8:38 Saturday morning and I’m at the trail head in Upper Benson. Northville is 13 miles away, down the hill, but no one really walks that section any more, it’s all road walking, and who wants to do that with a full pack. My car is 120 miles away in Lake Placid and Jack just drove away. I am alone in the woods.
According to the guide book I have seven miles today to the first lean-to at Silver Lake. The weather is good, blue sky with a few high clouds. The trail climbs gently most of the way, starting out as a truck road through posted land, gradually dropping to a single path as it crosses into state land. I cross a nifty wooden bridge over Goldmine Creek. I take a couple breaks along the way, reaching the lean-to early in the afternoon. Turned out to be only five miles, according to my GPS.
After getting unpacked and getting water a couple hikers arrived at the lean-to (Rod and Joe). They’re part of a group of four and are attempting a thru-hike in seven days (I’m planning 13 days). They plan to stay at the Mud Lake lean-to tonight, another six miles up the trail. Clouds have moved in and it’s threatening rain. When the other two in their party arrive (Mike and Doug), they decide to stay put for the night rather than risking getting wet on their first day. It turns out to be a very wise decision.
After collecting firewood and getting a nice smoky fire going to drive off mosquitoes, the sky opened up with torrential rain, thunder and lightning. We sat in the lean-to, made dinner and watched the rain. The guys are all scout leaders and this is Mike’s warm-up for the Long Trail in Vermont, a 270 mile trail that crosses peaks instead of traversing the valleys like the Northville Placid Trail. They’re all travelling light, much lighter than I am. My pack weighed 60 lbs. when I set out. Their packs are all in the 30-35 lb range except for Mike, who’s pack weighs 26 lbs! Boy, did I over pack.
The rain let up and we got the fire going again before dark. The guys have to make 20 miles tomorrow to get back on schedule, so they’re all in their sleeping bags before dark, I wasn’t long after them. I have a longer day tomorrow, too, 12 miles.
Day One -> Day Two
Chris Palmatier's Blog 
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August 2, 2009 at 1:00 pm
trailboss
thanks for a good update on the trail. We are planning on hiking the Benson to Durant section next week . We did the section from Durant to Placid last year,
August 2, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Chris Palmatier
Enjoy your trip, and don’t forget your gators. That’s the one thing I didn’t have that would have made the trek much more enjoyable. I topped my boots many times on submerged sections of the trail, gators would have prevented most of those toppings.