The Northville Lake Placid Trail 'Benson Re-Route' can be thought of as having three sections. I've now walked (and written about) all three sections.
The Benson Road splits the full sixteen mile route roughly in half and the southern half is split again by the crossing of West Stony Creek. A bridge over West Stony Creek is planned but has not yet been built so walking the full route would require fording the creek. Getting across at times of high water would require some serious motivation.
In the past year I've reached the ford point from both sides. From the south in February of 2016 and from the North in January of 2017 (the subject of this post).
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| Four PM on a January afternoon. The four miles from the creek back to the trailhead was slow going and I got back to the car after dark. Which meant that I got to enjoy the fading light late afternoon light. |
Individually, each of the three "sections" of this addition to the Northville Lake Placid Trail make for appealing day hikes. I've walked all three legs in winter though the conditions for the outings were very different. The first two trips, in February of 2016, were characterized by lots of ice and very little snow. For this most recent outing (mid-January 2017) there was an 18-24 inch snow pack and my decision to leave the snowshoes in the car became regrettable late in the day.
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| West Stony Creek looking upstream from the ford. A bridge is planned but has not yet been built. |
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| GPS Track for the section between Benson Road and West Stony Creek. Unless you are planning to ford the creek this section is walked from the parking on Benson Road south to the creek and back. |
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| Closer look at West Stony Creek. Easy to cross in mid-summer. Not so easy when the water is high or in Winter. |
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| Another late afternoon scene along the trail. |
