5.9 Miles Of One Lane Road Through The Adirondacks

I'd driven up to the farm on Sunday and spent the evening in my little farm apartment. Monday morning dawned clear and bright, just perfect for hiking. So I packed the four youngest dogs into my car and headed back to the Madawaska Pond trail which I'd checked out the previous day. The 5.9 mile access road was so incredibly scenic that I thought it would make a wonderful series of photos itself:

On through recently cleared areas and some forests, always gaining elevation:

A great deal of this land appeared to have been heavily logged or farmed in the past and was now reverting to forest. The plus side was that it provided many long range views and lots of sky:

The forest became older as we neared the trail head:

And clustered around the trail head were some old cabins, clearly in use but not kept up very well. My guess was that New York State purchased or contracted for the land but allowed those with cabins to stay but not to make major improvements:

There are lots of rich people snapping up summer cabins in the Adirondacks and I'm sure that if it was allowed, these would be all fixed up and examples of modern luxury. Frankly, I liked them better this way:

A very tiny camp beneath the tall Spruces:

And a modest place with a large pile of firewood:

A picnic table and more firewood:

A front porch for idling away a summer afternoon in the shade of the trees:

Hidden away in the forest:

And a camp with a sense of humor, with a sign proclaiming it a Day's Inn. It also had an "emergency" telephone waggishly attached to a tree trunk. We arrived at the trail head and discovered no one else parked there. It looked like we'd have Madawaska Pond all to ourselves. I'll post more about that tomorrow: