The Madawaska Pond Trail

The road to beautiful Madawaska Pond crosses private property and has been closed for several years. There is a trail which supposedly leads there from Blue Mountain Road, in the Adirondack Santa Clara Tract, but the last section of it too is closed to the public. I knew that when I began this trail with the dogs, but it's a wonderful trail anyway, through a magnificent example of boreal forest:

Balsam Firs are abundant here, and the aroma fills the air. Unfortunately, black flies also filled the air and I quickly got covered with bites in spite of using bug spray. In fact, I cut the hike short and headed back early to the car:

But the scenery was lovely and the dogs had a grand time. The black flies didn't seem to bother them. I suppose they didn't need to bite dogs when I was providing such an easy meal:

One of Clover's hind feet seemed to bother her and she was walking on three legs. I stopped to see what was wrong but found nothing. She began to run and play normally again - and then reverted to walking on three legs. I never did find the problem. Whatever it was, it fixed itself:

I stopped to photograph these tiny British Soldier Lichens, mixed in with Reindeer Lichens and what I call star mosses:

Seamus and Clover investigated some interesting smells, but the forest is so incredibly dense and the footing so treacherous that even the dogs refused to leave the trail:

We traveled onward, a happy band of travelers, making me feel like I was headed for the Emerald City:

But the heat and black flies were getting the best of me, and I decided to turn back toward the car. The dogs didn't care. They were happy to go either direction:

Seeing the impenetrable forest on either side of this former road got me wondering how it was built in the first place. It must have been a major engineering feat, and all the more so back when things had to be done without benefit of modern power equipment:

There were small white violets and Reindeer Lichen growing right in the middle of the trail:

But we were almost back to the car:

Jack was the first to spot the gate. He knew our car was parked just the other side of it and he broke into a run. There were no people and no cars to worry about, so I just let him run ahead and wait at the car for us to catch up: