Happy Lonesomes, new hiking guide to short trails, beautiful views

JAY | Finding part of a day to climb or explore wilderness on lesser traveled trails is not easy for a working farmer. Or for any self-employed or industrious person balancing a workload with a need for solace. But author Tim Rowland found a few hikes decidedly off the beaten path that can be accomplished in a few hours. He tested them, found their special features and wrote about the terrain they cover. "Happy Lonesomes: A Guide to 15 Eastern Adirondack Hikes That Are Long on Scenery and Short on Crowds" is partially a product of his small farm operation here. "Life on the farm is how I got into this," he said in a recent interview. "The day starts out with milking goats and feeding chickens and tending to horses and ducks and a few other things. So there's not a lot of time to go on the 10-hour hikes I used to do." Rowland said he has also found a strong demographic of residents in the Adirondack Park who cannot commit to a whole day of hiking. And this inspired a search lesser traveled ways into wilderness. "I used to hike overnights with camping, mostly the extra long days of backcountry trips that take 10 to 15 hours," he said. "The farm brings a whole other perspective to the prospect of hiking." And it heightened his view of forestlands. "Out on some of these trails, you start looking for farm-like features. I'm big on house foundations and wells. We actually found an old goat farm on the East Branch of the Ausable River. It is interesting to see how people organized their landscape 100 years ago. "A funny thing I've noticed is, in the Adirondacks, we're encouraged to be pristine, neat and tidy. A lot of these farms were anything but. They had cans, bottles just lying around their house. They didn't have waste management coming twice a week." The 15 hikes in Rowland's guide offer a wide range of trails, some that might be fun for families or people with their dogs or for the Happy Lonesome. "One thing I was trying to shoot for in this book is that anybody at any stage in their life or career could find something of interest." Rowland talked a little about two hikes. One on Mount Fay in Lewis, the other a Champlain Area Trails hike up South Boquet Mountain called Overlook Way. "Fay is among a little cache of mountains, McDonough, Carson, Seventy; it's a little collection of peaks. It doesn't have a trail, which could be a disqualification for some hikers. But if solitude is really your goal, then bushwhacking is a solution," Rowland said. "This starts as a bushwhack and continues about a mile in length. It's within known boundaries. You're not going to go too far before you come to a road or a brook." The hike up Mount Fay goes to the top of the mountain with a bald summit, height of 2,300 feet, that offers a great view of Lake Champlain to the east and the Jay Range to the west, Rowland said. "I went in on Seventy Road, past the driveway to the mine. And there's a DEC parking lot up there," Rowland said. The mountain is on State Forest Land, as are all the hikes in Rowland's compendium. "Another unique hike, marked as an easy to moderate hike, is The Wildway Overlook up South Boquet Mountain, which has a great view with a bench at the top. That is clearly marked trail and 1.5 miles round trip." The guide also provides a uniquely Rowland twist to adventure. "The book does bring humor to the reader. I don't hold back on my own mistakes and misjudgments," he said. "To me, it's important to be prepared for what you are about to hike. If you're about to hike a mile-and-a-half trail and it looks like rain, a raincoat is important, maybe more so than water. If you're going off trail, then, by all means, have a GPS device or map and compass." Each sojourn goes to places Rowland explored over the past few years. "Some I've done many times, others just a few times, at least until I felt confident in giving directions. I've heard so many people talking about how crowded the High Peaks are, but if you're out for solitude there are plenty of places where you could go that are not crowded at all. "It was a fun book to write because this is what I like to do. I hope that shows through," he said. The book's name, Happy Lonesomes, arrived after Rowland and his wife Beth revisited the working title. "The book had been about two years in development. And at some point, Beth looked at me and asked if I liked the title 'Trails Less Taken.' And I said, 'not really.' She's from the south, and a 'happy lonesome' is apropos, referring to a place and time when you're happy to get away by yourself." The hikes also hearken back to an era when small, local hikes were a popular way to bring families and friends together. "Hopefully this guide will provide ideas for local people who want to be apart from the busy tourist trails. We have the advantage living here in that there are always going to be days when we can get out there and sneak in a hike, when the tourism season isn't real heavy, when the weather is perfect. We have something of an advantage in that sense." Rowland's book, Happy Lonesomes: A Guide to 15 Eastern Adirondack Hikes That Are Long on Scenery and Short on Crowds, is available in local bookstores and online. It was published June 2 by High Peaks Publishing with a Foreword by David Thomas-Train. Tim Rowland is an award-winning humor columnist and New York Times bestselling author whose unique stories about history and the outdoors and times past have struck a chord with people seeking fun and adventure in the wilds. He hiked mountain ranges around the world before settling among the first peaks he ever climbed, the ones that never left his heart.

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Happy Lonesomes, new hiking guide to short trails, beautiful views

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