Winter away, spring into play in New York’s Adirondack Mountains

Home of hiking, lakes and incredible sports history, the Adirondack Region offers plentiful spring break adventures just two hours south of Ottawa

By Rebecca Steffan 

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Maple Sugaring Season Starts in March

March in the Adirondacks is a time of maple sugaring, spring skiing and fine snow-meets-shorts-meets-sunshine kind of weather. Did you know that it takes approximately 150 litres of sap just to produce about four litres of maple syrup?

Maple syrup may be listed inconspicuously enough on your hotel’s breakfast menu, but it takes a solid, round-the-clock effort for the sweet stuff to make it from a remote grove of sugar maples in the Adirondacks to your breakfast plate.

New York State is the third largest producer of maple syrup in the world, and much of New York’s maple syrup is made in the six-million-acre (2.5 million hectare) Adirondack State Park, located south of the Canadian border and bordered by Vermont to the east and Lake Ontario to the west.

Visitors can join in the sweet harvest during this year’s New York State Maple Weekends, scheduled for March 22-23 and 29-30 throughout the Adirondacks Region.

Visit online www.visitadirondacks.com/attractions/maple-sugaring-the-adirondacks for more information.

Adirondack Coasting – Family Fun Adventures 

The Lake Champlain Birding Trail is the largest trail of its kind in North America. For more than 480 kilometres, the trail winds from the Lake Champlain Basin to the Atlantic Flyway, connecting 88 birding sites in New York and Vermont. Travellers can see  shorebirds, various songbirds, waterfowl, Ring-necked Duck, Snow and Canada  geese, and hawks during the spring migrating season.

Visit www.visitadirondacks.com/regions/adirondack-coast-plattsburgh for more information.

Spring Skiing in the Lake Placid Region

Whiteface Mountain (1483 m) in Wilmington, NY (just outside the village of Lake Placid) is the well-known Olympic Mountain and spring means sunshine, lift ticket deals, retro ski gear days and fun giveaways.

On March 16, Whiteface Mountain will host its second-to-last “Super Sunday” of the ski season, which means lift tickets are just $40 for adults, $35 for teens and $30 for juniors (all amounts in USD). Enjoy live music at the base lodge and spring skiing for less.

Also in March, don’t miss your chance to watch the world’s bobsledding stars of tomorrow compete at the Mt. Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports Complex in the FIBT International Bobsled Race, March 24-29.

Exciting in every season, visit the Adirondacks this spring and discover a new adventure. Connect on www.Facebook.com/VisitAdirondacks, on Twitter @visitadks and on Instagram at VisitAdirondacks.

Rebecca Steffan is senior PR manager for the Adirondack Regional Tourism Council. 

 

Photos: © ORDA/Dave Schmidt