An Autumn Morning On The Port Kent Hopkinton Turnpike

I awoke at the farm apartment on Monday morning determined to do some hiking. I'd chosen a couple of short but scenic (according to what I'd read) hikes just off Route 30 south of Malone and only about a half hour from the farm. My favorite system of back roads, the Port Kent Hopkinton Turnpike, would lead me almost directly to the first one. So I set off with the four younger dogs. But when the Port Kent Road offered up such amazing autumn scenery, I had to stop and snap a couple of pictures:

The trees were rapidly changing color all along the road and I figured I was in store for some brilliant mountain displays:

A wetland lapped right up against the road in several places and, since there were absolutely no other cars on the road, I just stopped wherever I chose and did a bit of exploring:

This wetland was for sale. It was beautiful and wild, but I don't suppose anyone could build there. As much as I love wilderness, I can't imagine paying taxes on land which I couldn't use. But perhaps there was dry land somewhere else which was part of this parcel. Or maybe I just can't imagine having that much money:

But it was indeed spectacular:

But the dogs were restless. They wanted to go hiking. So I got back into my car and proceeded on my way toward Route 30:

Whoa! When the road ran right up next to the wild and beautiful St. Regis River, I simply had to stop once again:

You can see here that the road is right next to the river:

There was a large sort of waterfall tumbling over rocks the full width of the river. I left the dogs in the car and hiked down to get a closer look. I was very careful not to slip as there was no one to help should I fall and it was wet and slippery:

I threaded my way downstream for a view of the full width of the waterfall. The volume of water was incredible. I supposed that this was a favorite canoe river and shuddered to think of what would happen if a canoe was caught unawares, tumbling over those rocks. The churning water was leaving floating piles of foam downstream as big as my car. But speaking of cars, mine was parked back up on the road with four anxious dogs in it who wanted to go hiking. So I began to carefully climb back up toward the road:

And they sure were glad to see me. It was time to resume our journey toward the trail head. I'll post more tomorrow: