Adirondack Sports May 2024

HIKING & BACKPACKING
SARANAC LAKE
MAY 2024 41
Northville-Placid Trail
TUPPER
LAKE
3
LAKE
PLACID
30
LONG LAKE
Long
Lake
NEWCOMB
NORTHVILLE
PLACID
TRAIL
BLUE
MOUNTAIN
LAKE
28
INDIAN
LAKE
28N
28
West
Canada
Lake
Indian
Lake
30
SPECULATOR
8
N
A Perfect
Two-Week
Fitness Vacation
◀ VLY NEAR PISECO.
PISECO
8
30
NORTHVILLE
0 10 20
MILES
Great
Sacandaga
Lake
By Jeff Case
MAP BY KAREN CHAPMAN
I’d always considered myself fit. When I
was young, I had a newspaper route that
was eight blocks from my home and I
carried my papers to it, lest someone pilfer
from my meager profits. I played baseball in
high school. I put a ton of miles on my Fuji
S10s road bike. I was on the ice every winter,
slapping pucks all over the place. I ran,
walked, and worked out at home. My senior
year I didn’t even have to take Phys-Ed; they
offered me “independent study” credit. I
simply had to log my activities whether I
was bowling or pumping iron.
Then along came romance, and soon
after that marriage. Needless to say,
newfound responsibility required newfound
employment hours. Pretty soon
my personal fitness had to take a back
seat to more important matters such as
rent and car payments. Oh, the residual
calorie furnace burned clean for a while.
But before long, the furnace couldn’t keep
up with the fuel provided by food service
employment, and a couple of loving Greek
matrons that felt a personal responsibility
to “fatten me up.” What was I to do?
Well, like my father before me, and
countless other male bread winners and
bread eaters, I was resigned to the typical
middle-age spread that rapidly ensued.
Going up a pant size every year became
the norm. At least it was, until I discovered
what proved to be a rather enjoyable
reset to my personal fitness, I hiked the
Northville-Placid Trail end-to-end.
If you’re not familiar with it, the NPT
is an approximately 133-mile continuous
footpath across the Adirondack Park. It’s
the oldest and longest marked foot trail
in New York. A noteworthy fact regarding
it is that the purpose of constructing
the trail led to the formation of the
Adirondack Mountain Club. This year the
trail is celebrating its’ 100th anniversary.
Now, to the uninitiated, please understand
it’s not your average suburban
▲ NEAR WEST CANADA LAKE.
PHOTOS BY JEFF CASE
walk in the park. No, it’s a sporadically
maintained footpath that winds through
the remotest parts of the state. Granted,
it is a marked trail. But in the wilderness,
anything can happen and does happen.
Trees fall on the trail and must be dealt
with. Beavers move in and renovate the
landscape. Rivers and streams may not
have bridges, and if they do have bridges
they may not be there when you get there.
And as you might expect, there are hills
to climb, many of them. And then there’s
the weather to contend with, but that’s
another story.
Now, I should mention that I had some
backpacking experience before doing the
trail. I had done several weekend trips of
six-to-eight-mile lengths. They seemed
pretty tough as I navigated my way along
hill and dale in the southern Adirondacks.
My pack seemed heavy, the trails seemed
difficult, and I seemed to be out of shape!
By the end of the day, I was tired and sore.
However unlikely it may seem, the prospect
of backpacking a long trail was very
appealing to me.
Of course, the grandaddy of all trails,
the Appalachian Trail, loomed in the distance.
As appealing as it might be, at 2,100
miles and five months duration, there
was no way that my circumstances would
allow even entertaining it. But somehow
the Northville-Placid Trail seemed a reasonable
possibility. After all, I was already
used to two or three days out at a time.
What if I could simply string together the
equivalent of five or six trips? If I could
work out the logistics, it just might be a
possibility, so I bought the guidebook
and began to plan. Before long I put in my
notice at work with the intent of actually
accomplishing it. Little did I know at the
time that a two-week vacation would turn
See HIKING & BACKPACKING 43