycatcher, and red-winged blackbird. 

The trail enters a forest corridor and then emerges into an open area beside a stream widened by beaver dams. In the past, beavers have flooded this part of the trail, creating gaps that the state has filled with chunky rocks. Biking over the rocks can be a challenge, but don’t be discouraged: soon you’ll be riding a firm dirt path through one of the biggest peatlands in the Adirondacks.

Farther on, alas, you must pass through a quarter-mile gantlet of large roots. A mountain bike would be nice here, but I was able to manage on my gravel bike. Just go slow and go over or around the roots as best you can.

At 5.5 miles, I came to the wooden bridge over Twobridge Brook, which offers a fine view of marshes and nearby hills. I met two others enjoying the scenery: Andrew Russell and Andrea Canale. What a coincidence! Andrew’s father is Jerry Russell, an artist I worked with when I was the editor of Adirondack Explorer.

At 6.4 miles, the trail crosses County Route 55 and continues another four miles to Oregon Plains Road. Along the way, it crosses John Thomas Brook (formerly Negro Brook, renamed in 2023) several times. At the last bridge, I met young Elliot Burgess and his grandfather, who were fishing for brook trout. Elliot proudly showed off their catch.

New York Central Corridor – The second (and last) road section begins when you reach Oregon Plains Road. Turn left and go 0.9 miles to County Route 60. Turn right and go 0.8 miles to an intersection with the Mud Pond-Kushaqua Road, where the county route bends sharply to the right. Go straight, then take an immediate left on a short road with no sign. It leads in a tenth of a mile to the rail bed.

New York Central’s Adirondack Division ran from Utica to Malone. At Lake Clear Junction, a branch line went east to Saranac Lake and Lake Placid. The tracks from Utica to Lake Placid remained open for the 1980 Olympics. By then, the main line north of the junction – including part of the Third Rail Loop – had closed.

Though you’ll be biking beneath power lines, this remote corridor doesn’t lack for natural scenery, even a wildness of sorts. At one point I thought I heard a raven. I was reminded of a state biologist who once told me how to tell the difference between a raven and a crow: if you know it’s a raven, it’s a raven; if you think it’s a raven, it’s a crow. But that was before Merlin: the handy app confirmed a raven, and it also detected a yellow-rumped warbler, a brown creeper, a great blue heron, and a blue jay.

At 14.6 miles – the midpoint of the loop – I passed a bay of Rainbow Lake. After several road crossings, I came to Route 86 in Gabriels. Up to here, the surface had been somewhat sandy, not too bad, but enough to slow me down. After I crossed the highway, the surface firmed up.

In winter, the corridor doubles as snowmobile route 7. At 19.8 miles, you come to an intersection with snowmobile route 7B. This side corridor affords a view of McKenzie Mountain, one of the area’s biggest peaks. Go straight here.

At 21.0 miles, you pass a logging road on the right with a vehicle barrier. This leads to the Paul Smith’s College easement lands, which are open to the public. The dirt roads are good riding.

At 22.4 miles the trail passes between two marshes, usually good for a photo op. The hitch is that the trail is often flooded. I was able to power through the water, but not without getting my feet wet.

Charlie’s Inn in Lake Clear is reached at 23.3 miles. If you’re not stopping for food or drink, turn left and ride across the lawn to the Adirondack Rail Trail. Turn left on the trail to return to Saranac Lake.

Adirondack Rail Trail – After overcoming the challenges of the Bloomingdale Bog Trail and the New York Central corridor, the Adirondack Rail Trail will seem like a piece of cake. The packed stone-dust surface allows you to breeze along through the forest.

Soon after crossing McMaster Road, at 25.1 miles, you come to a splendid view of McCauley Pond. Earlier this spring, I saw a family of geese here, munching the grass on the side of the trail. Merlin also detected several warblers in the vicinity.

Shortly before reaching Lake Colby, you pass the entrance to snowmobile route 7B. In theory, you could take this to the Bloomingdale Bog Trail. Thus, if you parked at the trailhead, you could avoid riding the roads in Saranac Lake. There are two problems: the snowmobile route trail is too rough for gravel bikes, and you’d miss the Lake Colby causeway, one of the best features of the Adirondack Rail Trail.

Reached at 28.1 miles, the fenced causeway bisects Colby and affords spectacular views of the lake, nearby wetlands, and several of the neighborhood peaks. It’s a popular destination for walkers, joggers, and anglers as well as cyclists. There are platforms with benches along the causeway.

At 29.0 miles, you reach Route 86 again. Cross the highway and cruise back to the depot. This handsome edifice, built in 1904, is now closed, but it will be opened to the public again after renovations are completed. 

If you’re hungry or thirsty, walk, bike, or drive to one of the many eateries in Saranac Lake. You might want to hit up one of brew pubs for a post-ride pint.

Phil Brown (adkeditor@icloud.com) edited the Adirondack Explorer for 19 years and still writes for the nonprofit newsmagazine. He also has written for Adirondack Life, Bike Adirondacks, The Alpinist, and other outlets. His books include “Adirondack Paddling: 65 Flatwater Adventures” and “Bob Marshall in the Adirondacks.”