Traveling Blue Ridge Road, An Adirondack Scenic Bonanza

I'd just left Frontier Town, where the dogs had had a fun rest stop. I next traveled up Blue Ridge Road, headed for the town of Newcomb. Blue Ridge Road is a scenic treasure indeed. The first stop was the Adirondack Buffalo Company, surrounded by mountains:

I stopped to see the bison which were quite close to the road on that day:

But I didn't go inside and buy any meat. I just enjoyed the scenery for a moment and then continued on my way:

The dogs waited in the car while I snapped pictures. That beautiful home across the road belongs to the owners of the buffalo farm and that's a miniature covered wagon behind the pickup truck:

C'mon, Dad. Can we get moving again?:

We continued climbing higher on Blue Ridge Road, but I stopped to snap a photo of this magnificent, historic barn:

And the Papillons liked it too:

I'd planned to give the dogs a rest stop at the top of the mountain by the Bog River, but found people camping there when I arrived:

So I pulled into the forest across the road from there and let the dogs out:

We couldn't go far, but enjoyed the forest while we we could:

Winky had slowed down a lot lately and Wally had just died the previous day, so I determined to get a photo of his cute little face in a natural setting. He looked so happy to be out in the forest that I'm very glad I got this picture. Winky died the next morning and was buried near the fence in the north hay field:

Fergus and Seamus eyed the forest, the Papillons ran around like little imps and then we continued on our way:

Conifer Easement Lands

Yes, I know. What the heck are Conifer Easement Lands? I Googled it and found out that they are part of the (Adirondack) Bog River Complex, I didn't find out much else. But when I saw this sign on my way home from the farm, I quickly turned into the clearing to give it a try as a rest stop:

The first two things I noticed were the abundance of Milkweeds in full bloom (the air was so perfumed by them that it smelled like a florist shop) and the abundance of hungry deer flies in full attack mode:

I tried both ignoring and swatting the deer flies as I walked the dogs from the clearing into the forest:

As at the last rest stop, Wally fell behind because he was following by sound only, and Winky fell behind because his short, crooked, old legs could only carry him slowly:

The clearing had a profusion of wildflowers such as this St. Johnswort, Hypericum perforatum:

And I believe that this was Common Milkweed, Asclepias syriaca:

The younger dogs had made it to the forest, but Wally and Winky were still in the clearing. I stayed in the middle and kept an eye on them all:

Seamus was still looking handsome, sporting his first ever professional grooming:

But I called the youngsters back to me and we headed toward the car:

When we met up with Wally and Winky, I had six very happy dogs. We'd all had plenty of exercise and adventure so far on this car journey, but it was time to continue on our way home:

Tupper Lake Was Flooded And Bog River Was Raging

The dogs and I were traveling south toward Albany and hoping we wouldn't be stopped by any of the flooding which had closed so many roads in the Adirondacks. I had to take one minor detour as we entered the town of Tupper Lake, but after that the drive went well. In the southern part of the town, however, the houses along the shore of Tupper Lake were seriously flooded:

Beautiful shoreline houses were inundated with water:

Children must have lived in this house because their playground toys were flooded:

This house was so far off in the flooded area that I suppose it could only be reached by boat:

But a casual glance across the main part of Tupper Lake appeared as calm and lovely as ever:

We traveled south of the town, the highway still following the shoreline of Tupper Lake. I saw a small side road to a picnic area and took it just to investigate. An old stone bridge crossed the Bog River where it flowed into Tupper Lake and it was a raging torrent:

I parked near the bridge and walked to the center of it to video the flooded, dangerous Bog River. I confess that I was a bit worried that even that massive stone bridge might be taken down by the swollen river:



When I was done, I walked back to where the dogs anxiously waited:

But then I noticed that I could easily walk right down to the raging river:

The river was so hugely flooded and rushing at such terrifying speed that I was afraid to get too close. A simple misstep would mean I'd be gone instantly and likely never found:

Here's a video of the Bog River flowing under the bridge and into Tupper Lake: