The seed was planted in my head about 6 years ago.  At the time I was a pretty avid summer hiker in the High Peaks region of the Adirondacks, and I worked part time at the local Eastern Mountain Sports.  Hiking, and the great beauty of the north woods, had clearly captured my interest - but the majority of my adventures there were limited to long weekends and summit hikes.  I found myself really yearning for something else, something more, something extraordinary.   I wanted to experience more of the Adirondacks, I wanted to live in them, and see what they were hiding behind the weekend crowds and popular peaks.  And I wanted to challenge myself.  That is when I learned about the Northville Placid trail.

The trail was laid out in 1922 and 1923 and begins, as its name implies, in a small town called Northville - just North of where I grew up.  It then traverses about 133 miles of forests, lakes, old log roads, and even blacktop highways, on its way to the great town of Lake Placid.  It generally takes about 19 days to complete, but seasoned hikers or well conditioned folk can do it in 11 or less.  I remember the day I purchased the trail guide like it was yesterday.  I stayed up that night reading the trail descriptions and planning out my own future itineraries.  It was no longer a matter of IF I would hike the NP, it was a matter of WHEN.

'When' unfortunately came much later then I had anticipated it would.  As life has a tendency to do, I was thrown a few curve balls and eventually found myself living near Boston with a new job.  6 years later the Adirondacks seemed far away and thoughts of the Northville Placid were relegated to those few nights when I would stumble upon the old guide book I had purchased.

And then the obsession returned - It wasn't one single event that re-energized my NP desires, but instead, looking back on it, it was several circumstances falling together.  For starters, two people very close to me gave me the same book as a gift - 'A Walk in the Woods' by Bill Bryson - so I figured I had better give it a read.  The book is a travel commentary of the author's hike on the Appalachian Trail and it blew me away.  It was funny, and interesting and enlightening - I highly recommend it.  It really got my mind focused on the prospects of a long hike again.  Then, as fortune would have it, I found myself with a lot of extra vacation time from work - but, as misfortune would have it, I found myself with very little money to do anything substantial.  I scrambled for ideas.

The clincher came on an inspired night when, for lack of anything better to do, I decided to write down all of the things I would regret if I never had a chance to do them.  Learn to play guitar, earn an advanced degree, patch things up with some old acquaintances, write a short story, visit Japan and Europe etc etc and then, there it was - The Northville Placid trail.  Near the top of the list and fitting perfectly into my upcoming time off.

  I had to go for it!

This is the sign that sits on the side of RT. 30, marking the original starting point of the Northville Placid Trail.

The road from the original sign up to the modern trail head isn't very hiker friendly.  Consisting of blacktop with a small shoulder, it gets a lot of traffic - combined with extensive road construction, any thoughts I had of starting from the original trailhead were quickly put to bed.  After a small lunch in the Town of Northville, my mom and I drove the few miles to Upper Benson.

The modern start of the Northville Placid Trail in Upper Benson