Woke up at 5:30 to gray skies which quickly blew over. Tirell Pond was an ideal Adirondack setting and walking around it was a great way to start our day. The other lean-to (north) had a two boats and a bigger beach but ours was way prettier! They had their food in a huge canvas duffel bag in a tree. They had also draped a tarp completely over the roof and front of their lean-to. yipes.... Shortly after we passed their site, we saw a deer about 20 ft off the trail eating breakfast totally unconcerned with our presence. This would be the largest animal we saw on the Northville-Placid trail. let this be a warning to would-be thru-hikers: this is the sort of terrifying animal encounters one can expect in this ever-threatening wilderness!!!! Seriously though, bear and moose trouble is real, always protect your food (hopefully better than the other Tirell pond campers) and stay a respectfull distance from the big guys with hoof's and sharp teeth.
The ascent over Blue Mountain ridge was far less difficult than the guidebook had made it out to be. Midway through the climb there was a beautiful beaver meadow with a not-so-beautiful dilapitated bridge crossing the creek. The meadow had a pretty cool vibe (found out later from nptrail.org this was the site of a former lumber camp) and a bit of foreboding as well. We stopped to take a break and chow on a cliff bar (blueberry crisp wut wut) and noticed a very large and very fresh bear turd. The place had the feeling of being something's home territory (indian spirit, wood nymph, bear?) and now we knew what.
We went up and over making super good time. The last section of the ascent did have some steep pitches but after doing the MacIntyre Range with full packs last summer we were more than ready for this scramble. We rolled down the hill super charged up and exited, hitting the trailhead around 12. Funny thing about the last section of the trail before the road... it seems that someone got a little crazy building two-plank walkways. This went on for what seemed like nearly a mile over both wet and dry terrian. We were nearly doubled over with laughter each time we rounded a bend and saw more plankways stretched off into infinity.
Within 10 minutes of road walking (thumbs out) we managed to get a ride from 2 girls who were going to the post office (also our destination). It appeared that the gods were smiling upon us this day. We got a hotel room just across the street from the office for almost nothing and prepared to settle in for our most luxurious night on NPT. We got a some sandwiches, Jeanette checked in with her dad, gorged on blueberries from the farmers market and mailed out Gush's herk. We had a bed and a shower! We had actually overpacked our food drop (the right kind of problem to have) and ended up mailing some of the food back.
We walked around town that afternoon and did the tourist thing (Hoss's) and had a great dinner (though fly-swarmed) at the Adirondack Hotel. Did I mention that I love beer? MMmmmm beer. At Tirell Pond I accidentially left our Dr Bronner's in the lean-to so we were able to pick some up at the little hike/ kayak store across from the beach. This is your best bet in town for stuff like that and fuel. The other places cater more towards the camp-by-your-car crowd.
We settled in to our cozy little motel bed and were snoring quite quickly. Back into the woods tomorrow!!
Day 7: 12.7 miles. Total: 79.2ish
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