Beginning A Trip Up To The Farm

Sunday morning had arrived and I was headed up to the farm for the first time in over a month with all six dogs in the back of my car. I drove north on the main highway farther than normal in order to take an altered route just for variety and scenery. There are few roads through the Adirondacks, so my options were limited. I stopped at a rest area which had lovely views of the nearby mountains, but figured I had to get off of the main highway and onto some smaller roads running through state lands before I could let the dogs out to run:

I drove to the little Adirondack town of Ausable Forks and began up Silver Creek Road, a small local road now, but once part of the historic Port Kent Hopkinton Turnpike. Once we were passing through public lands, I pulled off the road and parked. The dogs needed a rest stop and so did I:

All six dogs piled out of the car with great excitement. Little old Wally was even excited:

Winky too was quite happy to get out of the car and onto a forest trail, chugging along like a furry black locomotive:

This grassy lane into the forest may at one time have led to someone's camp. I suspect that now it's used by New York State conservation officers to access the forest. For the dogs and me, it made a terrific foot trail:

We walked farther and, as you can see in this picture, the two Papillon pups ran back and forth at full speed just for the joy of doing so. Ah, to have such unbounded energy and enthusiasm!:

A rare moment when five of the six dogs were all reasonably quiet and in one place:

But that didn't last long, and soon they began to scatter in different directions to run, sniff and explore:

The four younger dogs ran on ahead, but the two short-legged oldsters, Winky and Wally, lagged behind. They were going as fast as they could:

But as always, the time quickly arrived for us all to return to the car and continue on our way. I'll post more tomorrow:

Another Trip Up To The Farm - Beginning The Journey

It'd been five weeks since I'd been up to the farm. The tenants had told me that the soil over the new septic tank was sinking and the tank was now exposed, but otherwise all was well. But I wanted to go and apparently the dogs did also. The moment they saw me move toward the front door, they all went bonkers with excitement. They knew we were about to go on an adventure. I packed up the car with essentials and dogs, and off we went. It takes almost two hours of high speed highway driving to reach exit 32 on the Northway. I'd missed the exit on the last trip and couldn't imagine how. But on this trip I stopped at a rest area and, when I tried to reenter the highway, discovered that the rest area is also the exit. Anyway, I left the dogs in the car and climbed up on a small cliff to get a better view:

The sky was dark and threatening, but the mountains were lovely as the clouds rolled across them:

I explored the rocky hill and snapped some photos, but soon began climbing down to rejoin the dogs:

They were quite happy to see me. Ah, the joy of dogs! They're always overjoyed to see me, even when I'm crabby or dirty or tired or disappointing to myself. They don't care, because they think I'm wonderful. I've tried to tell them otherwise, but they just won't listen:

I traveled west, following small roads which looked promising on the map. But they dead-ended up in the mountains and I had to backtrack, driving Route 9 north, past exit 33 which has no roads to the west, and up to exit 34. From there I took Route 9N to Ausable Forks. Somewhere along the way I stopped at this truck stop: Betty Beaver's Diner, gas station and convenience store:

But the best part of Betty Beaver's establishment was the signs. They featured huge, three dimensional boobs and cheeks. Betty was quite the well endowed beaver and apparently she stored food in her cheeks like a chipmunk:

I stopped for directions in Ausable Forks and was told how to find Silver Lake Road heading northwest up through the Adirondack Park. It began as a simple two lane blacktop road but soon became a narrow, seasonal, gravel road. Once again, I had the only car on the road. I saw no one traveling in either direction:

The views were stunning, with lakes and cliffs abutting the road:

But the dogs hadn't yet had a rest stop, so when I saw a place to park and walk off of the road, I took advantage of it. The dogs were happy:

We all trotted around briefly:

And then headed to the car to resume our journey. We still had a very long way to go: