You have to be flexible on the Northville Placid Trail. Reading and studying for the NPT cannot prepare you for your own story of this journey.
My partner, Christopher, and I hiked the path in August. I journaled about the seemingly unbothered natural world, friendly humans, tales scrawled on lean-to logs, skinny dips, loons, owls, a hummingbird, the caterpillar of a silk moth, flies nesting in my hair, Leon the Long Lake Eagle, and an end-of-day Sunny D and vodka. I noted one meltdown in a downpour when descending a mountain: I cried so hard I got lightheaded and felt like I transcended through years of deep emotional trauma, I wrote.
