Backpacking Sections of the Northville-Lake Placid Trail

I am glad I took a nap during the afternoon but even more pleased I was awake to enjoy this sunset at Kelly Point.

--September 14, 2021 at 6:43 PM. Long Lake, NY, United States

The Northville-Lake Placid Trail (NPT) has been on Andy and my radar for several years. A few days before he arrived to drive us to New York he called to suggest we tackle the trail. More precisely he would attempt a thru-hike and I’d do a portion of the trail. It seemed like a good plan and we put it in motion. Both of us wanted to experiment with some new-ish camping ideas notably around how we would sleep and cook our food. As such we ended up carrying more gear than we otherwise might have done: redundancy and alternative means of doing things are good. In my case my pack, with 6 days of food, tipped the scale at about 31 pounds. Andy’s was similar though he would be carrying fewer, in theory, days of food. While the weight of the packs certainly affects your ability to comfortably move I do not think that really played any significant role in our hiking the trail or not as the case would turn out to be. Andy would eventually succeed in completing his thru-hike. My section hike would mutate and mutate again into something unrecognizable from what I had planned. The trail kicked my butt. The video will give you some idea of my experience of the few miles I did manage to hike.

The NPT is a trail that really is in need of a great deal of maintenance. It frequently vanishes in stretches of shoe-sucking mud, crosses streams over natural features (if you are lucky), and has a seemingly endless supply of downed trees you need to contend with that will frequently force you off the trail into the dense forest bushwhacking around the obstacle to re-join the trail on the other side.It’s a navigational challenge.

▶️ Play Backpacking Sections of the Northville-Lake Placid Trail

While the actual act of hiking the trail was frustrating in the extreme I suppose I should take pleasure in the fact that I did what I did. I am also pleased with how most of my food and cooking worked out though I still have plenty of room for improvement in my fire-making craft.

There are some very helpful resources on the Internet. The Northville-Lake Placid chapter of the ADK Hiking Club has plenty of useful information. The mileage and description chart, a bit like an Appalachian Trail Databook, is quite helpful. A printed map can be useful if you are comfortable with them (and can see it well enough to read) and the National Geographic Trails Illustrated map fills that bill. Digital maps also exist and if you take care of your electronics can be incredibly handy when you go off trail (if you understand the tools you have and their limits a GPS and compass can be very helpful). Seval mapping apps can be used here. Avenza has the Adirondack Park Reference map which does show the trail but almost nothing else. The National Geographic Trail Illustrated map is available in digital form to paying users of GaiaGPS. The iOS app Topo Maps US by David Crawshay also has a good map. The Northville-Lake Placid Trail FaceBook group is also an active community of helpful people.

Finally, I can heartily recommend both the Oxbow Lake Motel in Piseco and Adirondack Hotel in Long Lake. While the staff may not always be around they are welcoming to hikers and certainly will accept food res-supply drops.

A Photographic Travelouge

My camp perhaps 3 miles south of Stephens Pond just north of a creek. I managed to mislay my stakes and guylines stuff sack before properly pitching the tarp so had to improvise to get it pitched. I never found the stuff sack so perhaps someone will get lucky and find a nice surprise in the future.

--September 11, 2021 at 8:24 AM. Blue Mountain Lake, NY, United States

At Stephens Lean-to I decided to try making a Swedish fire torch to cook my dinner. I split a log into 4 pieces and stuffed the open center space with twigs and birch bark. Perhaps the central open space wasn’t open enough because while the kindling within it burned the log chunks never really caught properly. I was able to use it a little bit but ended up really heating my ingredients over coals on the edge of the campfire Scott, Don, and I had built (they were doing a section hike between Piseco and Lake Durrant).

--September 11, 2021 at 6:51 PM. Blue Mountain Lake, NY, United States

The Adirondack Hotel in Long Lake. This building has a lengthy history and certainly holds its Victorian styling quite well. The staff were certainly very helpful to hikers like myself.

--September 12, 2021 at 6:06 PM. 1245 Main St, Long Lake, NY, United States

Looking west out upon Long Lake. It’s always nice when the water is this still creating lovely reflections.

--September 13, 2021 at 11:11 AM. 1245 Main St, Long Lake, NY, United States

Hidden Cove is about 1.8 miles into the woods after you leave Tarbell Road. I spent a good 45 minutes here though admittedly some of that time was spent trying to find the right side trail that would take me back to the Northville-Lake Placid Trail.

--September 14, 2021 at 11:49 AM. Long Lake, NY, United States

I think the view is a bit more interesting from Hidden Cove because their are islets but the open expanse of Long Lake seen from Kelly Point isn’t bad.

--September 14, 2021 at 3:02 PM. Long Lake, NY, United States

My twig fire in the Brennerle Hobo Wood Stove did a good job of cooking my backpacking omelette.

--September 14, 2021 at 8:07 PM. Long Lake, NY, United States

I almost missed this sunset. I caught a glimpse of colors as I sat down for dinner so scurried outside to capture this view while I waited for Andy to finish his NPT hike.

--September 15, 2021 at 7:15 PM. 1267–1273 Main St, Long Lake, NY, United States