A great route to spend the day outside, touring through all sorts of classic Adirondack terrain! The route follows part of the Ironman Lake Placid bike and swim courses before veering into an adventurous Adirondack run. Going from nicely maintained dirt road to less nicely maintained trail to bushwhack, finally culminating in a scramble up the iconic slide on the backside of Whiteface Mountain visible from Lake Placid. The breakdowns are: two ~16.7 mile bike rides, two ~1.2 mile lake swims, and one ~16.9 mile hike/run for a total of ~53 miles and ~7500 ft of elevation gain and loss.
Start at the pullout between Keene and Keene Valley (at the three way intersection) and bike up the hill towards Lake Placid, passing the Cascade Lakes on the way. Cruise into town and take a left at the traffic light then a right at the town hall to end at the Ironman beach on Mirror Lake where you can lock up your bike and transition to the first swim. Head out on the Ironman swim course until it turns, then keep swimming out over the sandbar and to Northwood Beach (the longest dock on the northeast end of the lake, across from Whitney road). Exit the water and stash you swim gear and dry bag in the trees before transitioning to the run.
Start the run by heading straight across the street and up Whitney Road, crest the hill and drop down the backside before diving onto a very lightly maintained trail after about 1.7 miles of running (look out for the small electric box to mark the start of the "trail", shown in the photos). Follow this trail until it spits you out onto the Connery Pond trail where you then turn right and run out to Whiteface Landing on Lake Placid. From here head right, up the trail to summit Whiteface. About 2.2 miles after turning onto the trail up Whiteface (~6.9 miles into the run total), the trail will hook to the right, at this point dive left into the woods for some good old fashioned bush whacking! Stay adjacent to the river but high on the bank, don't drop down to the river too early! After about 0.8 miles of bush whacking, head down to the river bed to begin the climb up the slide on the backside of Whiteface (shown in the photos with snow to highlight the slide). Staying on the left branch of the slide (if it becomes too steep to hike you are most likely on the right hand branch of the slide at the beginning) hike up until you can scramble up and over a short wall and railing onto the nicely manicured walkway (yay, cement stairs!) that leads to the castle at the summit of Whiteface; congratulations, you are halfway through the picnic! From the summit, take the regular hiking trail back down to Whiteface Landing before heading back towards Connery Pond, through the secret trail to Whitney Road, and back down Whitney Road to Northwood Beach. From there it is just a matter of swimming back to your bike and retracing your ride back down the nice long hill into Keene!
In true picnic fashion, gear should be carried as needed (I.e. bike with your swim and run gear and swim with your run gear). This route can be enjoyed with a group as a full day outing or solo as a full-on conquest, have fun!
