Making the High Peaks Home

Welcome to the Keene Valley Chapter of ADK

Since the 1940s, the Keene Valley Chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club has gathered those living at the base of the High Peaks—some year-round, others seasonally, others wishfully, regular visitors who think of this as home—for fellowship and fun in the mountains. Since the 1950s, the Chapter has maintained a secluded lean-to on John’s Brook for the use of its members; feel free to reserve it. An early leader of the Chapter, Jim Goodwin, helped to cut many of the trails around Keene Valley, which members of the Chapter maintained for years. Today, we maintain the trails to Baxter Mountain and are in discussion with the DEC about adding several more trails to our list—thanks to the guidance of our trails committee chair, Tony Goodwin. Given the high use of the High Peaks trails, we focus on clearing less-used trails that don’t necessarily reach a High Peakr.

The chapter is most active in summer, with outings and trail work days and other gatherings, including the annual meeting, happening then. But the work of running the Chapter continues year-round. If you’d like to be involved in the Chapter’s governance, we’d love to hear from you.

For many years, the Chapter has helped to support an annual camping trip for juniors at Keene Central School to the Upper Ausable Lake. We have also shared our lean-to with summer camps, as part of our commitment to helping all those in our community love the environment we share.

Welcome to the Chapter, and to our website! We look forward to seeing you on the trails…