Northville-Placid trip 2009

My two trail mates and I started our Northville-Placid expedition on Aug 10, 2009 from the Long Lake Trailhead, at 9 am on a warm grey day. The trail at this point was easy and dry as it drifted close to Long Lake and then moved away. As we worked our way NE we came upon lean-tos and old foundation of long ago destroyed buildings that once lined this now forever wild wilderness. We stopped at Pawley Point Lean-to #1 and began to set up camp. We had this lean-to to ourselves and it was a gorgeous site with and nice sandy beach. I had brought my pack saw and commenced with gathering wood for this evenings fire. The light pack buck saw worked great for this trip, and is going to make it on all my excursions. I would prefer to take my Hudson Bay ax, but it is too heavy. I was able to call my wife from this location and she warned me that we were about to get slammed with some pretty hefty rain at 11 pm so we decided to stay in the lean-to rather than set up a tent. Big mistake! It did rain and rain hard, BUT the mosquitoes were very hungry and I must say plentiful, and I did not sleep at all that night. BUT I was dry and safe from the big bad thunder, the greater of two evils.

After a mosquito invested night we broke camp in the morning and started heading toward the Seward Lean-to on the Cold River. On the way the trail was good; at one point we had a doe cross in front of us and then walked parallel with us about 20 feet off the trail. She just walked and kept an eye on us. We figured out she must have had a fawn back where we came from. After a few more steps she did a button hook and rushed back in the direction we had just traveled. Another spot a little further up the trail we went through an old blowdown that was impressive. There was about a 100 yard swath of old 30-60 inch oaks that looked like a giant pull them out by there roots and stacked them on top of one and other. We soon started to see the Cold River and the trail turned to follow the river as we headed north.

About 1:30 pm, about 8 miles from the Pawling Point Lean-to we arrived at the Seward lean-to and one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been to. The lean-to is up on a little hill over looking a pool in the Cold River. Upstream there is a little flume that flows into a wide and deep pool that provided us with a great cool place to swim and cool off from the hot humid day. After our swim and a little snooze on the one of the many flat rocky areas in the river, I went and collected wood for our campfire and also looked for some worms or grubs to use for bait with a little hand line I brought with me, but gave up. Bear Grylls makes it look so easy. We found as we explored the rock formations in the river that we had a great view of the Seward Mountain range. We ate dinner and slept in our tents mosquito FREE!! I slept like a log as the night was cool.

We awake to a clear cool morning, made our breakfast, packed up and headed northeast to our next location one of the Duck Hole Lean-to’s. I want to take a second to talk about suspension bridges. We crossed a couple the day before and on our way to the Duck Hole I had to go over a couple of more. I hate these things. They scare the crap out of me. There was one that had a steel grate that was 30 feet over a steep gorge. I made it over and even gathered enough courage and took a picture of the Cold River. Then I looked down and hustled off the damn thing. But I digress…The trip to the Duck Hole is best described as a pleasant scenic walk We stopped at a lean-to about 3 miles from our destination to grab a bit of lunch, when it poured for about 20 minuets, then cleared off and the skies again turned blue. We were lucky like this throughout the entire trip. It rained every day for a little while, but we were always in a shelter. One of the highlights of the trip for me was to stop and visit the location where Noah John Rondeau built his hermitage and stayed until 1950. I remember reading about him as a kid and was fascinated about how he survived in the Adirondacks the way that the pioneers did, except alone and not with a community. Anyway, it met a great deal to me to be able to finally reach this area and now I know why he selected it. It was beautify remote…A place that is nice to visit for me, but not to leave society for.

We arrived at the Duck Hole and again had our pick of lean-tos. We were treated to some great scenery and spent most of the rest of the day observing the multitude of wildlife that was just fluttering and jumping around that wonderful place. I had a humming bird just stop in front of me and hover looking at the white patch on my hat for 20 seconds. In the morning when the mist was still on the pond we observed a deer on the opposite shore, unaware of us, just eating and drinking as she slowly walked along the edge of the pond.

We set out the next morning, which was day 4 or our trip, the day was clear and warm, but we had a downpour during the evening so this part of the trail was difficult do to the blowdown and the muddy trail condition. Now even though the trail was slick and difficult to traverse we made our destination at Wanakena by 12:30 pm. This was yet another wonderful place. 120 foot falls that drops into a 30 foot pool at the bottom that you can swim in (water was very cold here), and you can set your tent up right there. We were thinking of straying the night there or that was the plan, but we arrived earlier than expected and all three of us really wanted a beer. Sooo…after spending a couple of hours resting we decided to hike the remaining 7 miles and get that beer. That made for a 12.5 mile day with full packs, but it was worth it. There were not many views along this section, but we did get to see a Merlin, a type of Falcon that our birder in our small troop had never seen. It swooped right over my head and perched in a tree nearby. Anyhow we made it out and drank our beer (not very cold, but boy it tasted freakin’ good and so didn’t the meal at the Noonmark we had later. Just a jumbo burger and fries, but I was HUNGERY!

This was a great trip for my friends and me. They had done it before, but said they never tire of that section of the N-P trail. I will do that section again and again if I can ever find the time. That and the West Canada Lake region: all in all a magnificent trip!