Rest Stops On The Way Up To The Farm

I was able once again to get a Tuesday off of work, so on Sunday morning the dogs and I took off for a trip back up to the farm. We made it to exit 29 of the Northway where we stopped at the former Frontier Town. I did not go back to the ghost town where I'd spent so much time on previous rest stops, but instead headed straight for the sandy beaches along the Schroon River. Yes, that's the Schroon River and not the Boreas River as I've said in previous posts. I will now attempt to go back and change the old posts:

This was the perfect rest stop for the dogs and me, with sand dunes, cool clean waters, glorious sunshine and no other people anywhere:

Winky is old, crabby and almost totally deaf, so getting him down to the water's edge is a chore. But I kept coaxing him over the sandy hill and he began to enjoy himself:

Seamus, on the other hand, knows just what to do, plunging straight into the water with great exuberance:

Old Wally is mostly blind but doesn't let that stop him from having fun. This was a great romp at the beach for him:

But as always, this was just a rest stop and we had many miles yet to travel. So I called all the dogs back with me to the car and snapped their photo as they eagerly anticipated the next leg of the journey. All the dogs, that is, except Winky. He was resistant to nearly everything as is his custom. So we all waited while he poked along, sniffing plants and peeing on everything:

Winky finally waddled into view and I coaxed him up into the car so we could continue on our way:

We didn't stop again until we were on Route 458 in the northern Adirondacks, getting quite near the farm. There I pulled off onto some state land which apparently had been recently logged. There had formerly been an old cabin at this site. Now it was gone and I rather missed it:

All the dogs scurried around, checking out the sights and sounds and - hey, what is that little bell flower?

It was Spreading Dogbane, a wildflower I'd seldom seen except on Jacqueline Donnelly's wonderful blog, Saratoga Woods And Waterways, in my mind the best blog on the Web. I looked it up in my field guide when I got home and also learned that it was poisonous, a problem when it grows in pastures. I never learned why it was called Dogbane, but it sure was pretty:

The younger dogs (and old Wally) trotted down a dirt lane through the woods which I'd once explored in the car for a very long way before I gave up. But it was time to go and I called them all back to me:

I got all the dogs collected and up into the car so that we could finish our journey to the farm. We were almost there at that point, but I'll post more tomorrow: