By Dan Mathers
For a relatively small region, the Northeast has more than its share of legendary outdoor adventures.
Places like the Presidential Range and Tuckerman Ravine, the Long Trail, Adirondack High Peaks, the Allagash, and Katahdin are all fixtures on every Northeast adventurer’s bucket list.
But beyond the region’s biggest mountains and busiest trailheads are adventures that can be just as rewarding and memorable. From paddling and camping on a remote lake to backpacking through an expansive wilderness, many lesser-known places can deliver surprisingly big adventures, often without the crowds.
Here are eight of those adventures you should put on your radar.
Paddle And Camp On Umbagog Lake
New Hampshire’s Umbagog Lake is one of those rare places in the Northeast where you really feel away from it all.
Straddling the Maine-New Hampshire border, the 7,850-acre lake stretches roughly 11 miles north to south through a landscape of forest, wetlands, islands, and undeveloped shoreline.
The best way to experience Umbagog is by loading a canoe or kayak with camping gear and spending the night.
While Umbagog Lake State Park has a base campground with 27 campsites with electrical and water hookup and two cabins, you’ll really want to head out onto the water and then stay at one of 33 remote campsites or four remote cabins spread around the lake.
Backpack Vermont’s Glastenbury Wilderness
Southern Vermont tends to get overshadowed by some of the Green Mountain state’s bigger peaks and adventures up north. But that might be just as well to people in the know who are happy to see the crowds head elsewhere.
The region is home to the Glastenbury Wilderness, Vermont’s second-largest wilderness, featuring more than 22,000 acres of mostly roadless forest between Bennington and Manchester.
While Glastenbury doesn’t have a well-known 4,000-foot peak, it also doesn’t have paved roads, ski resorts, or crowds. What it does have is rugged, remote backcountry and miles of trails through wilderness and the southern Green Mountains.
The Long Trail passes through the region, and dispersed backcountry camping is permitted, making it possible to explore the area as part of an overnight backpacking trip. The summit of 3,748-foot Glastenbury Mountain has a fire tower with impressive views across the surrounding Green Mountains.
Explore Maine’s Remote Deboullie Public Land
If you’re not from Maine and you visit Baxter State Park and Katahdin, you might think you’re in the far northern part of the state. But, despite how long of a drive it can be to get there, there’s still a lot more Maine above Baxter—about another 100 miles more, in fact.
Way up in those northern reaches, close to the Canadian border, is Maine’s Deboullie Public Land, a nearly 22,000-acre expanse of rugged wilderness with crystal-clear ponds and rugged low mountains.
Deboullie features roughly 30 miles of trails leading to the area’s 17 ponds, remote campsites, and lean-tos.
For an unforgettable overnight adventure, explore the area around Deboullie Pond and climb to the summit of Deboullie Mountain, which has incredible views from its 48-foot fire tower.
Tackle An Adirondack Expedition On Lows Lake
It can be easy to forget just how massive Adirondack State Park is. It’s the largest park in the Lower 48, and at six million acres, it’s bigger than Yellowstone, Glacier, Everglades, and Grand Canyon National Parks … combined.
That means New York’s giant park is big enough for popular heavyweights like the High Peaks and Lake Placid, and still have room for quiet, expansive wilderness like visitors will find at Lows Lake.
The lake is part of the Bog River Complex and offers the opportunity to paddle over 14.5 miles of scenic waters with only one short carry around Lows Upper Dam.
Lows Lake is large enough that a paddler can feel like they’ve embarked on a genuine wilderness expedition. The remote, serene lake is motorboat-free, and it features 39 primitive campsites. The lake is also one of the largest nesting areas for loons in New York.
Paddle And Bike Rhode Island’s Big River Area
Sure, Rhode Island is the smallest state, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still find places that feel wild and out there.
Take the Big River Management Area in West Greenwich, for example. Covering more than 8,000 acres of forest, wetlands, and ponds, Big River is a suprisingly undeveloped landcape in the heart of Rhode Island.
While the Big River flows for just under seven miles, the area’s spiderweb of waterways makes it particularly interesting for paddlers. Rather than following a straightforward river downstream, exploring Big River can feel more like navigating a wilderness maze of narrow channels, wetlands, and quiet ponds.
Additionally, the Big River area also features a labyrinth of mountain bike trails.
Backpack Connecticut’s Nipmuck Region
Connecticut probably isn’t the first place that comes to mind when you think about taking a “backpacking” trip. But that’s exactly why Nipmuck State Forest deserves your attention.
Located in northeastern Connecticut—along the Massachusetts border and not far from Rhode Island—Nipmuck features more than 9,000 acres of forest. While it isn’t mountainous, it offers a combination of rocky woods, streams, ponds, and wetlands.
It also features a vast network of woods roads and trails for visitors to explore. And camping is permitted at three backpack camping sites within the state forest. Campers need to get a permit ahead of time.
Discover Pennsylvania’s Quehanna Wild Area
For Northeast adventurers who are used to focusing on the Adirondacks and White Mountains, here’s a newsflash: Pennsylvania has some serious backcountry of its own.
One of the best examples of that is the Quehanna Wild Area. Covering roughly 50,000 acres, Quehanna is one of the largest blocks of wild public land in Pennsylvania. It’s home to elk, attractive waterfalls, and miles of hiking trails.
The centerpiece is the roughly 75-mile Quehanna Trail, which forms a large loop through forests, valleys, ridges, and remote backcountry. Broad forested ridges, deep valleys, streams, and extensive undeveloped wilderness create a landscape that feels far removed from the state’s more populated areas.
Backpackers can tackle the trail as part of a multi-day adventure, or they can use the trail’s multiple access points to do shorter overnight trips.
Explore The Mohawk Trail Region of Massachusetts
The Berkshires get a lot of hype, but western Massachusetts also has huge swaths of forest that receive criminally little attention outside of the region.
The Mohawk Trail area along Route 2 is particularly worthy of exploration. It features such places as Mohawk Trail State Forest, Savoy Mountain State Forest, and the Hoosac Range, and is home to extensive trail networks. Savoy alone has more than 50 miles of trails, while Mohawk is one of the most scenic woodland areas in Massachusetts, covering 6,000 acres of mountain ridges, gorges, and woods
Visitors can explore deep wilderness, mountainous ridgelines, streams, ponds, and more. Mohawk Trail State Forest is home to an extensive old-growth forest. Both Mohawk and Savoy have summer campgrounds, and both have cabins that visitors can rent during the winter.
