The people who make the Northville-Placid Trail special
The Northville-Placid Trail's (NPT) draw and meaning is in many ways different for everyone. The historic, 138 mile long-distance trail is special and stepping foot on it can also take on many forms. Whether it started with a thru hike of the entire trail over multiple days, or even just a couple hours for a walk, people’s relationship with the trail can morph into decades of stewardship as a lean-to caretaker or trail crew volunteer, helping others with their thru hike via shuttling or trail magic, or even becoming involved in advocating for its continued maintenance and historical preservation. Being the 100th anniversary of the NPT, let’s not only celebrate the trail itself, but the different people who continually care for the trail.
Lean-to caretakers
After hours of hiking, your feet screaming at you to make it stop, seeing that classic Adirondack wooden lean-to can bring on overwhelming feelings of relief. But how do these lean-tos, which have more times than not been in the woods for multiple generations, stay fairly clean and in good condition? Well, for decades now, the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) has organized the Adopt A Lean-To program, where you can apply to caretake a lean-to in your free time. What does this important job entail? It can mean anything from cleaning fire pits, removing garbage and fallen trees, or replacing/repairing privy doors and register book maintenance.
If you’d like to get involved, but didn’t get a spot as a caretaker of a lean-to, you can join a work day with Lean2Rescue, an organization that regularly puts in days upon days of work to replace lean-to roofs, haul in new lumber for repairs or new lean-tos, and add even move lean-tos to conforming locations! We owe a lot of thanks to these folks. If you’d like to preserve a piece of Adirondack heritage along the NPT (or elsewhere), get your hands dirty and your muscles tired with this volunteer crew.
Trail crews
Trail crews come in all sizes, experience levels, and ages here in the Adirondacks. The NPT has seen its fair share of work done on its winding paths, and while more work is still needed to repair portions of the trail, the trail crews have done exceptional jobs in many of its segments. Most notably, the Adirondack Mountain Club created the trail and was the original crew to work on connecting original paths with new stretches of trail. Over the intervening 100 years, the tireless work of ADK’s trail crew hasn’t stopped, with recent projects making major improvements to user experience. In 2015, with the help of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), ADK designed and built a 23 mile reroute that eliminated significant road walks along State Route 30 and Benson Road. Trail crews, including both ADK crews and that of groups like the Student Conservation Association, have put in thousands of hours to do trail maintenance, replacing and building bridges, clearing drainages and blowdown, and constructing trail features like rock staircases.
ADK and the DEC have many volunteer opportunities, and it’s with the help of hundreds of volunteers each year that meaningful work gets done and meaningful connections are made.
Shuttlers and trail magic
If you’ve thru-hiked the trail, and have been involved in the incredibly helpful Facebook groups where people share information about the trail, you’ll know that getting a ride to and from a trailhead is actually surprisingly easy! That’s because some very dedicated folks offer shuttle services and take pride in doing so. One such shuttler (who unfortunately has stopped running them this year) is “Piseco Bob”. Most everyone who has hiked the trail knows him for his generosity, offering his garage up to hikers for a place to resupply, charge electronics, get some water, and offload garbage. As you hike through Piseco on the NPT, you’ll know you’ve found this kindhearted and important character’s location when you see the gigantic ax sculpture on his property! Checking the main NPT Facebook group is a great way to see who else is offering shuttle services and the occasional trail “magic”. Sometimes you’ll find that the campers at Lake Durant Campground are more than happy to hand off a hamburger or two!
Business owners and workers
The trail crosses a few different communities on its path through the park and with that comes some exceptionally kind local businesses who make hikers feel welcomed and at home. Many offer hikers a place to drop resupply packages, discounted rates for lodging, electronic charging, and water fill ups! Some spots are also just great for grabbing some food along your way, like the Oxbow Inn in Piseco. The folks at the Inn on Piseco Lake are also generous to hikers, holding resupplies, offering hiker discounts, and serving up some incredible breakfast if you’re staying for the night. The Post Offices along the trail (in Northville, Piseco, and Long Lake), and those who work there, love thru-hikers, and you shouldn’t feel shy about planning to ship a resupply package to them, where they will hold onto it for you until you’re passing through! Say hi, and let them know you appreciate them!
Historians
Being around for 100 years, the trail has accumulated a rich and interesting history throughout its tenure. Two notable places where historians can share this history with hikers are The Lake Placid-North Elba Historical Society (the historical terminus of the NPT) and The Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake (ADKX). The LP-NE Historical Society hosts information about railroads, transportation, logging, tourism, hermits (shout out Noah John Rondeau!), and recreation along the NPT and elsewhere in the Adirondacks. The Historical Society welcomes hikers in, and emphasizes that those on duty at the museum would love to hear your hiking stories or point you in the right direction for local restaurants, hotels/hostels, transportation options, and any other information you might need.
At ADKX, in celebration of 100 years of the NPT, a brand new exhibit has been curated! At "Trail Makers: 100 Years of the Northville-Placid Trail", visitors can learn about the history of the trail, who built it, the people along the trail’s path (French Louis, Noah John Rondeau, the Plumley’s, and others), and the current form of the trail. There are displays that feature early artifacts of the trail, Anne LaBastille’s actual thru-hiking kit, and a recreation of the beautiful wooden arch that marks the beginning of most folks’ thru-hike in Northville. It's a wonderful place to connect with the trail and fill in the gaps of all the types of people who enjoy, and are important to, the trail that aren’t mentioned above!
Everyone has their own unique experiences and connections with the NPT, and as we celebrate 100 years of this corridor through our mountains, lakes, and landscapes, let’s take a moment to come together and find ways to give back! Take part in some of the planned NPT100 celebrations, which includes educational talks, get-togethers, and volunteer days.
A big thank you to Brant Schneider of Lean2Rescue for providing photos of a few different work days, and to Dakota Inman for providing a wonderful photo of himself with Piseco Bob. Thank you as well to David Lynch and Charlotte Staats of the Adirondack Mountain Club (third and forth trail crew photos), and Ben Brosseau (first two trail crew photos) for providing photos of trail crews on the NPT and elsewhere!