Mountain Pond And Hays Brook Horse Trail

I was on my way north with all 6 dogs in the car. It's a long journey, usually taking about 5 hours. We'd had one rest stop in Keene, New York, but about an hour and a half later I thought the dogs needed another chance to get out of the car and do their thing. And of course, I did also. I pulled off the road and alongside Mountain Pond. There was A handsome Loon swimming in the center and I took several photos hoping to crop them down to show the bird, but they were just not high enough resolution to get away with that. You'll have to take my word for it that an Adirondack Loon is floating happily in the center of this mountain lake:

The dogs cared not one whit about the Loon and just wanted out of the car. But first I had to get back inside with them and drive us on a littler farther:

I drove around the end of Mountain Pond to the parking lot for Hays Brook Horse Trail. Then both the dogs and I got out and, instead of taking the usual trail, we headed directly into the forest:

The forest, of course, was wild and beautiful. Little Winky was his usual, independent, pokey self:

Wally needed encouragement also, and Seamus hung around both to be close to me and, I think, to encourage Wally:

The edge of the forest was filled with ripe Lowbush Blueberries, so of course I ate some:

With Wally and Winky along, we can't get too far from the car. The youngsters were able to run back and forth at will between the forest and the parking lot. I discovered that I've been misspelling the name of this place all along. It is "Hays," not "Hayes." That means that all my previous posts and the labels at the bottom have been wrong. But I'll correct it from here forward instead of trying to find all the old posts and correct them:

Winky is able to get himself over fallen logs, he just does it slooooooooooowly:

But this was only a rest stop and we hadn't even arrived yet at the farm. So I got all 6 dogs back into the car and resumed the journey:

The Final Leg Of The Journey Home

Heading home from a visit to the farm, I was driving south on Route 9N in the Adirondacks. The views from this two lane highway were terrific:

We were approaching the intersection with Route 73 in Keene, New York, from which I'd pick up the main highway back to Albany. I wanted to find a place to give the dogs a rest stop before we joined the heavy traffic on I87. But for time being at least, the traffic on Route 9N was still light and the scenery was grand:

The two Papillon puppies, Daphne and Clover, were resting on the seat next to me:

When I arrived at the campsite where we most often take our rest breaks, I found 3 or 4 parked cars and campers enjoying their weekend. So I drove on and stopped at a grassy lane which leads into the woods which I'd discovered last year. I let the dogs out and they were ecstatic. Wally and Winky ran in the sunshine:

Daphne and Clover found an interesting smell in one spot, while Fergus and Wally stopped at another fascinating aroma in another spot. It's important to dogs to "read the local newspaper:"

Big ol' Seamus trotted ahead and it wasn't long before his little buddy, Clover, ran up to join him:

We were in a grassy lane surrounded by forest with mountains all around us. The sun was shining and the crickets were singing their autumn songs. It was a marvelous experience:

I took one video of the dogs enjoying this final rest stop in the sun:



I loaded the dogs back into the car and began the final leg of the trip. But since we'd left early, I decided to turn off the highway and visit the Adirondack Buffalo Farm. They have a viewing platform alongside the road:

The Bison were fairly close and living out their lives in a peaceful, serene setting:

There was one other family enjoying the views and they found my little red car filled with dogs interesting also:

I went into the gift shop thinking I might buy some Bison meat. But I saw no price list and reverted to the old adage, "If you have to ask, you can't afford it." So I got back into the car and began the final, less peaceful part of the journey home. It had been a wonderful visit to the farm and the drive up there and back was a big part of the joy: