Looking for a nice secluded loop in the Adirondacks. Moved to NYC from the West Coast and am trying to plan our first backpacking trip, so I am a bit unfamiliar with the area. A multi-day Loop trip, 20 to 30 miles. Or a hike in base camp and side day hikes are fine with us as well. Seclusion is our goal due to the amount of people in NYC, we are ready to get out AWAY from people. My girlfriend and I are pretty fit so strenuousness trails wont be a problem for us. Also any suggestions on where I could get some trail maps or Topos (online or books)on the area would be great too. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks all.

I did the High Falls Loop last October, and although it wasn't as challenging as the rugged PA trails I am used to, it was definitely gorgeous. The loop itself is ~20 miles, but I added a couple side trips. One of them was up a small mountain. Here's a link to the TR I wrote up for it:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=42246

I hope you aren't planning on doing much hiking there until at least the end of June, maybe even later - from what I've heard, they are having an insane black fly explosion this year.

If you have any questions on the HFL, feel free to give me a PM

Also - there might be an easier way, but if I want a topo map of any location, I go to mytopo.com, create a map as if I was going to order it (using the largest size in the highest amount of detail), then select "preview your map", and just save the image. Then I print it on the nice laser printer at school!

Thanks for the info Matthew, especially the tip on the topo maps. We'll definitely look into it.

No prob. A great resource for trip planning for me has been Raquette River Outfitters in Tupper Lake. The owner there, Anne, has always had great ideas for both hiking and paddling trips, and their prices for renting kayaks and canoes are very reasonable.

West Canada Lakes Wilderness has a nice 35 mile loop, with only 5 miles of overlapping trail.

Most of the secluded trails are pretty much partially water trips, too.
St Regis Pond has some fair camp sites within hiking distance of St Regis Mountain.

For less secluded, Panther Gorge makes a good base camp, Mt. Marcy, Haystack, and several others are well within range from there. About 12-15mi in I seem to remember, this is in the High Peaks area.

Try this:

http://www.hillmap.com/

I got it from this site but I can't figure out what forum. I had it bookmarked.

Al

Thanks for the info guys! I'm really looking forward to getting up there this season. I called up the ADK Mountain Club information center and they said that it is a rather bad black fly season this year. So we just have to wait it out, but I'm extremely excited to go. The High Falls Loop trip report was great. Think we'll try and hit it in june sometime. Thanks!!

Mark, if you do decide to do that loop, shoot me a PM. I'll tell you about the spur trails I used. They added about 9 miles to my hike, bringing the total distance to ~29 miles. And definitely make sure you use the campsite on top of Cat Mountain, it was very cool.

My wife and I are looking for a good loop of around 50 miles. Maybe ya'll could help, anybody header of one?