Stone Valley Trail - Part 2

The dogs and I were hiking on the Stone Valley Trail, alongside the magnificent Raquette River. Summertime water levels were low, yet still there were waterfalls and rapids to add beauty to our excursion:

I couldn't maneuver the rocks because of my braces, but the dogs took great delight in exploring along the edges of the river:

In some places, the Raquette River was calm and quiet:

And the trail beneath the Hemlocks was peaceful:

Fergus trotted down to a pool of water:

I went as far as I thought I could manage, given my braces and the heat of the day, and then we turned back toward our parked car:

"This is fun, Dad. Come on down:"

Seamus isn't much for running and playing these days, despite having shed more than ten percent of his former body weight. Mostly he just follows along and looks happy:

We stopped to enjoy every scenic overlook:

And relished the cool shade of the forest. Back in the sun, the day was very hot:

We crossed back over the bridge which spanned the giant water pipe:

And I looked northward toward where the pipe was headed. It was an amazing sight. But our hike was over. We hurried back to the car, rolled all the windows down and got back on the road quickly to get the air flowing again:

Stone Valley Trail - Part 1

I'd been reading about the Stone Valley Trail for a long time and finally decided to give it a try. I drove down to the town of Colton, parked my car and began hiking at this dam on the Raquette River:

The trail is very long, but it was hot and my leg braces were bothering me, so I determined to walk as far as I figured I could and still make it back. The trail took us alongside this giant water pipe, part of the Brookfield power generating system:

And then across the pipe, leading us back toward the beautiful Raquette River:

We began in a mixed forest, angled downhill toward the river:

When we arrived at the Raquette River, the water level was very low:

My braces did not permit me to do much rock hopping, but the dogs sure had fun:

The dogs ran, played and refreshed themselves with river water:

There were many signs warning hikers to stay out of the river bed as the dam ahead of us could cause the water level to rise suddenly. I might have ignored the signs, but since I couldn't walk on the rocks with my braces anyway, I had to behave:

The low water level had exposed lots of rock formations:

In the forest, I saw numerous Indian-Pipe plants. Indian-Pipe is a parasitic flowering plant which derives its nutrients from a soil fungus which, in turn, gets its nutrients from tree roots. Because it doesn't need to manufacture its own food as most plants do, Indian-Pipe has no chlorophyll:

Seamus and Fergus paused for a breather:

And there were river scenes of spectacular beauty. But there was still more to see. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: