Northville-Placid Trail: Upper Benson to Piseco

The weather has finally been dry enough that we were willing to attempt the first stretch on the Northville-Placid Trail. It can be notoriously wet in a rainy season and not wanting to slog through swamps, we waited until August to start the first section. We were able to arrange a ride to the trailhead from Mom and Dad, who went kayaking while we started the hike from Upper Benson. The hiking was flat, dry and easy - we stopped for a picnic at a falls about 1.5 miles in.

We continued hiking, intending to spend the night at the Silver Lake lean-to. When we got there, it was unoccupied and we dropped our packs and ate some more. We looked at our watches and decided that since it was only three o'clock that we would head further up the trail.

About an hour and a half later we found ourselves at Canary Pond with a perfect tent site and excellent sitting rocks going into the pond. We had energy to go further but decided that we would not find a more picturesque campsite any further. We set up camp, had an early dinner, played a round of cribbage while watching the loon and went to bed early.

We were up early the next morning and despite the chill in the air, got moving and packed before eight o'clock. We started north on the trail and found ourselves taking a break at the Mud Lake lean-to at midmorning. The site was nice, but made us glad that we chose Canary Pond for the previous night.

After leaving the lean-to, we were looking intently for water to pump, but only finding dry stream beds. It wasn't until we reached the west branch of the Sacandaga River that we found enough water to pump. We pumped drinking water while soaking our feet in the river (downriver of where we were pumping of course) and relaxed before starting the next stretch.

The last portion of the trail from Whitehouse was a relaxing stroll through the woods. We took breaks at the lean-to and Buckhorn Lake and found ourselves back on the pavement of route 8 in the afternoon.

The road section of the trail was by far the hardest part. The unforgiving pavement was straining our feet. We took a break at the Piseco airport but managed to get back to the car on Haskell Road a few minutes later. Happy to lose the packs for a while, we headed to North Lake for a rest with some great company.