Day 9 - 2020 Northville Placid Trail Thru Hike - Cold River #4 Lean-to to Duck Hole #3 Lean-to
The Northville-Placid Trail is a 138-mile long distance hiking trail that runs through the heart of the Adirondacks - from the village of Northville in the south to the village of Lake Placid in the north. The trail is unique in the Adirondacks that it does not traverse any significant mountain peaks, but instead stays to the valleys and lowlands throughout the Adirondacks. That results in the trail passing many lakes, streams, ponds (and there being plenty of mud along the way).
At the upper Duck Hole Lean-to
We thru hiked the NPT between August 9, 2020 and August 18, 2020. We had one zero near Long Lake. We had two cars so we set the hike up with a handful of car shuttles. That gave us a chance to resupply and grab some town food.
On Day 9 of our Northville-Placid Trail Thru Hike, we began at the Cold River #4 Lean-to and hiked to the upper Duck Hole Lean-to, a distance of 12 miles.
As part of the hike, Jeff kept a journal of each day and so, with so we will be using his journal to provide a description of each day’s hike. You can also find the entire NPT thru hike on our YouTube channel here.
Woke up around 3am to find that my mattress was rather flat. Blew in some extra air but within the next 2 hours it was back to being flat. Ugh. 6 nights in the woods and it already had a leak. Sat up against lean-to wall and slept a little more till sleeping beauty finally woke up. Breakfast and all that jazz.
For the hiking yesterday with the full pack, the toe is feeling good this morning. Thanks to all the gel bandaids on the blisters, those are doing okay on both feet and I just had to wrap the toe this morning, which so far (fingers crossed) is feeling better than it has in several days, though it doesn’t really look any better.
Hit the trail and it was kind of cloudy, but didn’t look overly threatening. Quickly got to Big Eddy and then to the Seward Lean-to and Millers Falls. I remembered Millers Falls from the hike with my Dad. It was kind of chilly and threatening so we didn’t stop to swim, plus that would have required me to take apart my toe and start over. We continued to walk.
About halfway to the Ouluska Lean-to it started to rain. Lightly at first, but eventually heavy enough to soak us. Had the pack rain flies on so they were fine, but Moe and I were drowned rats. Got to the leanto and found the group we had been following since we started hiking. We started a few days behind them and caught up to them. Kind of cool. Hung out at the lean-to with them trying to dry off and wait out the rain. Probably spent about an hour there till the sun came out.
Got back to hiking and my toe was really sensitive. All the taping I had done to hold my other toes away from it had failed in the rain, my socks and boots were soaked and the water just made the nail and the blister around it just sting like hell. Took it slow and did okay. Can’t say it was fun or that I paid attention to much besides my toe.
Got to the trail junction with the horse trail and quickly reached the last two Cold River lean-tos. It had started to drizzle again so we took refuge there and snacked. Moe also took advantage of the privy. The group from the prior lean-to caught up to us too. Chatted for a bit and then they headed off and we followed.
Another mile or so and we came down to Duck Hole. Doesn’t look anything like it did when I was here as a kid. All the fields above the former pond are grown in and the pond itself, which was just mudflats when I was here last is starting to grow in with forest. The group in front of us took the lean-to closest to the former dam so we continued past that area another two tenths of a mile or so to a new lean-to that’s been built on what’s now a stream entering the wetlands above the dam. If the dam was up it would have been an arm of the pond. Kind of cool to see the rivers taking back over. They’ve cut through several feet of silt and now have gravel bottoms again.
Got a good fire going while moe cooked. We both got really chilled from the hike in the rain and from not really matching calorie intake with calorie burning. We made an extra large dinner and am using the fire to dry stuff out and keep warm. Expecting a chilly night.
Tomorrow is the final 12 miles to the car!
Resources for the Northville-Placid Trail in the Adirondack Park
The best guide to the NPT is the Adirondack Mountain Club's Northville-Placid Trail Guidebook
The best map is the National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map for the Northville-Placid Trail
You can save a few bucks and get both the Guidebook and Map as a bundle
Both proved indispensable for this hike. The NPT isn't currently in an app like Guthook and the AllTrails data is very, very limited. For the NPT definitely go with the old fashioned map and pick up the guidebook so you know what to expect. We carried both with us, but if I did it again, I'd just have the map. The map is waterproof/tearproof so it'll survive the hike.
Interested in hiking the NPT, but want guide services? Hike On Guides can do that - we have special long distance hiking services tailored for the Northville-Placid Trail.
Gear we used on the Northville Placid Trail