St. Regis River Walk, Part 1

On my way up to the farm, I'd stopped at the boat launch in the tiny town of Santa Clara and taken another look at what promised to be a 7 mile trail along the shore of the St. Regis River. A man was parked there just hanging out, so we chatted a bit and then I continued on to the farm. Once I got everything settled at the farm, I came back to the river with the 4 hiking dogs. The man was still there, this time sitting on the ground playing his guitar. My two Papillons immediately tried to jump in his lap and he didn't seem to mind:

So we started off on the trail, which Google Maps shows as a road and the trail maps show as a railroad bed. As far as I could see, it was neither but would make a great hiking trail along the river:

The views of the river were beautiful:

With the clouds reflected in the water, I thought this must be something like the Garden of Eden:

And we set off along the road/trail/former railroad bed:

In spite of the signs forbidding doing so and the gate which tried to prevent access, it was clear that vehicles had been driving on this road. But for me it was an outing on a riverside trail with four happy dogs:

The trail veered far enough away from the river so that I couldn't see it anymore, but it was extraordinarily easy and pleasant walking. I just kept walking and enjoying:

The wild blackberries along the trail were about half ripe:

So of course I ate my fill. Well, we were just getting started, but I'll end here for today and post more tomorrow: