• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Adirondacks & NNY
  • Capital-Saratoga
  • Mohawk Valley
  • Hudson Valley & Catskills
  • NYC & Long Island
  • Western NY
  • History
  • Nature & Environment
  • Arts & Culture
  • Outdoor Recreation
  • Food & Farms
  • Subscribe
  • Support
  • Submit
  • About
  • New Books
  • Events
  • Podcasts

DEC Issues Adirondack Mud Season Trails Advisory

April 1, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

mud season trail work courtesy DECThe New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is urging hikers to postpone hikes on trails above 2,500 feet until high elevation trails have dried and hardened. As snow and ice continue to melt at high elevations, steep trails can pose a danger to hikers due to thick ice and deep, rotten snow. Thin soils are susceptible to erosion and sensitive alpine vegetation can be easily damaged.

Despite recent warm weather, high elevation trails are still covered in slowly melting ice and snow. These steep trails feature thin soils that become a mix of ice and mud as winter conditions melt and frost leaves the ground. The remaining compacted ice and snow on trails is rotten, slippery, and will not reliably support weight. These conditions, known as “monorails,” are difficult to hike and the adjacent rotten snow is particularly prone to postholing.

Hikers are advised to take extreme caution on low elevation trails. Hikers will encounter variable conditions such as thick mud, flooded areas, and deep slushy snow. Backcountry streams are particularly susceptible to high waters and flooding due to consistently melting snow from high elevations mixing with spring rainfall. Hikers should not attempt stream crossings during periods of high, fast moving water. The stream water is very cold and hikers who fall in can become immediately hypothermic.

Avoiding high elevation trails during the Muddy Trail Advisory helps to alleviate impacts to the trail tread due to erosion and protects alpine vegetation. When encountering mud on low elevation trails, hikers should walk through the mud instead of around it to help reduce trail widening and minimize damage to trailside vegetation.

DEC encourages hikers to avoid all trails above 2,500 feet in the Adirondacks, particularly high elevation trails in the Giant and High Peaks Wilderness areas, including the former Dix Mountain Area in the northern Adirondacks. Please avoid the following trails until trail conditions improve:

  • High Peaks Wilderness – all trails above 2,500 feet where wet, muddy, snow conditions still prevail, specifically Algonquin, Colden, Feldspar, Gothics, Indian Pass, Lake Arnold Cross-Over, Marcy, Marcy Dam – Avalanche – Lake Colden, which is extremely wet, Phelps Trail above Johns Brook Lodge, Range Trail, Skylight, Wright, all “trail-less” peaks, and all trails above Elk Lake and Round Pond in the former Dix Mountain Area;
  • Giant Mountain Wilderness – all trails above Giant’s Washbowl, “the Cobbles,” and Owl Head Lookout;
  • McKenzie Mountain Wilderness – all trails above 2,500 feet where wet, muddy, and snowy conditions still prevail, specifically Whiteface, Esther, Moose and McKenzie mountains; and
  • Sentinel Range Wilderness – all trails above 2,500 feet where wet, muddy, snowy conditions still prevail, specifically Pitchoff Mountain.

DEC urges hikers to postpone these hikes until further notice to protect the Adirondack trail system. Until conditions improve, hikers are encouraged to explore lower elevation trails close to home and enjoy other forms of recreation.

Visit the DEC website for a list of hikes in the Adirondacks below 2,500 feet. Check the Adirondack Backcountry Information webpages for weekly updates on backcountry conditions and seasonal recreation information for the Adirondacks.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: DEC, Giant Mountain Wilderness, High Peaks, hiking, Mckenzie Mountain Wilderness, Sentinel Range Wilderness Area

About Editorial Staff

Stories written under the Editorial Staff byline are drawn from press releases and other notices. Submit your news to New York Almanack here.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Help Us Reach Our Fundraising Goal

Subscribe to New York Almanack

Subscribe! Follow the New York Almanack each day via E-mail, RSS, Twitter or Facebook updates.

Recent Comments

  • Alan on Train Ferries: The Hudson River’s Most Unusual Steamers
  • Emmett Foster on Esopus: Wiltwyck School For Boys Lecture
  • Ed Zahniser on Salons: American Rebels, French Etiquette and Lesbian History
  • Ed Zahniser on Poetry: Ausable
  • pat013 on Patriot Then Traitor: Saratoga County’s Joe Bettys
  • anne butts on Threats to the Long-Lived Bald Eagle
  • Phillip Lemay on House of Hanfstaengl: Munich and Manhattan
  • Michael DeBonis on Culper Spies: Curse of the Black Letter
  • robert w. burke on Hiram Burke, Noted Adirondack Guide of Twitchell Lake
  • Nancy Bachana on Nathaniel Sackett: Godfather of American Intelligence

Recent New York Books

if then
Saving Stuyvesant Town
The Banished Children of Eve A Novel of Civil War New York
An Unfinished Revolution
Smalltime A Story of My Family and the Mob
laughing_rain_and_awakens_corn_03 (2) cover
Manufacturing Advantage
The Red Badge to Gettysburg
Prohibition in the Hudson Valley book
Long Island Migrant Labor Camps Dust for Blood

Secondary Sidebar

New York State Historic Markers
Kearns_New York Almanack