New Start to NPT

So I signed up for a hike on the proposed new start to the Northville - Lake Placid trail hosted by Norm from the Schenectady Chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club. The hike, a bushwhack, class B2B, started in Gifford's Valley, very near where I live. I met the group there at 9am. My friend Kathy was there as well as Norm and 3 guys I hadn't met before; Paul, Mike and Dave. So we got ourselves arranged and off we went at about 9:15am. The route goes past Mud Lake, which I've mentioned in previous blogs but this time we went up the old logging road on the NYS land just to the south of the route on an old farm/camp road I usually use. This particular trail is also mentioned in Bill Ingersoll's book of trails.

This route has some temporary trail marking of surveyor's tape and some can lids nailed to trees but the markers are irregular and easy to miss.Anyway, the trail to Mud Lake, by any direction is all uphill and with the humidity and heat of the day, we were all hot and sweaty by the time we got to the lake. We took a fairly long water break and we were also rewarded with a lot of wild blueberries, ripe and ready to pick.

We followed the lake edge to the north and to it's outflow then the bushwhack began in earnest. The route we followed took us thru fairly open woodlands over fairly level land. At 3.1 miles we got to a gorge area where the falls were but the low water levels made it less than dramatic this time of year. We reached West Stony Creek at noon and a short trek downstream took us to the island where the crossing bridge for the NPT is proposed to be. We lunched there at the edge of the water. We spotted a small, pink, orchid looking plant in the rocks that in spring would be underwater. I checked my Wildflowers of the Adirondacks and I believe it is a Rose Pogonia. The picture I took of it came out blurry so I won't include it here.

We left at 1pm and came back via a route that took us by some cliffs, north of our trail to the creek, about a mile from West Stony Creek. We then headed back to our original trail and returned to Mud Lake. It was 4pm by the time we got back to the trailhead and the hot, humid day made us all glad for the coolers of ice water waiting for us in the cars. All in all, a good hiking day.