Little Clear Pond And Little Green Pond

After I left the Adirondack Fish Hatchery (see yesterday's post), I continued on the fish hatchery road until I saw what I thought was a short hiking trail, saying that Little Clear Pond was only .2 miles and Little Green Pond was .4 miles. I asked someone and was told that I could drive in, that there were campsites in there. So in I went:

Indeed, it was a well kept road and driving was both easy and scenic:

I arrived at Little Clear Pond just in time to watch a couple launch their canoe. They said I could take pictures and that they were going to paddle from this lake to St. Regis Lake:

It was a fine day for canoeing and I kind of wished I was doing so. There were no designated campsites around Little Clear Pond that I saw, so I got back in my car and headed off to Little Green Pond:

My next stop was Little Green Pond and it was indeed a beauty:

I was fascinated with this sign, saying that there was no trespassing allowed from March 15 to June 15 because this was a "smelt spawning channel:"

And this was the channel they meant. There were steps on the other side of it, leading to campsites:

Little Green Pond was quiet, serene and lovely:

But I'd seen what I'd come to see, so I headed back to my car and headed back out to the main road:

The dirt road crossed railroad tracks back in the forest, and I stopped and looked left before crossing, as much to see the beauty of it as for safety:

And I looked to the right. It had all been beautiful, but it was time for me to begin the journey home:

The Adirondack Fish Hatchery In Lake Clear, New York

It was a hot, hot, hot Sunday morning - far too hot for me to be out working in the sun, so I drove down to the town of Lake Clear to visit the New York State Adirondack Fish Hatchery. There were lots of buildings, but these two were the ones which allowed visitors:

The first building was a visitor's center. That stone pond was supposed to have fish in it, but didn't. The canoe was a classic Adirondack guideboat and there were mounted fish, all New York State species, hanging on the walls:

I only photographed a few of them, beginning with the Rainbow Trout:

Brown Trout:

Splake, which I later learned was a cross between a male Brook (AKA Speckled) Trout and a female Lake Trout:

Steelhead Trout. In spite of all the trout species mounted on the walls, this fishery was entirely devoted to the propagation of landlocked Atlantic Salmon:

I never saw another human being all the time I was there, neither tourist nor worker. I entered the next building, a cavernous place filled with two rows of large, circular tanks:

The first several tanks held larger salmon, in the one to two foot range:

Water constantly flowed, cleaning and aerating the salmon's environment:

I walked over to the tanks with smaller fish. They must have been the fingerling size because they were just about the size of a finger:

I exited the fish hatchery, still never having seen another human being, and walked to my parked car. There were many other complexes of maintenance buildings along the road, so I decided to keep driving and see what else I might find. But I'll post about that tomorrow: