Northville-Placid Trail Summer 2019 Thru-Hike (Part 1)

The Northville-Placid Trail (NPT) is a ~138 mile trail that runs from Northville to Lake Placid, NY in the Adirondacks. The NPT was the first trail created by the Adirondack Mountain Club back in 1922 (finished in '24)- and it's still the longest in the park!

I don't remember exactly why I decided to hike this trail. In fact, I remember not wanting to ever hike this trail, after I heard about a female solo hiker followed by three bears for a mile in 2013. She eventually had to stab one of the bears when she was charged.

But the more I researched the trail, the more fascinated I became. Everyone who had spent any time on the trail at all had a million good things to say about it. It was remote. Picturesque. Beautiful. Natural. A hidden gem. And an Adirondack classic.

I ended up making the plan to hike the trail in August with two fellow Outing Clubbers, Paul M. and Clarisse B.

Our starting and ending days were both half days so the total time was about 9 days.

DAY 1

On August 18th, we drove to Lake Placid to leave Paul's car at the Lake Placid-North Elba Historical Society. This museum is located where the old Lake Placid train station used to be. Back in the day, commuting between Lake Placid and Northville for the NPT was even more convenient than it is today, because there was a train that ran between them.

Early in the afternoon, we arrived in Northville, NY to begin our northbound adventure. There are some designated NPT parking spaces at Northville's Waterfront Park downtown. We didn't have any issues leaving our cars unattended for the duration of our trip, but park at your own risk and definitely remove all valuables from your vehicle.

I used the Northville-Placid Trail Guide and Map Pack (5th Edition) and NPT site to plan the trip. We planned for nine days, with an additional day to hike the nearby Seward Range. I had researched the loveliest lean-tos along the trail and planned accordingly, so sometimes our daily mileage was a bit high to hit our desired lean-to. In retrospect, pretty much every lean-to we came across was in a beautiful location and good condition.

Our food for the entire trip (plus emergency supplies) cost us less than $10 dollars a person. Thank you, Dollar Store.

We were thrilled to begin our journey. Our morale was high, and while a lot of people gripe about the road walking through town, we had a great time. Northville is a fairly small town, but they go hard for the NPT.

We felt like superheroes. People would cheer and honk for us as they drove by. Fellow pedestrians inquired about our plans and wished us well. Everyone seemed just as excited as we were, if not more.

Just before we entered the woods, we discussed one last time how we need to mentally commit ourselves to finishing the trail. Our other car was all the way in Lake Placid. Bailing would suck. It would be expensive, and at some points, we would be a long way between trailheads. You can go a while before you even see anyone else on the trail. The NPT can be remote.

Quitting wasn't an option and we had to be prepared to handle emergencies on our own.

We hiked maybe a mile into the woods when Clarisse suddenly turned around. I almost walked into her and Paul nearly walked into me.

"Actually, I'm gonna head back to Northville."

Paul and I were incredulous. I pointed out how we just discussed how we can't quit.

Clarisse responded, "Yeah, that freaked me out."

Paul and I managed to convince Clarisse to continue. We no longer had cellular reception and wouldn't know if she got home okay. If something happened, no one would even know she was missing for ten days.

When she began hiking again, her pace was nearly a jog. If we were hiking to Lake Placid after all, Clarisse seemed to want to get there by tomorrow.

We eventually came to the ~90' West Stoney Creek crossing. This creek can be impassable during times of spring high water. However, in late summer it was only knee deep.  Paul did lose a Nalgene though.

Just after the crossing is the new West Stoney Creek Lean-to. As we crossed the creek, thunder rolled in. Just after making it back into the safety of the woods, a downpour began... it was not supposed to rain. And we were supposed to hammock camp at Woods Lake. We were four miles short of that day one target, but the cozy, dry lean-to called out to us... and we answered.

There was some garbage and food left in the lean-to, including an empty liquor bottle. It didn't fit in our two full bear cans so we made a bear bag and hung it in the pouring rain to discourage wildlife from approaching the lean-to for food.

DAY 2

We slept in and got a bit of a late start. However, we now had a ~16 mile day ahead of us to make it to our day two target, Silver Lake Lean-to. We really didn't want to come short of our goal two days in a row.

We made decent time to Woods Lake, but were moving slower than expected with nine days of food and supplies still on our backs (plus emergency supplies). We didn't bother with the logistics of a resupply.

I had hiked much 'harder' hikes. But this somehow felt like the hardest thing I had ever done. There was an absolutely unbelievable amount of beaver activity and blowdown. It felt like we were constantly climbing over, around, and under fallen trees and debris. When it wasn't blowdown, it was mud. So. Much. Mud.

I was in the worst foot pain of my life. I had some blisters from marathon training. I had stopped running half of a week before the NPT, losing even more training, to encourage my skin to heal. But the wet trail destroyed my feet. Moleskin fell right off. More and more blisters kept forming. My feet were so swollen it hurt to walk.

Eventually, I switched to Chacos which seemed to help with the swelling (and slightly for the blisters) and my feet pain reduced a bit. It was day two and I didn't know if I would even be able to finish the trail. What had we just talked about!? I would be so embarrassed to tell our Outing Club friends about bailing. Maybe we could get a shuttle from Piseco? I couldn't imagine running a marathon in a month either. The Sewards were definitely out. Paul agreed that he was also no longer interested in the side trip to the high peaks. Clarisse had never been interested in hiking them in the first place.

There was also a lot of up and down on the trail this day, particularly near Silver Lake. With days of supplies weighing heavy on our backs, the NPT was already feeling a lot harder than I had imagined.

Finally, around 10pm, we made it to the lean-to... to see a headlamp staring out at us. And a dog loudly barking.

"He's friendly!" a voice called out from the darkness.

As we approached, we saw a woman restraining the barking dog on a leash. She informed us that we had simply spooked him, and sure enough, once she introduced us all to the dog, he stopped barking and calmed down. His name was Bartlett.

At first, I had misheard the woman as "Barklett", which had seemed fitting.

The woman, who introduced herself as Courtney, was super cool. None of her family or friends could get the time off of work, so she was mostly solo thru-hiking the trail. She had plans to eventually meet up with friends and her mom for later sections. She moved her gear aside in the lean-to (she wasn't expecting anyone else on this remote trail to show up at 10pm) and made room for us.

We set up our gear quickly and walked a ways away from the lean-to to cook our dinner. Ramen! It was just the morale boost we needed.

Soon after, we went to bed and awoke around 8:30 the next morning to say goodbye to Courney and begin hiking again.

DAY 3

My feet felt a bit better in the morning, but the pain would gradually increase throughout the day. By the time I would lay down each evening, they would be throbbing. Only to wake up early the next morning to feel okay enough to continue hiking again.

Our destination tonight was West Lake Lean-to #1. Supposedly one of the best lean-tos on the whole trail! The lake waves practically lap right up to the foot of the structure. It was supposed to be an 18 mile day.

Around 2.5 miles into the day, we hit the lovely Canary Ponds under clear blue skies. Something I didn't really expect about the NPT was how little we would feel the sun. The tree cover could be quite thick and the sun felt amazing on our skin.

Our packs were still heavy and my feet still hurt, but day three treated us much better. The non-stop vistas probably helped.

We ate dinner here, enjoying more sunshine and the Hamilton Lake Stream. It was ramen again, so we enjoyed that too.

Not long after, we made it to Hamilton Lake Stream Lean-to (Courtney's destination for the night). She had beat us there and Bart must have heard us coming again, because we could hear him barking at us once more. Seeing Courtney and Bart brightened our spirits. We had appreciated each other's company and it was nice to reunite. We took a break at their lean-to, where Courtney managed to convince us to stop pushing so hard and to enjoy the trail more. She assured us we could rework our mileages and still finish our trip within ten days, while probably having a better time. Courtney also just enjoyed our company and wanted us to stay. We were tired and enjoyed her and Bart as well, so I reworked our trip plan and we stayed the night. Luckily, with the new plan, we would be spending the next two nights with Courtney and Bart.

We spent the rest of the evening chatting, reading old lean-to logbook entries, writing our own, and examining maps.

Day three was also when we realized that we had made a grave mistake. We were only able to bring one fuel can on the trip, due to new, stricter rules from our Outing Club's risk management. Paul was only able to take out gear for himself and couldn't rent anything for anyone else to use. However, we would need more fuel for our ten day journey than one can could hold. We put extra fuel in multiple layers of plastic bags. A fun science fact that we learned on the NPT is that white gas degrades plastic. The bags never really ripped or leaked but rather the gas seeped through the layers of plastic. We could slow it down by adding more bags and layers but by the time we realized what was happening, white gas had tainted our food supply. Our bland quick oats were now white gas flavored.

We would need to resupply after all.

Luckily, day four would take us through Piseco, a small Adirondack town with a general store right near the trailhead. The next morning, we split from Courtney again. We would see her at camp that night, but she had a resupply to pick up from the post office and we were headed to the store.

DAY 4

We left camp first again this day, hiking in the pouring rain to arrive at the general store around 9am. There was a sign hanging in the window. "Closed. Gas 9 miles E." The shelves inside were empty.

At least Paul had a bit of service, so we took shelter under the closed store's awning and texted our loved ones that we were safe and in Piseco.

We would have to wait until Long Lake to restock. We had enough safe food to get us to Long Lake but if we didn't resupply then, we wouldn't have anything to eat for our final three days.

We were at least able to cut some weight and dispose of our ruined food in town.

The Piseco road walk was much less fun than the one down in Northville. This time, we were soaking wet from intense rain and the lightning overhead was intimidating. We walked fast along the road, eager to get back under the cover of trees.

Clarisse lagged behind, running to catch up when a pickup truck driver offered us a ride in his cab to the trailhead. Soaked and eager to get out of the open in the lightning storm, we agreed and he drove us a mile down the road. We figured out from a sticker on his window that he was Bob Campwood. Bob and Matt Campwood are wellknown trail angels in the NPT community. They own the land next to the trailhead entrance where they let hikers camp. They even want the DEC to build a lean-to for hikers on their land. I gave him a ten as a thanks and we hiked on into the woods.

Clarisse later told us that she was running to catch up to tell us that she was quitting. However, she made sad eye contact with the pickup driver as he passed and he slowed and then turned around to pick us up. She took it as a sign to continue hiking. We left motivational messages for Courtney in the trail registers.

Not long into the woods, we heard a phone go off and realized we all had service. We took a short break to send more messages to loved ones and I even checked my email to find a job rejection. After posting an update to my Instagram story and being swarmed by mosquitoes, we pressed on.

Not long before reaching the Spruce Lake Lean-tos, Courtney caught up to us. She said she appreciated our trail register notes. We had heard Bartlett's bear bell first and the pair emerged from the wilderness, running to reach us– Bartlett was eager to be reunited. Courtney said the hound mix had been tracking our scent and pulling her for the last four miles. Seeing Courtney boosted our morale, and it finally stopped raining. We could see giant moose tracks in the mud.

We originally planned on staying at Spruce Lake Lean-to #3, but arrived to unfriendly campers and four dogs barking like mad. Two of the dogs starting fighting with each other and we promptly left to hike back the short distance to Spruce Lake Lean-to #2 where we found peace and solitude. The logbook detailed a complaint from a previous camper who also attempted to stay at Spruce Lake Lean-to #3 before returning to #2 due to the "insufferable" people and dogs at #3.

Bartlett was quite tired from this long day and eager to lay down. He had some chafing from his doggy pack, so Courtney resigned to carrying it for him.

We watched a lovely sunset on Spruce Lake and listened to the loons as we passed around mint M&Ms, courtesy of Courtney. I was excited to finally use my DSLR as I had been carrying it the whole trip but had only used my phone camera.

We made plans to actually hike with Courtney during the day, instead of just reuniting each night at camp. She even gave us some extra food that she had, since she knew we would have to resupply due to the White Gas Incident of 2019.

DAY 5

Day five would take us into the West Canada Lakes section, which we were eager for and had all heard good things about.

Day five was absolutely lovely. We were treated to excellent scenery and sunshine!!! We ate lunch at a lakefront lean-to and snacked on trail-side berries as we hiked.

Making it to this iconic bridge obviously called for an impromptu photoshoot and group selfie.

Courtney realized she accidentally left a bag of Bartlett's poop on the ground not far back. Being the LNT ninja warrior she is, she ran back to get it. We hung out near the bridge, enjoying the sunshine and eating berries while we waited for her and Bartlett's return.

We met some cool day hikers and weekend backpackers near the Cedar Lakes, where the trail got a bit busier. We took a photo for a family and then they took this one for us in return.

We continued on to Carry Lean-to, where we would be spending our last night with Courtney. Upon arrival at the end of our long day, we saw a man already occupying the lean-to. We explained that we were tired and he welcomed us to join him. DEC lean-tos are first come first serve until they reach capacity at eight people, but some campers are friendlier than others.

Ryan was a really pleasant guy though, and his dad Steve (who had been fishing) was also very kind. They shared their bug spray (our full can had run dry on day three) and snacks. Paul and I crawled into our sleeping bags and Clarisse and Ryan built a fire before sitting down at the edge of the lean-to to admire their work. Paul and I liked watching the brush burn, so we started chanting at Clarisse "lean-to wants more brush!!!"

Ryan actually got up to add more brush. We died laughing and insisted that we meant Clarisse, but he was laughing too.

We attempted to dry gear out by the fire. I left my gear unattended for about ten seconds to grab something from my pack and earned the trail name "Smoking Socks" as well as a hole in the toe of my sock. Clarisse had already become "Top Toe Blister" for her oddly placed blister. Bartlett was "Pooper" because his increased calories for all his hard work meant more pet-parent work for Courney. Courney herself was "Snack Fairy" for all the extra treats she gave us.

This beautiful evening was really enjoyable, spent with cool people we met on the trail and a lot of laughs.

Read Part 2 here.