Rather then spend a lot of money, why not get the mora craftline which is in the "marketplace" on this site, and purchased through amazon. It's about $15, so you can't go wrong. I did a review of it on the amazon site, comparing it to a couple of other similarly sized knives which I also own.

Unless you truly need a "survival" knife, some of the other knives you mentioned - the beckers - are pretty heavy to be carrying while hiking.

A last thought - look at the short kabars, priced around $45 if you want a bigger, heftier knife without a big outlay.

Where in the Adirondacks are you? I am 35 miles north of Manhattan.