Part 2 - Northville-Placid Trail
In this post I resume my discussion of my recent Northville-Placid Trail thru-hike. In Part 1 I described the very beginning of the trip. I left off at my overnight camp a couple of miles past Whitehouse and the bridge over the Sacandaga River. The following morning I discovered I had lost my contact lenses and case. Despite much searching I had to go on without them and only wear my glasses for the rest of the trip.
So, that morning I reached the town of Piseco. I stopped at the General store that is just off the trail where it crosses the main road. I bought a couple of bottles of drinks (I was already craving something besides water) and an ice cream treat. After consuming most of that I continued my hike (the trail passes through town for more than a mile at that point).
The trail started again in the woods after that and the terrain began to look more like wilderness. By the way, this is one of the two sections of the trail I had hiked some years earlier with my dog Hoppy. Late in the afternoon I reached Spruce Lake with the sound of thunder in the air. I decided to stop at the second Spruce Lake lean-to in case the approaching storm got bad. Shortly after reaching the lean-to I heard and saw a loon on the lake. Unfortunately I couldn't record its song, as you see here.
There was plenty of thunder and rain during the night. Also, as you may recall I use a hammock for backpacking. I put up the hammock inside the lean-to (there were two conveniently placed nails), it was okay, not great (the bottom just touched the floor). Almost forgot, in the evening, just before sunset I saw two fellows rowing a boat along the lake and they asked if I wanted to use the boat (they got it from the first lean-to site), as I had no interest I said no thanks. Seems funny to me that anyone was out that late just paddling around. I took this video in the morning, just before heading out.
From Spruce Lake I headed north through the West Canada Lake region. I met four fellows going in the opposite direction as me. They were heavily loaded and all seemed to be carrying axes. It was after the last one that I realized they were a trail crew, perhaps headed out for resupply. The bridge was still out at West Canada Lake and I needed to rock hop across the water (fortunately the water level was low enough to make this no big deal). There a couple of guys were working on the original bridge though (I assume the fellows I saw earlier were part of this crew). Shortly after that I passed another (all female) crew working on a wet area. They said that it would be done when I came back through. I said I wasn't coming back through that area (perhaps they mistook me for a section hiker due to my light pack).
And, not long after that, I met another hiker going in the opposite direction. He looked to be about the same age as I (he asked about the distance to West Canada Lake). At some point I realized I had lost my 1 liter water container. As it was the one that I used with my Steripen I was a little upset (the other container had a mouth too small for the Steripen and the hydration bladder was too big).
Eventually I reached the Cedar River Flow area and just as I was wishing to find a campsite (no lean-tos were nearby) I found one. This site was right on the water and had something novel, a snail statue right next to the water. At first I thought it was a turtle (as noted in the video), but eventually realized it was a snail.
The next day took me past the Wakely Dam campground and to the relatively recent reroute of the trail away from private land. Along the way I found an empty 1 liter soda bottle. I cut the top off to use it as my Steripen water container (I would fill it and treat it and then fill my other water containers).
The reroute, except for one wet section, is a pleasant woods hike. I made it to the Lake Durant campground where I filled my water containers directly from the campground water spigots. I was hoping to see a soda machine as I was craving something other than water to drink, but alas, none were to be found. I crossed the highway here.
From Lake Durant I hiked to Tirrell Pond. This is a nice walk, especially when the water is visible.
In Part 3 I describe the next section of the trip.