Part 4 (final) Northville-Placid Trail
Late in the afternoon I reached Cold River Lean-to #1. Across the trail was the other Cold River lean-to and it was filled with young people. They did not bother me and about dark they went to camp at Duck Hole (I know that from seeing their tents the next morning) leaving only one or two of their band behind. I made a small campfire that night although much of the down and dean wood was damp from the rain the day before. I slept that last night in my hammock and got somewhat chilly by morning.
The next morning I headed out soon after waking and reached Duck Hole soon after. The once beautiful site now looks like crap (I'm sorry about the graphic description), but it is no longer a nice place to camp in my opinion. So instead of pausing to admire the view I pushed on. After another hour of hiking I stopped to eat.
From this point is some of the slowest hiking on the trail. but I finally made it to the Moose Pond lean-to as seen here.
After the lean-to it is a relatively short hike to Wanika Falls. It makes for a nice diversion from the trail and is also very popular. I saw a number of other people here, the greatest number of hikers since starting from Upper Benson.
After having my lunch and enjoying the view I pressed on reaching the new bridge over the Chubb River at the flume. This is the video I shot there.
From here I saw no one and the woods seemed empty which was strange considering I was close to Lake Placid at this stage.I did cross one last beaver dam, but it wasn't as bad as the ones near Plumley Point. I started hearing civilization type noise and, somewhat coincidentally, for a trail that originally ended at a train station, the first sounds were a train horn. After what seemed forever (but wasn't) I reached the end of the trail at Averyville Road. It was a little strange ending a hike without my vehicle being there. This is what the end of the trail looked like.
I phoned the fellow (Tom Haskins) running the NPT shuttle to see if he could pick me up early (I had set a time of 6:30 pm just in case I needed all day to finish the last leg, but here I was done at just after 2:30 pm. Fortunately he was willing and could get there in a short amount of time - Thanks Tom (I recommend the shuttle and it sounds like his rental property in Keene would be nice too) I made it home at around dinner time.
This ends my hike narrative. Future post will discuss any post hike lessons learned and future plans and purchases.