Nice work, CG.
My solution was:
ABLE -> ably -> abey* -> abed -> aped -> sped -> seed -> send -> sand -> sane -> CANE
I’ll get to work on yours now, although it looks like a tough one.
- this was the only one not in M-W. It was in the OED.
KNEE
knew
know
knot
snot
soot
sort
sore
lore
lobe
lobs
logs
LEGS
BLUE —> GRAY
(If you’re from the Commonwealth, you can do BLUE —> GREY 
)
Being Southern born and bred, I’m happy to morph blue into gray 
BLUE
glue
grue
gree
grey
GRAY
FILM → NOIR
FILM
fill
bill
ball
bail
boil
noil - new word for me: short fiber removed during the combing of a textile fiber and often separately spun into yarn
NOIR
YARN - > TALE
YARN
Barn
Bare
Bale
TALE
FOOL --> GOLD
Man, that one’s just too easy (FOOL -> Food -> Fold -> GOLD).
Let’s try… CHAD --> IRAN instead. (Yes, I’m looking at a map right now.)
CHAD
chap
crap
crag
brag
bran
IRAN
Like how i managed to get “bran” and “crap” into the same string?
OK, how about:
hops —> beer
chad
shad
scad
scan
scon
icon
iron
iran
BRAN —> FOOD
Missed.
hops
hoes
hoer
boer
beer
BRAN —> FOOD
BRAN
bean
dean
darn
barn
born
torn
tort
toot
foot
FOOD
SODA --> JERK
soda
coda
code
core
corn
porn
pork
perk
jerk
BEER —> PISS
BEER
peer
pier
pies
PISS
NEWT —> TOAD
NEWT
Neat
Meat
Mead
Lead
Load
TOAD
Let’s shake it up and bring the DEAD to LIFE.
NEWT
Neat
Leat
Lead
Load
TOAD
Lake -> Pond
All right then:
DEAD
Deal
Real
Reel
Feel
Fell
Fill
File
Fife
LIFE
Lake -> Pond
LAKE
lane
land
lend
fend
fond
POND
WEND —> TURN
WEND
bend
band
bard
barn
burn
TURN
ZINC --> GOLD
ZINC
zing
ring
rind
rend
fend
fond
fold
GOLD
ARMY —> RANK
ARMY
Arms
Aims
Dims
Dins
Tins
Tans
Tank
RANK
DAYS -> WEEK
DAYS
dams
damp
camp
came
cane
cant
cent
bent
beet
meet
meek
WEEK
PLOP --> FIZZ