Floodwood Loop Trail, Beginning At Middle Pond

Our early autumn weather inspired me to take the dogs hiking, but I wanted someplace new and interesting. After doing some research, I found the Floodwood Trail south of here, which promised to take us alongside several lakes and through a deep forest. I drove down to the trail head, parked and we set off on a new adventure:

There were hardwood forests, coniferous forests, little trees and giant, old trees:

Our first lake was Middle Pond. We veered off the loop trail to go see it:

Middle Pond was lovely, but I quickly discovered that photos of the lakes were not turning out well. This was the best I could do, and I had to stabd back in the forest for even this one:

But deep in the woods, generally a difficult place for photos, produced nice pictures of my happy foursome. They were having lots of fun:

These beautiful puffballs seemed to be studded with gems and lay on a green carpet of moss:

In fact, the trail itself was lined with moss, making the whole forest look magical:

Clover and Fergus began running ahead and I had to keep reining them in, but otherwise it was a wonderful hike:

And the dogs still got to do lots of running, even under the "Not too far ahead of me" rules:

There were magical looking mushrooms scattered along the trail:

And blue-green lichens on fallen logs:

Daphne was particularly attentive, wanting to keep me in sight at all times and often happy to walk by my side:

But she also liked to go exploring with Fergus. I had no intention of taking the entire loop trail, but what we'd seen so far certainly inspired me to keep going. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow:

East Pine Pond And The St. Regis River At Santa Clara

This post includes two separate stops. The first was East Pine Pond, a small but scenic body of water along Floodwood Road on our way home from hiking Floodwood Mountain:

I pulled into the parking area and left the dogs waiting in the car:

I walked down to the water's edge and saw several canoes on the lake:

This spectacularly scenic lake was only one of a myriad of Adirondack lakes, scattered like blue jewels throughout the park Often, as along Floodwood Road, they're so numerous that it's easy to forget what rare, unspoiled treasures they really are:

I snapped one more photo and then a canoe pulled up to shore and began unloading. The paddler was a friendly young man whose family was in the other canoes. Apparently they were all coming ashore:

I didn't want my silly dogs to begin a bark-fest, so I headed back to the car and continued on my way home:

I drove home and the next morning left the farm for Albany. But early in the trip I stopped, as I often do, at the St. Regis River in Santa Clara:

The river here was wide and placid:

The clouds reflected in the quiet waters and a few ducks paddled here and there:

I often stop here on my way home just for a moment of quiet reflection and restoration:

But of course we were on our way home and had many miles and many hours yet to drive. So I returned to Route 458 where the Santa Clara Catholic church stands and continued on my way: