The Northville Lake Placid Trail (NLPT) is not a route for peak baggers. Unlike many other long distance hiking routes, the NLPT does not follow the spine of a mountain range. Instead, the NLPT crosses the adirondack dome via natural corridors provided by the many rivers and streams that define the landscape. Nearly the entire route stays below 2500 feet, with one prominent exception. The section south of Route 28N (east of Long Lake) crosses a steep ridge line at just over 3000 feet.
Walking south on the NLPT from the parking area on 28N, it's 3.5 miles to the ridgeline with 1300 feet of climbing. You ascend gradually for the first three miles and a good chunk of the elevation is gained in the last half mile. The trail then follows the ridgeline for half a mile before dropping off steeply to begin the descent towards Tirrell Pond and points south. I've hiked in this area many times but it's been years since I walked along the ridgeline in mid-summer. What a shame. The half-mile along the crest of the ridge is an uncommon delight.
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| Spruce, Fir and other common sub-alpine species mix-in, but the canopy along the ridgeline is dominated by Yellow Birch. |
Three thousand feet is not high, even by modest Adirondack standards, but the forest community present on this ridge is uncommonly attractive. Above 2800 feet, on the northern side, the forest canopy is dominated by mature Yellow Birch with an understory consisting primarily of fern-filled meadows. This is not a named ecological assemblage (
NYS Natural Heritage Project) and this elevation is considered to be the upper limit for Yellow Birch.
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| I spent two hours exploring the ridge line and simply sitting, relaxing, and enjoying the solitude. |
Ecological communities are highly variable. There are the defining characteristics of a locale: climate, soil, moisture levels, elevation, slope, and so on, but these characteristics simply provide a baseline. The forests we see today have been shaped by disturbances: disease, fires, storms, droughts and logging. I suspect that the forest present on the ridgeline southeast of Long Lake emerged from an event that took place on November 25, 1950. If you know anything of recent Adirondack history that date should ring a bell. That's the date of the great Adirondack hurricane. What locals refer to simply as the 'blowdown'.
We tend to think of hurricanes as tropical storms but the storm that blew through the Adirondacks on that November day exhibited the same characteristics; heavy rain and intense cyclonic winds formed around a compact low pressure area. With recorded wind speeds of up to 100 miles per hour, this storm would been memorable under any circumstances, but the effects were greatly magnified by the wind direction. Any large tree growing in the Adirondacks has stood fast against many storms and, over time, the trees brace themselves against the prevailing northwesterly winds. The 1950 storm battered the forests from the south and, worst of all, the northeast. Those northeasterly winds hit trees growing on north facing slopes particularly hard and in some places 50 to 75% of the mature trees came down.
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| Yellow Birch dominate the canopy and ferns fill the understory. |
White Pine and Spruce tended to be most vulnerable and on the other end of the spectrum Yellow Birch tends to hold up well against high winds. If you're unfamiliar with Yellow Birch you might be wondering how birch trees could be so tough. The White and Grey Birch so common in suburban yards are the first trees to come down in a storm. Well, we can't pick our relatives, and Yellow Birch is an entirely different sort of tree. Yellow Birch is long-lived and specimens of Yellow Birch are among the oldest and largest trees present in Adirondack forests today. The ridge line southeast of Long Lake was hard hit by the 1950 storm and the mature Yellow Birch present there today prospered in the aftermath of that storm.
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| The Adirondack forest is damp and mossy. A few degrees warmer, and with a few more inches of rain annually, and the Adirondacks would be a temperate rain forest. Maybe that's what it will become in the future. |
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| If the ridge line is out of reach the first mile of this trail passes through a large Spruce bog of uncommon diversity and beauty. I've walked the boardwalks of this section dozens of times but I enjoy it every single time. The picture is of water flowing in Shaw Brook. Roughly a half mile from the trail head. |
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| Ghost plant (Indian Pipe) is a heteromycotroph. These plants lack chlorophyll and derive energy from fungus in the soil. |
