I know I mentioned this a few months ago, but since things are firming up a little bit (although still tentative), I thought I'd open a new thread on it.

I'm contemplating doing a thru-hike of the Northville-Placid Trail in the Adirondacks, southbound, in October. Alas, it's likely to be a week or so past the peak of the fall colours, although they can easily last until that time if the weather holds. Family obligations preclude an earlier start. I'm doing it southbound because I'd like to take a zero day a few days from starting, and visit the Adirondack Museum, which is open only until Columbus Day.

I'm a slow hiker, so I'm planning 8-12 mile days. If that turns out to be a dull and boring pace, I could go faster, but I don't want to plan on it. That would make the whole affair roughly a two-week trip. If any of you guys wants to join me for one or more sections, gee, that'd be terrific.

My tentative plan would be to ride Amtrak, and its bus connection, into Lake Placid village on Tuesday, October 7. The bus wouldn't get me into Lake Placid until after 3 pm, so I don't think I could readily hike to the first official campsite at Wanika Falls. I'll be asking elsewhere, among people who've done it, about stealth opportunities on the trail south of Averyville Road. Surely I should be able to roadwalk the three miles to the trailhead and hike some distance in by daylight.

I'd think in terms of getting to the Route 28N trailhead near Long Lake - 39 miles from Lake Placid - by the evening of Friday, October 10. I'd ask my wife to meet me there. There are a number of lodging options in the Long Lake/Raquette Lake/Blue Mountain Lake area, and as plans crystallize, we'll most likely book a room at one of them for a couple of nights.

Saturday, October 11, she and I would go to the Adirondack Museum - there has to be some reason for her to haul all the way up there, after all!

Sunday, October 12, would be back on the trail, ideally with a light pack. Hopefully, I can figure out some way to get resupplied near Lake Durant and Route 28 on Monday, the 13th. That would save a couple of days of food carry. The October 12-13 section would be a nice overnight if someone wanted to join for just one night. (The night's stay would most likely be near either the Tirrell Pond or O'Neil Flow shelter.)

The next road crossing is a gravel road near Wakely Dam. The guidebook says that it's just 12 miles, but in fact it's a few miles longer because of a trail relocation that's newer than the guidebook. Also, if the hike is going well, I'm likely to want to make a detour to visit the Wakely Mountain fire tower, which adds 6.4 miles and about 1700 feet of elevation gain to the route. There are no resupply options near Wakely Dam, which is accessible my car only via 12 miles of gravel road from Routes 28/30 near Indian Lake. I'd imagine making the Wakely Dam campsites on the evening of the 15th.

From there, it's 34.1 miles - with no road access - to Piseco village. I foresee making Piseco on Saturday the 18th, with Sunday the 19th as a rest day. There are a couple of motels in Piseco, but resupply here is likely a mail drop. This is either a seven-day food carry from Long Lake or a five-day carry from Lake Durant, at my slow pace.

The next section is the final 23-30 miles, coming out either on Godfrey Road (which still counts as thru-hiking) on Tuesday the 21st, or Benson Road (a new section just opened this year) on Wednesday the 22nd. My wife and I will have spotted a car here in advance, so that I can drive home from the trailhead. At some point late in the day on Monday the 20th, I'd be passing the Whitehouse trailhead, which is at the end of a 9-mile dirt road from the village of Wells, with no resupply (and likely no hitchhiking possibility) at the trailhead.

As I mentioned before, the NPT is the granddaddy of all the long trails in the US. Construction on it started in 1922 and it opened to hikers in 1924. It traverses some of the remotest areas of the Adirondacks. There are only four road crossings (28N/Long Lake, 28/Lake Durant, Wakely Dam, and Piseco) in its entire 133-mile length, and resupply at any of them can be challenging - at the very least, a hitch of a few miles to a post office. This hike should be a "thru-hike" experience in miniature.

The trail is mostly level, except for the Blue Mountain ridge north of 28N and the side trip to the Wakely fire tower. It can be extremely wet - indeed, I'd be astonished to find that the beavers have not submerged at least one section. It has its share of lovely views, but they are across picturesque lakes and meadows rather than from majestic mountaintops. Because it is so remote, maintenance can be sketchy, and the blazed route is approximate at best.

If people wanted to join me for a section, approximate times at the access points would be

10/7 afternoon - Lake Placid
10/10 evening - arrive Long Lake - zero day (NY 28N)
10/12 morning - depart Long Lake
10/13 late morning (?) - Lake Durant (NY 28/30)
10/15 evening - arrive Wakely Dam (12 mile drive on unpaved road from Indian Lake)
10/16 morning - depart Wakely Dam
10/18 evening - arrive Piseco -zero day (NY 8 )
10/20 morning - depart Piseco
10/20 late afternoon - pass Whitehouse (10 mile drive on unpaved road from Wells)
10/21 evening - Godfrey Road terminus -OR-
10/22 afternoon - Benson Road terminus

OK, now I've done it... I've actually said I'm planning this idiocy.

I start tomorrow! Unbelievable!

In the interest of domestic tranquility, I'm carrying a SPOT. tinyurl.com/kbk-npt2014 is the web site to track where I am.

I won't be here for about three weeks.

Uhm, because I was in Ohio when I tested the device?

I'm done for now. Woke up at 0300 coughing my head off and managed to stumble eight miles into town. Need a sick day or three.

I don't really have vacation time left to complete the thru. What I'll probably do is give up on the patch for this year, leapfrog a few days ahead to a somewhat less remote section, hike another 30 miles or so and call it quits for the year. I could start that as late as Saturday. That'll leave me with more than half the trail done. We'll see how I'm feeling in a few days. I'm holed up in a motel in Long Lake. My wife and I will hit the Adirondack Museum as planned, and then go home.

The trail is a lot more challenging than I'd have guessed from the descriptions and elevation profiles.

It's very, very wet. I wasn't dry once.
I got the fright of my life falling off a slippery rock hop into whitewater only about 3-400 feet upstream of a waterfall.
I also had some rotten bog bridging collapse under me and plunge me thigh-deep into beaver water.
And there was one ford - there's a nice three-log bridge with plank decking sitting tied up on the bank waiting for its washed-out foundations to be rebuilt. I came to that one while I was getting a shower of sleet.
And various herd paths and bushwhacks around blowdown, washouts and beavers.
And this is the sort of trail where the maintainers think a blaze every quarter-mile or so is plenty, and don't necessarily blaze even the intersections. I walked about a half a mile down a private trail at a fork, ending at someone's boathouse on a lakefront.

This is really New York's counterpart to the Hundred Mile Wilderness.

I have NOT quit. I took a couple of sick days, I'm feeling much better, and tentatively planning to leapfrog ahead and complete Benson-Piseco (30.4 miles), starting most likely Thursday. The middle section will have to wait, because I don't feel comfortable tackling Lake Durant to Piseco now. The gates for Moose River Recreation Area are likely to be closed, and 50+ miles without resupply or escape options will be too much in the marginal weather. So I'll leave the middle of the hike, from Long Lake to Piseco, for next year. But I'll still have finished more than half the thing.

For whatever it's worth, I did come home. The southern terminus of the trail is only about an hour and a quarter from here by car, so I can jump on to that section any old time. So I'm not still "out there" except to the extent that I live "out there." (Out there? No, I'm right here. If I weren't right here, I'd be lost.)

You're right about where you catch colds. Right before leaving for the trail, I hosted a business meeting at work with folks from Cincinnati and Auburn, IN, and then went to a wedding in Chicago by train, so I was rubbing shoulders with people from all over the country. That's a good recipe for catching everything that's going around anywhere. Although I think I managed to add some asthma on top of whatever bug I got, and that can be aggravated by cold and smoke. (I built campfires TWICE in four days. I NEVER build a campfire. At least, I demonstrated to myself that I can still get a campfire going in pouring rain, right after falling in a river. But I blame the smoke for part of my problem.)

No problems with other hikers in cramped quarters, though. I slept in shelters two nights out of three, and had lunch in shelters every day. I never do that, either, but dry places to sit down, and level places to pitch a tent, are at a premium on the NPT. I never shared a shelter with anyone but the mice. At least I had a layer of Tyvek between me and the mouse poo.

And that's exactly what I had for four days: highs in the 50s, lows near freezing, intermittent rain and sleet, heavy at times. Got a few glimpses of sun and used them for photography when the trail gave them to me, but they never lasted long. There's nothing like fording in sleet. My skills and gear are good enough that I was seriously cold only right after falling in water or when changing into or out of sleeping clothes. But I was wet - warm and wet, but still wet - the whole time.

Well, one thing about the abort: my "clueless weekender" status is intact! 38 miles in four days is still a long weekend, right?

I'll forgive you for not knowing what an insult that is on this site! "Doing it all wrong" is our mission statement!

I've got my journal up to date : trailjournals.com/AnotherKevin and there are a whole bunch more pictures on Flickr .

Well, I'm home again. Southern section of the trail (Piseco->Benson) done. That, together with Lake Placid->Long Lake is more than half the trail. So I did manage to "get back on the horse." The middle 60 miles will be there next year.

One thing I could have done without was needing to squat over a hole in the ground at 5:00 this morning, in a howling gale with snow falling. Brrr. Worse than fording the West Branch of the Sacandaga, where only my feet got cold. My fundamentals notice it more, I think.

I slept in this morning and quite surprised a hunter, who saw my tent and struck up a conversation with me still in my bag.