“You realize, the Adirondack Park is greater than Yellowstone, Glacier, the Grand Canyon, the Smokies, and the Everglades Nationwide Parks mixed. In a way, it’s a large almost-secret by way of the outside.”
Creator of the brand new ebook The Adirondack 46 in 18 Hikes: The Full Information to Climbing the Excessive Peaks, James Appleton is intimately acquainted with climbing the mountains throughout the Adirondack Park. The area is positioned in northeast New York and is full of greater than 100 peaks. Appleton’s new ebook is simply the newest medium he’s used to share his tales exploring the Adirondacks whereas opening a broader dialogue to different lovers, at all times retaining the park itself as the first focus.
The Adirondack Park
Born and raised within the area, Appleton mentioned the Adirondacks are simply “a part of the tradition” for individuals who reside there. After venturing past his house, enjoying in a band and spending ample time on the highway, he returned to the Adirondacks along with his spouse in 2011 to quiet down and begin a household. As he pressed ahead on this new chapter, Appleton gained a brand new appreciation and love for the world.
“The view outdoors my highschool, you’ll be like, ‘Oh, my God, that needs to be in {a magazine}.’ It’s that ridiculous,” Appleton mentioned. “It’s that very same outdated story, proper? ‘You don’t know what you’ve bought ’til it’s gone’ kind of factor.”
The Adirondacks cowl greater than 20% of the state’s land space. There are greater than 200 named lakes and different our bodies of water, together with greater than 1,200 miles of river. The park gives year-round outside recreation, from paddling, fishing, and tenting to snowboarding, snowboarding, and snowmobiling. One of many greatest highlights of the Adirondacks is the climbing, with the area boasting greater than 2,000 miles of climbing trails.
Specifically, climbing the 46 Adirondack Excessive Peaks is without doubt one of the park’s most well-known challenges and highlights.
The Adirondack Excessive Peaks
The Adirondack Excessive Peaks are a bunch of 46 mountains with a peak of three,800 toes or larger. Each locals and guests alike make it their mission to climb all 46, and anybody who succeeds is taken into account a “46er.”
Appleton determined he wished to be a 46er himself again in 2018 after he modified his life-style and revisited climbing with a brand new lens.
“There was a giant, dramatic come to Jesus second — within the sense that I bought in form, I misplaced a bunch of weight, and rapidly, I might go hike a mountain,” he mentioned. “That was principally the catalyst of claiming, ‘Man, I ought to lastly strive turning into an Adirondack 46er,’ and it will definitely snowballed into this ebook.”
Throughout a month-and-a-half break between his work within the movie trade, Appleton cast forward along with his mission and finally climbed all 46 Excessive Peaks in a single summer time. That have majorly shifted his relationship to the outside and the Adirondacks themselves.
‘The 46 of 46 Podcast’
As he relished in his accomplishment, Appleton noticed a possibility to open the dialog for the numerous others trying to hike the Excessive Peaks. This reflection culminated as The 46 of 46 Podcast, which remains to be releasing episodes targeted on the Adirondack Park.
“I mentioned, ‘Think about if they may hearken to a podcast as they drive up, hearken to the episode masking the mountains that they’re going to hike on,’” Appleton recalled. “I made a decision to embark on this journey of making a documentary sequence/audio podcast about climbing the 46 Excessive Peaks.”
Mountain by mountain, he meticulously recorded and edited over a dozen episodes retelling his story. After 5 months of labor, he launched the podcast in March 2019 — each episode directly. Envisioning it as a standalone, long-form media undertaking, he had no intention of making extra episodes past that unique sequence.
Positive sufficient, he “simply saved podcasting.” The episodes finally expanded in scope, specializing in seasonal treks to particular sequences of Adirondack hikes. The 46 of 46 Podcast additionally contains particular Adirondack Pioneers episodes, which concentrate on the Adirondack Park’s historical past and key historic gamers, together with Summit Periods, or interview-style episodes the place he invitations others to share their very own Adirondack adventures.
“I see myself as simply the particular person, the vessel, bringing the story to you,” Appleton mentioned. “It’s concerning the park, the paths, the mountains, the rivers, the lakes, the individuals climbing it, the individuals who helped construct this park to be what it’s.”
‘The Adirondack 46 in 18 Hikes’
Within the early days of The 46 of 46 Podcast, Appleton’s viewers grew and started asking extra detailed questions on his climbs. This prompted him to start out writing about his experiences, resulting in the 2021 launch of his eBook about climbing the 46 Excessive Peaks.
Appleton turned more and more acknowledged as an skilled supply tied to the Adirondacks. He labored with a writer to launch his ebook, Adirondack Campfire Tales: Tales and Folklore from Contained in the Blue Line, in 2024 — a group of scary, supernatural tales each fiction and non-fiction set within the Adirondacks. Tales are primarily based on city and park lore, and a few parts have been tailored from The 46 of 46 Podcast and its Summit Periods interviews.
The identical writer requested Appleton to write down one other ebook in 2022, taking a recent strategy to the tales he shared in his eBook and podcast. Appleton blended stylistic parts of his podcast into the brand new launch, embracing private storytelling whereas sharing sensible data concerning the area.
Appleton formally launched The Adirondack 46 in 18 Hikes: The Full Information to Climbing the Excessive Peaks on March 4, 2025.
“It simply reads like a ebook, and that’s what I wished,” Appleton mentioned, referencing that normal guidebooks are extra like encyclopedias than embracing a story. “That’s what separates it from regular information books.”
He wished to entertain and share his story, however he additionally wished readers to know their manner across the Excessive Peak hikes after studying. The ebook represents a end result of six years constructing this platform. An “open air journey story,” Appleton mentioned that readers will benefit from the ebook whether or not or not they’ve any intention of climbing the 46 Excessive Peaks themselves.
“It’s what I’m most happy with about this ebook, as a result of there are many books on the Adirondack 46 Excessive Peaks. There weren’t any the place an individual’s story was laid out begin to end. It’s bizarre that that didn’t exist, however now it does.”
Appleton climbing the Northville-Placid Path within the ADK, crossing Chilly River
Household Life within the Adirondacks
Appleton and his spouse are at present dwelling within the Adirondack area with their three daughters. Appleton mentioned it’s an important place to boost a household as a result of something open air is available. When the household is out and about, his children have quite a lot of choices — from climbing to swimming or simply taking a stroll across the woods.
Whereas Appleton has shared his love for nature along with his daughters through the years, they’ve since launched him to a few of their budding pursuits, just like the world of ballet. All to say, Appleton makes a degree to foster their distinctive passions, too. Even when his daughters don’t find yourself with the identical admiration for climbing and the outside that he has, he is aware of they’ll at all times have the Adirondacks as a traditional a part of their lives, the place going outdoors is simply one thing you do.
“Our children are watching us, and I feel that’s finally what we have to bear in mind,” Appleton mentioned. “They’re going to do what we do. They watch us gazing screens all day, they’re going to stare at screens all day too. If we would like them to go open air and we go open air, they’re going to only go open air, too.”
James Appleton’s Suggestions for Households within the Adirondacks
- Mt. Jo — “An awesome quick hike in Lake Placid that provides a style of the Adirondack Excessive Peaks climbing in a brief 0.9 mile climb, with Excessive Peaks-caliber views.”
- Mt. Van Hoevenberg — “Climbing from the Olympic Bobsled and Luge monitor, this family-friendly hike gives a novel Lake Placid Olympic expertise on a mild path for the household with summit views you’ll need to stare at for hours.”
- Cobble Hill — “A family-friendly mountain path, nice for the children, proper off Important Road Lake Placid. An awesome place to share a snack with views.”
- Cobble Lookout (Wilmington) — “A flat path that walks out to an open rock lookout pretty much as good as any summit view within the ADK for minimal effort.”
‘What Makes Adirondack Park So Particular?’
After listening to this query, Appleton shortly replied with a novel profile of the area:
“It’s in contrast to anyplace else within the nation, within the sense that it’s technically a state park of private and non-private land,” he mentioned. “It’s principally like having cities in nationwide parks.”
He additionally known as the park the Northeast’s greatest saved outside secret, saying, “Should you’re not from the Northeast, you’ve most likely by no means heard of it, but it surely’s a day’s drive from 60 million Individuals and Canadians.”
Appleton shared a standard sentiment he hears from guests from throughout. To them, the Adirondack Park “looks like house.” Rising up and at present dwelling within the area, it’s a tough thought to narrate to, however he acknowledged the magic of the area that might immediate this shared feeling.
“They will’t articulate it. However there’s this mysterious high quality to the mountains, and it’s arduous to explain. Individuals take possession of this park. In order that’s what makes it so distinctive. Even should you don’t reside right here, you are feeling prefer it’s your park, but it surely’s not your park and never another person’s — it’s ours.”
The Nice Vary Athlete “Colden Crew” climbing Mount Colvin, certainly one of Appleton’s group health coaching and training packages
Along with his work in movie, podcasting, and writing, Appleton has his personal enterprise as a health coach, Search To Do Extra, the place he teaches shoppers tips on how to get in higher form to embark on their very own outside adventures. In the present day, Appleton coaches individuals everywhere in the nation to assist them notice their full potential — mirroring these new paths he as soon as paved in his personal life.
The Adirondack 46 in 18 Hikes: The Full Information to Climbing the Excessive Peaks is out now and will be bought on Amazon.
Episodes of The 46 of 46 Podcast are out there on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio. For much more, take a look at the podcast on YouTube, Instagram, and its official web site.
Discover James Appleton on Instagram, Fb, and at Search To Do Extra Teaching.
Photographs courtesy of James Appleton
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You’ll find them at keeganmwilliams.com or on Instagram @promwitch.
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