Driving Home From The Farm - From Lake Colby To The Keene Valley

The dogs and I left for home early on Tuesday morning and I took the usual, fastest route. When we passed Lake Colby near the town of Saranac Lake, I pulled off the road to watch the people ice fishing. Daphne found them all fascinating. I sure wish I could have read her mind:

I stopped right in the middle of the town of Saranac Lake to photograph some lovely old homes along the shore of Lake Flower:

In the town of Lake Placid I pulled in to the Equestrian Center hoping to find both scenic views and and a place to let the dogs out. I succeeded only in the former:

The Lake Placid Equestrian Center was a great place for scenic views of the Adirondack mountains even though the day was overcast:

Farther along, I stopped on Adirondack Loj Road for a view of the high peaks near Mount Marcy:

And from there I could also see the Olympic Ski Jumps of Lake Placid:

Route 73 then took us over the mountains toward the Keene Valley:

And then drops steeply down into the Keene Valley:

The views here are quite nice but the places to stop and take photos are few. I took advantage of whatever pull-offs I could find:

At the intersection of Routes 73 and 9N I stopped once again to photograph my favorite scene of all. The skies had cleared by then although a few wispy clouds drifted across the mountaintops:

The Adirondacks here are close at hand and one can see, at least on a clear day, great detail atop the peaks:

It was a grand scene but not a safe place to let the dogs out. So I snapped one more photo and continued on my way toward home:

Lake Colby and Hays Brook Trail In The Adirondacks

As we pulled out of the town of Saranac Lake, the dogs and I, we stopped briefly along Lake Colby to view the people who were ice fishing:

Clover found it all quite fascinating:

We traveled on toward the farm until I reached the access road for the Hays Brook Horse Trail. It isn't plowed in the winter, but was certainly passable - and the dogs needed a rest stop. So I turned off of Route 30 and drove to the trail head. All the dogs joyously piled out but blind old Wally was the last to get going:

The snow cover was thinner here than it had been at our previous rest stop, so Wally was able to walk through it. The other dogs, of course, ran through it:

This trail is lovely and serene at any time of the year but it holds a special fascination for me in the wintertime:

Wally was slow but Winky was even slower. I had to urge him away from the car and toward the trail:

The younger dogs were having a grand time running and playing in the snow:

Winky and Wally finally caught up with the rest of us:

And they caught up with us just in time to turn around and head back toward the car:

And you know which two dogs were the last to arrive. Winky was, in fact, so slow that I started up my car hoping he'd think we were leaving without him and come running. It worked on Fergus when he was a puppy but it didn't work on stubborn old Winky. In the end, I just had to wait. But when all six dogs were in the car, we resumed our trip to the farm. We were only about 35 miles from the farm at that point and would be arriving there soon:

Beginning The Journey Home Through The Adirondacks

After exploring the peat bog at Benz Pond on Blue Mountain Road, I loaded the dogs all back up into my little red car and and continued the trip home. But of course I had to stop when Blue Mountain Road crossed over Quebec Brook:

Quebec Brook is a scenic, wild wonder and it brought back memories of our recent hike through the Boreal Forest along its banks:

Blue Factory Road became narrower and more remote for some distance, and then began to widen once again as a few houses appeared. We were were approaching Paul Smith's, a sort of combination college campus and town. The scenery all along the road was magnificent:

Once we were back on the main highways, I took the usual route down through the high peaks region, stopping here and there to snap photos of beautiful scenery:

This was in Brighton, New York, a small but scenic town in the Adirondacks:

I made a brief stop at Lake Colby, just north of the town of Saranac Lake:

And then detoured right into downtown Saranac Lake to stop at an Adirondack themed store to check for possible Christmas gifts. It's surely a classic little town and I think I'd like to live there - except, of course, for the fact that it often sets records for the coldest temperatures during the winter:

And right in the heart of the town of Saranac Lake was Lake Flower, with lovely homes on its shores: