A New Discovery At Barnam Pond

We were on our way up to the farm for the weekend and had made it all the way to Route 30 north of Paul Smiths. I stopped to snap a photo of Barnam Pond, whose water's come within a foot or two of the highway's edge, and the lovely snow-dusted mountains in the background. I noticed, for the first time, a dirt lane leading into the forest across the road from Barnam Pond:

I continued on my way toward the farm but then changed my mind, turned around and came back to that little dirt lane. I drove into the forest, found a campsite and let the dogs out. Little Winky was very happy to be out in the woods exploring:

The younger dogs bounded into the forest with great joy:

And a beautiful forest it was, mature enough to have little underbrush:

Winky and Wally, my two old-timers, were slow and I had to keep stopping to urge them on. Wally is nearly blind and Winky is deaf, so it was important that I not let them out of my sight. Nevertheless, they always have a grand time as they toddle through the forest:

I walked ahead a little bit to check on the younger dogs. They were running, playing and sniffing and doing the usual doggy things:

I told little Madeline to sit so that I could get a photo of her. It's difficult when she's on the move because she keeps her head down and her nose to the ground. I think she was a Beagle in a past life:

Seamus, Fergus, Daphne and Clover had gotten too far afield and had to be called back:

When I had all the dogs back together in a group, we started moving back toward the car. This was, after all, just a rest stop and I was in a hurry. I had a lot of things to do when we got to the farm. This was going to be a busy weekend. I would be moving from the apartment into the house and - well, I'll post all about it in the next several days:

Look just to the right of those big rocks and you'll see blind old Wally making his way back toward the car. He had a problem when he reached that pile of old tree limbs. He made it, though, with a little guidance from me:

I got all the dogs back into the car , counted several times to put my mind at ease that they were all there, and continued on our way:

I got another nice view of Barnum Pond as we pulled back out onto Route 30. We'd be at the farm in about 30 minutes:

Barnum Pond And A Return To The Globe Thistle

I was on my way home from a weekend at the farm with all six dogs in the car. We'd had a wonderful visit and I was anxious to get back to Albany, so I suppose I should have stopped taking pictures and concentrated on driving as directly as possible to my destination. But the day and the scenery were so lovely that I just had to keep snapping photos. Route 30 took us right past Barnum Pond, a gem of a mountain lake whose shoreline, as you can see here, is a only a few feet from the road:

I stopped only briefly at Barnum Pond to admire the serene beauty and chuckled at the seriousness of Daphne and Clover as they looked on also:

We drove on through the High Peaks Region and through the Keene Valley to where Route 9N cuts off toward Elizabethtown. There I turned off for a brief rest stop just to see the Globe Thistle plant which had amazed me last year:

Alas, it was past its blooming prime but still had a few blossoms. I'd planned to collect seeds from it last autumn but then forgot. I did go back in the springtime but the seeds were all gone. I really want to try again this year. I'm imagining a whole line of Globe Thistles growing along the wall of my milk house or along the dogs' fence:

And of course there was plenty of Goldenrod in full bloom:

I made a mental note of where the Globe Thistle could be found in the autumn and then continued walking:

Little Clover bounded through the tall grass and wildflowers like a dog on springs:

Daphne was determined to eat as many greens as possible. This seems to be a breed characteristic of Papillons since both of mine are ravenous eaters of greenery:

We turned back toward the car:

I was not able to identify this Phlox-like plant but it was blossoming abundantly:

I arrived back at the car where Wally and Winky were waiting. Both of these old timers are prone to wandering off so I have to check on them frequently:

I got all six dogs loaded back into the car and backed carefully out of the woods onto the highway. From there it was a straight run back to Albany with no rest stops: