From left, Accessible Adirondack Tourism founder Nick Friedman, Adirondack Land Trust Stewardship and GIS Manager Becca Halter and ALT Communications Director Connie Prickett stand at the Glenview Preserve with a map of the proposed accessible trails planned there on Tuesday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

HARRIETSTOWN — Staff from the Adirondack Land Trust took Accessible Adirondack Tourism founder Nick Friedman and members of local media on a tour of the Glenview Preserve on Tuesday to show off the 238-acre property with sweeping views of Whiteface Mountain and the McKenzie Mountain Range, where they plan to build an accessible trail system off state Route 86.

“You’ll have to use your imagination,” ALT Communications Director Connie Prickett said.

Right now, the trails cut through the fields of tall goldenrod and milkweed on Harrietstown Hill near the Harrietstown Cemetery are heavily rutted and covered in high grasses — not accessible at all. But ALT has plans to create smooth stone dust trails in a 2.25-mile trail system accessible for anyone, including people using wheelchairs or crutches in the summer and adaptive cross-country skis in the winter.

These plans are heading to the Adirondack Park Agency for review, and neighbors of the property are voicing concerns of overdevelopment, traffic, light, noise, trash and safety. Prickett said the ALT has scaled back some of its plans in the development process, and they don’t believe the project would be as disruptive as neighbors fear.

They all spoke about a great need for accessible nature trails in the area and how all the trails at the preserve would be wheelchair accessible, a rarity in the area.

The ALT’s project application to the APA for work around wetlands and a land use change was filed in July. The application is not complete yet because the state agency came back with questions.

The APA’s main concern is wetlands, ALT Stewardship and GIS Manager Becca Halter said, and the designs do not impact these sensitive areas much. Where the trails cross wetlands, there are bridges proposed.

Prickett said they plan to have answers to the APA’s questions submitted by the end of the month. After that, if the agency deems the application complete, it will open a public comment session on the proposal. There have already been numerous letters of public comment submitted for this project — mostly from neighbors of the project who are concerned about traffic safety and overdevelopment at the site.

The preserve is not open to public yet.

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Point of view

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Halter said the pushback was not unexpected. Most projects have opposition from people who don’t like the proposed changes, she said. And there is a history at this property. Around 20 years ago, the state Department of Transportation and APA proposed a formal scenic overlook at the informal pull-off next to the cemetery, but local opposition and concerns about traffic and safety then shut down those plans. She added that they’re also hearing a lot of positive response.

Halter said the ALT has been speaking with neighbors throughout the process and trying to mitigate their concerns as the designs are being created. Prickett said they’ve wanted to keep open communication with the neighbors.

Traffic safety and speed on the highway is a major concern nearly everyone has voiced.

“A lot of the concerns we hear, we share,” Prickett said. “The speed limit here on Route 86 is definitely a concern of ours.”

The ALT has asked the DOT to review the speed limit on the road above the preserve and is requesting a speed limit reduction. Currently, the speed limit is 55 mph. Municipal planners have repeatedly told the Enterprise that the DOT is resistant to these sorts of changes. Prickett said she hopes the DOT agrees with all of them that it is needed for safety. DOT data shows that from 2012 to 2023, 149 crashes have happened between Donnelly’s Ice Cream stand and Gabriels, including one motorcycle fatality.

The entrance to the trails would be farther down than the current gate, closer down the road to Donnelly’s, on a stretch with the longest sight lines are for driving.

Halter pointed out that the parking lot, with the trailhead, a pavilion, bathrooms and informational kiosk is planned to be set slightly downhill from the road and partially obscured by a crop of trees.

“By tucking it closer to the road, it’s actually less visible,” Halter said.

They know the view is important to neighbors and drivers, according to Prickett.

Other concerns are people leaving trash on the property, trespassing onto neighboring land, creating noise and generally not caring for the natural landscape. Halter said mitigating this is all about good property management and that the ALT is committed to preserving the land.

“Our name is going to be on this property,” she said. “So we want this property to reflect that.”

The ALT has several local stewardship staff who can maintain the trails and deal with issues, she said. There aren’t plans for one to be stationed there — maybe one at busy times — but the staff live close by, Halter said.

Prickett feels opponents of the project view the property being much more developed than it would be, stemming from an uncertainty of what the project will include.

There wouldn’t be any lights to ruin the stargazing, she said. The bathrooms would be portable behind an enclosure, instead of on a septic system. The pavilion would have a “green roof” filled with plants to disguise it. This vegetated roof idea came from a conversation with one of the site’s neighbors, Prickett said.

She said they are making a point to hear suggestions from neighbors and try to implement them.

There have been several design changes since initial conceptual plans for the property were shared.

Instead of the 3.4 miles of trails initially considered, it would have 2.25 miles of gravel trails with a spur trail leading to a natural overlook on the Bloomingdale Bog. Instead of a parking lot with 22 spaces, it would now have 16 parking spaces, with three of those being paved handicap spots.

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Access

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Friedman has been a community partner and consultant on the project. His nonprofit organization Accessible Adirondack Tourism provides a hub for people with disabilities traveling to the region, and for businesses looking to be as inclusive as possible. He’s been in contact with ALT staff often on this project, advising them on accessibility.

Prickett said they always wanted accessible trails and were excited to learn the whole trail system could support accessible paths.

ALT Grants Manager Mary Thill said she met Friedman at a craft fair and that he opened their eyes to a need. Friedman said he hears people say that there are enough accessible trails in the area. There are not, he said.

An ALT survey of the region found that within an hour’s drive of Saranac Lake, there are more than 300 miles of traditional foot trails available for hiking, but only 14 miles of free trails accessible to people who require wheelchairs. This was before the second phase of the Adirondack Rail Trail opened earlier this month. The rail trail currently has 25 miles of trail from Lake Placid to Floodwood Road. Work on the third phase, extending the trail to Tupper Lake, is underway.

Prickett said the Adirondack Rail Trail is a great accessible trail, but that it is the only true fully accessible trail in the Tri-Lakes. The Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center has a 0.6-mile trail that is accessible to wheelchairs in only one direction. PSC also operates John Dillon Park farther away in Long Lake, which has 3.5 miles of accessible trails. The Nature Conservancy organization has a 1.5 mile trail in Willsboro. The Wild Center nature museum in Tupper Lake has accessible trails, but there is an admission fee for the property when the museum is open. The trails are open and free to the public when the museum is not open.

Friedman said there is a long checklist of requirements to make spaces accessible — pages and pages worth. He said a designer could meet almost all of them, but if one is not met, the whole thing is pointless. He spoke about a bathroom with all the size requirements, ramps, handles and special appliances, but if there’s vanity below the sink, no wheelchair user could wash their hands.

Accessible trails have run requirements. They are allowed a 5% grade of any length. At steeper inclines, rest areas are required to give wheelchair users a break. Traveling uphill in a wheelchair takes a lot of energy and strength, Friedman said.

Halter said their Tahawus Trails consultants tell them none of the property goes more than 5%. Still, they plan to have trails switchback so the trail its not a straight line up and down the slope, which would be intense to descend or climb with a wheelchair. There are several trail loops to reduce the effective grade of the trail. These loops also offer several lengths of trips.

The trail surface must be resilient enough to support a crutch, porous to avoid puddling and wide enough to allow two wheelchairs to pass. Interpretive signage must have large enough fonts for people with visibility disabilities to read, or symbology.

Friedman said there are many types of disabilities that people are recognizing that they had not in the past, like carpal tunnel, arthritis or cataracts. The region has an aging population, he said, and as a whole “society is becoming more accepting of ourselves.”

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The property

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The ALT bought the land from the Trevor family in 2016 for a “deep discount” price of $98,000. The family, wanting to preserve the landscape, had reached out to the ALT and pitched the purchase. Prickett said the family could use the transfer of this land to a nonprofit like theirs as a charitable deduction on their taxes.

The ALT spent several years researching and getting to know the property. In 2022, it made plans for a public trail system there public.

The property runs much deeper than it appears. The tree line stopping the view from the road is only a third of the way in. The property goes all the way to Twobridge Brook on the Bloomingdale Bog and extends from the Harrietstown Cemetery on the top of the hill to the edge of a field around half of a mile away.

There are three environments contained on the property — the open meadows everyone knows, a very young forest reclaimed from recent logging and boreal bog wetlands in the valley.

Halter said there are a wide range of birds supported by these different natural communities.

Halter said she’s personally seen, in person or on game cameras, bobcat, bear, porcupines, hare, coyote and moose — a lot of moose.

“It’s actually hard to see moose in the Adirondacks,” Friedman said. “To have that here and accessible to everyone, would be fantastic.”

On Tuesday, several people almost stepped in a pile of what appeared to be bear scat on one of the trails.

In the line of trees bisecting the fields, maple lines run from trunk to trunk. Halter said a neighbor across the road leases the trees for maple sugaring. Farther back in the property, there’s a network of abandoned logging roads. This area was logged up until 2011. Most of these roads will be reclaimed by the wilderness.

The ALT is cutting the grasslands every so often currently. Halter said they plan to mow every three years to keep the grasses low enough to preserve the vista for drivers and for people using wheelchairs on the trails. This will still allow the milkweed to grow. Monarch butterflies only lay their eggs in milkweed, Friedman said, so it is important to keep for pollinators.

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Funding

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The ALT was awarded $100,000 by the state Department of Environmental Conservation in May. In July, federal funding from the Northern Border Regional Commission put $3 million into two ALT projects — the Glenview Preserve and the High Meadow Preserve off of Adirondack Loj Road in Lake Placid. Getting this grant was a “long-shot,” Thill said, so they were pleasantly surprised when they got it.

The total Glenview project cost is estimated at $2.29 million. Between these grants and other contributions, Prickett said they’ve raised 84% so far and are still seeking $372,625.

The timeline for the Glenview project has shifted. Initially planned to break ground this summer, the work likely won’t begin until next year. The project also would need approvals from the town of Harrietstown and the state Department of Transportation before starting construction. Prickett said the ALT has contacted the Harrietstown planning board.

The ALT application shows the planners have contacted the DOT, DEC and the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, as well as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — but not the state Department of Health or Department of Law yet.

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(CORRECTION: The above article has been amended for a clarification. The original version stated that the Wild Center’s accessible nature trails have an admission fee. This fee is only applied when the museum is open. When the museum is not open, the trails are open and free to the public.)