Guide to Thru Hiking the Northville Placid Trail - Thru Hike Planning, Full Trip Video, Trail Resources, Gear List, and More

What is the Northville Placid Trail?

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). It also takes the trail through the center of two of the largest wilderness areas in the Adirondacks - the High Peaks Wilderness and the and the West Canada Lakes Wilderness. The Northville Placid Trail is a unique way to travel through the Adirondacks, giving you an introduction many other visitors to the Park miss.

Our Northbound Thru Hike of the Northville Placid Trail

We thru hiked the Northville Placid Trail* (NPT) northbound between August 9, 2020 and August 18, 2020. We had one zero near Long Lake. We weren’t supported and didn’t have time to do maildrops, so we used two cars and set the hike up with a handful of car shuttles. The shuttles gave us a chance to resupply and grab some town food while we were out. They also helped facilitate the zero day we enjoyed.

*Northville Placid Trail or Northville Lake Placid Trail? The generally accepted official name of this trail is the Northville Placid Trail and is what the guidebooks and maps use.

How we hiked the Northville Placid Trail

Day 1 - The Start! - Village of Northville to Abner Brook Campsite (changed it up a bit on day 1 with a SOBO slackpack from Upper Benson Road to Village of Northville, then NOBO with full backpacks from Upper Benson Road to Abner Brook Campsite) - 18 miles
Day 2 - Abner Brook Campsite to Hamilton Lake Stream Lean-to - 19 miles
Day 3 - Hamilton Lake Stream Campground to Spruce Lake Lean-to #1 - 16 miles
Day 4 - Spruce Lake Lean-to #1 to Cedar Lakes #1 Lean-to - 13.5 miles
Day 5 - Cedar Lakes #1 Lean-to to Lake Durant/Route 28 - 22 miles
Day 6 - Zero
Day 7 - Lake Durant/Route 28 to Long Lake - 15.5 miles
Day 8 - Long Lake to Cold River #4 Lean-to - 12.5 miles
Day 9 - Cold River #4 Lean-to to Duck Hole #3 Lean-to - 12 miles
Day 10 - The Finish! - Duck Hole #3 Lean-to to Lake Placid - 12 miles

How long should it take to hike the Northville Placid Trail?

The Northville Placid Trail’s guide book suggests two weeks as the time needed for an average thru hike, but for anyone other than a beginner hiker, that pace will probably feel slow.

Even with a zero day, we did a relatively quick thru hike of the Northville Placid Trail. The pace for us did not feel overly rushed, but if we did it again, we might consider cutting back on some of the mileage, just to give ourselves some extra time to enjoy the swimming holes and not work so hard in the hot weather (the first half of our trip was in 90ish degree temps).

For moderate to strong hikers, a 9-11 day thru hike shouldn’t be a problem.
For very strong hikers, it can clearly be done even quicker.
For hikers with less experience, or who don’t already have their trail legs, a 2 week thru hike should be more than enough time to thru hike the NPT.

Camping on the Northville Placid Trail

Campsites and lean-tos are spaced along the Northville Placid Trail in more or less day-length mileages. Camping is also allowed within the Adirondack Forest Preserve in any location along the trail so long as you are on public land and more than 150-feet away from road, trail, and water. Lean-tos and campsites are first-come, first-serve facilities, so you should always be prepared with an alternate camping plan.

We lucked out with an open lean-to in each location we planned to camp with one, but we did carry a tent and there were two sites that had improved camping sites (Abner Brook and Wakely Dam) where you needed to use a tent, as there were no lean-tos.

How we shuttled our vehicles and resupplied while hiking the Northville Placid Trail

Our original plan was to put a car in Lake Placid and get dropped off at Northville for this hike. Plans changed when our shuttle fell through due to some unforeseen circumstances. Given that we don’t live too far from the Adirondacks, we decided to go ahead and bring both our vehicles and give ourselves an easy way to resupply along the way.

First Shuttle: We brought both cars to Northville and realized given the heat, topography, and road walking that’s involved in this section, that it was easiest to do a southbound (SOBO) slackpack from the Upper Benson Road trail crossing back to the Village of Northville. The trail from Upper Benson Road to the start of the road walking is generally pretty mild with some slight ups and downs. Once you reach the roadwalk, after a short uphill climb, it’s all downhill and/or flat to the Village of Northville and the southern terminus of the trail. Given that it was 90ish degrees , we thought it would be best to descend on the roadwalk! Once we got back to Northville, we grabbed a late lunch, then shuttled a car up to where the NPT passes through Piseco and left our car at that trailhead. We then entered the woods at Upper Benson Road and spent the next two days getting to Piseco.
Second Shuttle: On Day 3 we reached the roadwalk at Piseco and our car was waiting for us at the northern end of the roadwalk (the only real parking available for the NPT along the roadwalk). We had some concern about leaving our vehicle here. The lot is remote, without many vehicles, and there had been reports of break-ins. Thankfully our car was fine and we had reached it midday. We went and grabbed the car on Upper Benson Road, had lunch, and then shuttled a car up to the NPT’s crossing of Route 28 at Lake Durant. After putting a car at Route 28, we headed back to Piseco to get into the woods for the next two days to Route 28. (A note for those who want to do a maildrop in their hike, the trail does pass by the Piseco Post Office and they will hold thru-hiker packages)
Third Shuttle: We slackpacked the section of NPT between Route 28 and Long Lake and so therefore we had a short vehicle shuttle here.
Fourth Shuttle: The fourth and final shuttle was to bring a car to the Averyville Road trailhead and then head back to the Long Lake/Tarbell Road trail crossing where we entered the woods and began the last 3 day section of trail. We had also heard of reports of break-ins at both these trail crossings, but thankfully again, we lucked out and both cars were fine.

Bear Awareness on the Northville Placid Trail / Bear Canister Use

The Northville Placid Trail traverses portions of the Adirondacks with populations of bears and areas with special bear regulations (the High Peaks Wilderness in the northern section of the trail). We had decided given the potential for bear interactions, especially at the various lean-tos along the way, that we would carry a single bear canister between the two of us that we’d keep all our food in when camping.

It’s important to note that bears in the eastern High Peaks Wilderness have learned to defeat the type of bear canister that we used, though those bears are located well east of the where the NPT trail passes through the High Peaks Wilderness. The NYSDEC maintains a page on bear canisters that discusses this and a canister like this would meet your needs in the eastern High Peaks. Generally the type of canister we used works throughout the rest of the Adirondacks (including the NPT) and the Catskills against bears.

Over the 10 days of our hike, we didn’t run into any bears, nor see much evidence of bears along the way. The canister came in most handy to protect our food from the aggressive mice, chipmunks and squirrels that populated the lean-to sites. Unprotected food was quickly located and scavenged by these critters.

Water on the Northville Placid Trail

The Northville Placid Trail passes almost too many water sources to count - including lakes, streams, rivers, and wetlands. When we hiked the trail, it had been a rather dry summer, yet the longest water carry we had was about 3 miles. In wetter times, this would be even less. That means there’s no need to carry large amounts of water.

Water along the trail should be considered contaminated with giardia - it’s more or less present in all water throughout the northeast nowadays. This means drinking untreated water will result in some severe stomach problems. To avoid this, properly filter your water. We used our Sawyer Squeeze Filters along the way and never had a problem.

Resources we used for the Northville-Placid Trail in the Adirondack Park

The best guide to the Northville Placid Trail is the Adirondack Mountain Club's Northville-Placid Trail Guide Book
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 Guide Book and Map as a bundle

Both proved indispensable for this hike. The NPT isn't currently in an app like FarOut and the AllTrails data is very limited. For the Northville Placid Trail definitely go with the old fashioned map and pick up the guidebook so you know what to expect.

We carried both the map and guidebook with us, but if we did it again, we would just have the map. The map is waterproof/tearproof so it'll survive the hike and there’s nothing so challenging or difficult about navigating the trail that you need the full guidebook on the hike with you.

Have us guide you on the Northville Placid Trail

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. Let us know what you’d be interested in, and we can work with you to make it happen - from fully guided thru hikes of the Northville Placid Trail, to a providing support and logistics for you on your own thru hike. Drop us an email and let us know what interests you about thru hiking (or section hiking) the Northville Placid Trail.

Gear we used on the Northville Placid Trail

We did our best to pack light for our thru hike of the Northville Placid Trail, but by no means were we pulling an ultralight backpacking trip here. We generally needed to carry 3 days of food between shuttles and resupplies and our backpacks averaged about 30 pounds for overall weight, including food and water. Thankfully the Northville Placid Trail has plenty of water sources, so there wasn’t a need to carry large amounts of water any long distances.

Backpacks for the Northville Placid Trail

Sleep Systems

Cooking System, Water Purification & Food Protection

Hiking Poles and Shoes

Clothing

Other Gear

Energizer LED Headlamp

Dinners

Breakfasts

Hydration, Lunches, and Snacks

Technology

Our Hiking Advice and Hiking Gear Recommendations