New Resource Guide For NPT

[Wildernessphoto]

I see this sub-forum as a real asset to the NPT. I'd like to see it expand and include maps with locations of trouble spots, and flooded sections,

I'd like to see some form of de-briefing sheet developed to get info on blowdown, lean-to and outhouse problems, as well as bridge and walkway problems etc. (if you have idea's let me know)

If we can get specific info on these problems, with the coordinance from GPS or maps, we could forward this info to the DEC for the necessary repairs.

I'd also like to see specific info posted on support resources like Back-to-basics
and any other resources that could help the folks plan trips.

We also could use information on:

Hotel/motels

Campgrounds

How to resupply by using post offices, where they are, how to find them from the trail, including the addresses that you ship too, and how to address the packages.

Information on what gear to bring, and what gear to send ahead to resupply locations.

These are just a few things I could think of that would be a big help to those planning a trip on the NPT.

What are your thoughts?

Do you have info you can share?

[redhawk]

I see this sub-forum as a real asset to the NPT. I'd like to see it expand and include maps with locations of trouble spots, and flooded sections,

I'd like to see some form of de-briefing sheet developed to get info on blowdown, lean-to and outhouse problems, as well as bridge and walkway problems etc. (if you have idea's let me know)

If we can get specific info on these problems, with the coordinance from GPS or maps, we could forward this info to the DEC for the necessary repairs.

I'd also like to see specific info posted on support resources like Back-to-basics
and any other resources that could help the folks plan trips.

We also could use information on:

Hotel/motels

Campgrounds

How to resupply by using post offices, where they are, how to find them from the trail, including the addresses that you ship too, and how to address the packages.

Information on what gear to bring, and what gear to send ahead to resupply locations.

These are just a few things I could think of that would be a big help to those planning a trip on the NPT.

What are your thoughts?

Do you have info you can share?

Get in touch with the ADK and see if you can get a contact list of the people who maintain the different sections of the trail and the lean-tos. They will be able to give you information on blowdown and other factors, while if anyone hiking it comes across it, the ADK would be the group to contact because to the best of my knowledge the DEC does little or no maintainence on the NPT.

As far as the PO's. Resupply packages are just mailed to yourself c/o general deivery at the Town, State and zip code that you want them delivered to. Mostly it's Piseco and Long Lake.

If you want a listing of the hotel/motels, campgrounds, request them from the Chamber of Commerce as the various communities, Wells, Piseco, Lake Pleasant, Long Lake, Newcomb and Lake Placid.

Gear is the same as for any multi day hike in the dacks and thats pretty well docimentated here for all seasons.

Conditions of trails can only be updated as people actually hike them so since we already have atrail report section. people could put it there unless you want a separate section but I thought you were trying to simplify things here.

[Kevin]

Tom is starting to centralize a lot of these efforts through this group/committee:

http://www.adkforum.com/showthread.php?t=3729

I been meaning to have a few of you contact him privately via email. He's looking for all the help he can get.

I asked Val if she could create a sticky with useful info and links. She's working on another NPT related item at the moment, but I'm sure she'll get to it soon.

[Dick]

Tom is starting to centralize a lot of these efforts through this group/committee:

http://www.adkforum.com/showthread.php?t=3729

I been meaning to have a few of you contact him privately via email. He's looking for all the help he can get.

I asked Val if she could create a sticky with useful info and links. She's working on another NPT related item at the moment, but I'm sure she'll get to it soon.

May I also suggest that Rick and RC from this forum might be good sources of info, as I believe they have both done the trail. I think RC does at least the lower part on a regular basis.

Dick

[RC]

I hiked into rock lake this past saturday and found the trail in pretty good shape for this time of year. Still has snow and ice, but not bad.I managed to run all the way back without falling so it was a great trip.some of the worst footing was the woods road that runs to the barrier. Found one new big blow down not to far past the west stony creek wooden bridge on the way to rock lake. I'm hoping the weather hold for this weekend because I'd like to go into silver lake.


RC

[Wildernessphoto]

Get in touch with the ADK and see if you can get a contact list of the people who maintain the different sections of the trail and the lean-tos. They will be able to give you information on blowdown and other factors, while if anyone hiking it comes across it, the ADK would be the group to contact because to the best of my knowledge the DEC does little or no maintainence on the NPT.

I'm sure the DEC would get a hold of the ADK or whoever has adopted the section of trail where there is a problem. I was thinking that if the adopted individuals haven't been in there, they would appreciate the info.

As far as the PO's. Resupply packages are just mailed to yourself c/o general deivery at the Town, State and zip code that you want them delivered to. Mostly it's Piseco and Long Lake.

I was hoping we could post sample labels, so people who have never done this before would know how. I was also looking for a list of post offices on the route, and a map to there location in town, so people know how to find the post office when coming off the trail

If you want a listing of the hotel/motels, campgrounds, request them from the Chamber of Commerce as the various communities, Wells, Piseco, Lake Pleasant, Long Lake, Newcomb and Lake Placid.

I was hoping we could post a list so people have that info here, and don't need to contact Chamber of Commerce. If anyone has favorite campgrounds, hotels, or other spots of interest, let me know.

Conditions of trails can only be updated as people actually hike them so since we already have atrail report section.

what I was thinking about with the debriefing sheet, was if people knew what we were looking for before they left,(thus the sheet) they could compile information on the problem area's as they hike, including GPS coordinance, and then we could pass that info on to the DEC or ADK or whoever needs it. Hikers on the trail could be the eyes and ears for the DEC/ADK.

you were trying to simplify things here.

My thinking was to compile all this info in one resource her on line, and people could print out a pile of info, that would help them plan the trip. It could help a lot of people, and save a lot of planning time.

I remember Val was talking about flooded sections and some re-routes of the trail because of it. That's the kind of thing that could be very helpful to the DEC/ADK and through hikers.

I know when I plan a long hike, I'm researching all kinds of things. It would be nice if we could go to a thread and print out a bunch of info already compiled.
I'm going to be working on it over the next few weeks/months.
Anyone have any info they can share, post it, or drop me a PM.
Thanks!
-Gary-

[redhawk]

Problem is, things change overnight. Last week it was impossible to cross Priests Vly and Doug had to Whack along the contour line to where the trail crosses back across the Creek. Then he told me about the awesome view of the Waterfall and the river from the Hamilton lake lean-to, which was actually runoff from the stream that runs out of Priests Vly! Finally he had to turn around and hike back to piseco instead of into West River Road because the swampy area between the lean to and Hamilton Lake Stream suspension bridge was under water.

A day later everything was passable.

My point is that conditions are so fluid with the exception of blowdown, that if people assume that the trail is passable or unpassable, based on a report here, by the time the report is posted the conditions will have changed.

Whats wrong with getting lists from the CofC's? I was talking about uou using that for a resource to post information here. Then you can post all of the options with prices. What one person likes or reccommends for a motel, or a restaurant for that matter might not be what another person prefers. Same with the Post offices, just look up the zipcodes and post them, along with a "generic example"; William Redhawk, C/o General Delivery, Wells, NY 12190 with "NPT Thru-Hiker" printed at the lower left hand corner of the package.

I talked to the ranger and DEC Officer in Wells and they said that it is not policy for the DEC to inform the ADK about trail conditions or problems. That was the whole idea of the "adoption" policy, to free them up for other things and they are usually off on other trails around here.

I'm not opposed to what you are trying to do, but conditions change so fast in some cases the information might be wrong even if dated by only a day or two.

So someone reads here that a section of trail is on good shape, packs for a hike, conditions have changed near the end of the trail and they have to backtrack and they run out of something critical and something bad happens and who kows what the results are? The adkforum is not incorporated and if there is any liability as a result of "misinformation", then Kevin is liable.

I sure feel sorry for all those people who hiked the NPT before the internet. It's a wonder they were able to survive or enjoy it. Imagine actually having to hike and not know what's around the next corner and not having to overcome any challenges.

The greatest thing about my "long" hike in 95, when I went from South Dakota to Sequoia was all the unexpected discoveries and some of the difficulties I had to overcome. Had I known what to expect all the way I am sure that it not have been one of the greatest adventures (note the word ADVENTURE) in my life.

I also think that if someone fels that they have all the information they need and prepare for what they "expect" to find, a complacency sets in and that can be dangerous. Especially when it seems to a newcomer that it's going to be a walk in the park. It might tend to put people out there that shouldn't be and that's bad for everyone.

[Kevin]

I sure feel sorry for all those people who hiked the NPT before the internet. It's a wonder they were able to survive or enjoy it. Imagine actually having to hike and not know what's around the next corner and not having to overcome any challenges.

That's hilarious .


I don't think the intent is to make a "How to hike the NPT for dummies" book. My thoughts are this: anyone looking to hike 120-130 miles as a single hike aren't the same folks hiking up Cascade in jeans in March (whoops, that was me! ).

What's actually going on, behind the scenes right now, is there's a group of concerned hikers LOOKING for information on the trail so they can get to the trouble spots, clear the blowdown or start pushing for resources and permission to rebuild/repair a broken bridge or damaged trail. Sure, we can't clear every stick of wood that's across the 130 miles, but we can at least get to the ones getting in people's ways and causing rerouting of the trail. There are vaguely known spots of trouble. We're trying to pinpoint these. That includes knowing where the trail gets very messy when the weather's bad, so trail hardening and such can be done to avoid trail widening and rerouting to avoid the muck.

As for the rest of the requests, having someone post some tips (like you did about how to address for a mail drop) could be useful to someone who's never done it. Having some of the easter eggs/insider info on specifics for hiking the NPTcan't be a bad thing, even if it's info that's found somewhere else. 50% or more of the posts here can be found somewhere else if you don't mind doing some serious digging and searching on google.

Liability? It's common and accepted fact forum posts and interactions are considered hearsay. I'm currently worth somewhere between -$60,000 and -$70,000 in credit and student loan debt, so if someone wants to help pay some of those bills so I can be freed up for a lawsuit I welcome you to go climb Marcy in your shorts - it's an easy hike and if you run fast enough you won't get cold! When you get back from the hospital you can sue me .

[AdRegion]

Here's my latest toy:

http://hike.adirondackbasecamp.com

It's a work in progress, rate it and send me some suggestions to further focus my lens. I would love to include a NPT lens in the network, but I'm not familiar enough with that particular topic to dare do it.

Click here and start the NPT lens: Build Lens

Also, it is possible that 'off-shoring' the info might mitigate liability.

I agree that trying to track every possible thing and real-time reporting would be difficult, but a general guide to hiking the NPT would be useful. I have not found the one single definitive place I can point inquiries to. Though I haven't committed to the Squidoo platform, something of this type along with a blog will complment our current evergreen/static data on our main Adirondack Region . This is a way to drag tourism kicking and screaming into the Web 2.0 movement.

[Wildernessphoto]

I agree that trying to track every possible thing and real-time reporting would be difficult, but a general guide to hiking the NPT would be useful. I have not found the one single definitive place I can point inquiries to. T

Good resource adRegion,
I know what in my discussions with Kim at Back-to-basics, she was surprised that there aren't many support resources out there, that's what got me thinking about this initially. She started Back-to-basics to fill a need. I believe she is working on some type of booklet resource to be able to help hikers of the NPT. I think that's a great idea, and would like to see us develope something like that online.

[Kevin]

http://www.avatar12.com/northvilleplacid/

Here's an excellent start

[kwc]

NPT trailwork

The Schenectady Chapter of the ADK has these dates scheduled for trail maintenance:

Sat April 22 McCane's to Lake Durant (Rich Vertigan 381-9319)

Sat May 6 Stony Creek Barrier to Rock Lake (Ken & Nilde Marcinowski 885-9400)

Sat May 27th Rock Lake to Silver Lake (Harold McCumber 274-3960)

Space is limited for each of these ...

[Wildernessphoto]

The Schenectady Chapter of the ADK has these dates scheduled for trail maintenance:

Sat April 22 McCane's to Lake Durant (Rich Vertigan 381-9319)

Sat May 6 Stony Creek Barrier to Rock Lake (Ken & Nilde Marcinowski 885-9400)

Sat May 27th Rock Lake to Silver Lake (Harold McCumber 274-3960)

Space is limited for each of these ...

Thanks Kev!
That's good info. That's what I'm talking about.

do you know if anyone can help?

[kwc]

Thanks Kev!
That's good info. That's what I'm talking about.

do you know if anyone can help?

Gary!

I just emailed one of the trail leaders to see if one needs to be a member of just the ADK, or the Schenectady Chapter (that's where I am a member).

As soon as I hear something, I'll let ya know!

I am going to volunteer for the May 6th trail work (Rock Lake).

-Kevin the elder

[Holdstrong]

I sure feel sorry for all those people who hiked the NPT before the internet. It's a wonder they were able to survive or enjoy it. Imagine actually having to hike and not know what's around the next corner and not having to overcome any challenges.

They did what I did Red.... get frustrated at the lack of info that is readily available, go running into the woods with only a general sense of how things will go, and then have one hell of a fun adventure! Oh, and then come home and decide to create a site to fill in some of the gaps for people.

But seriously, I don't think the point is to provide an up to date account of every twist and turn in the trail... hell, even if we tried to do that we wouldn't be very successful... it is more about (in my mind at least) updated and accurate info about things like mail drop locations, off trail camping areas or other shelter, re-supply locations, general tips, etc etc. Sure it is nice to go into an adventure like this half blind and see what opens up to you, and if you miss something or screw something up so be it! ... but some people only get to do something like the NPT once and so it is also nice to at least have the option to draw from the experiences of others in an attempt to maximize your trip.

Without the internet, hell even with the internet but without consolidated sources of info (afterall I tried to find internet info on the trail when I first did it but had little luck) it would be a lot harder to flush out gems such as Kim's Back to Basics.

Love the addition of this forum!!