Driving Up To The Farm

I just returned home from a trip up to the farm with all the dogs. It was truly an experience, especially stopping with so many dogs for a rest stop. We arrived in the Adirondacks and headed immediately to the campsite alongside the Ausable River which traditionally is our first rest stop. I was very happy to find that no one was there. I let the dogs out of the car and headed with them into the woods:

Daphne had been to the farm once before and hiking in various forests on several occasions, but little Clover, only 10 weeks old, had never done much of anything. It was all new to her. She looked around for a moment and immediately began running and having fun:

Clover and Wally trotted down a woodland path together towards the river. Mostly, the young dogs ran ahead and the old dogs, namely Wren and Winky, lagged behind. I began to worry about losing track of any one of them. But it all worked out with a little direction (and hollering) from me:

We reached the river, looped back to the car and resumed our journey:

And a short video of the dogs along the trail with the Ausable River to our left:



The next stop along the way was the Cascade Chain of lakes along Route 73. It's always a favorite spot of mine. This time I stopped early, at the beginning of the chain, and snapped a couple of photos:

And just then I noticed a couple of moving specks on that rock cliff. If you click to enlarge the picture, you may be able to see them better. What do you suppose they were?

So I zoomed in on the rock cliff and this is what I saw. This is NOT my idea of a good time. Well, I'd never do it but I guess I enjoyed watching it:

And looking back toward where we'd come from was more lakes:

The dogs waited patiently in the car for me. After all, they'd just had a potty and exercise break:

I kept little Clover up in the front with me to avoid Seamus stepping on her. Daphne then crawled up front to be with us They had a grand time (just look at Daphne's smile). I'll post more scenes from the trip up to the farm after tomorrow's update on the baby doves: