Deer River State Forest, Martin Road - Part 1

It was too nice a day, slipped in between days of rain, for me to stay home. So I took the dogs back to Deer River State Forest, a place I'd recently discovered and only been to once. This time I took Martin Road and, when I saw a dirt lane heading off into the forest, parked the car and let the dogs out:

The sandy lane was easy walking and I could have driven it easily - but we were supposed to be walking, not driving. The forest was lovely, alternating between light and dark, young and mature, hardwood and conifer. The dogs didn't care. They just wanted to run:

I had to keep hollering at the dogs to bring them back, but they're so used to my loud voice that they are not phased by it. Their feelings aren't hurt, it's all just part of the fun:

I began to see occasional road signs, indicating to me that these were not hiking trails, but access roads - and there were many of them, requiring me to make a choice at each intersection (and try to keep in mind the way to return to the car when we were done):

I never saw a single wildflower, but I saw lots of leaves where there had been flowers earlier. These twin leaves in the mossy carpet were Pink Ladyslippers:

The forest was dark, interspersed with bright sunlight where there were holes in the canopy:

And it was cool and quiet, with Ovenbirds singing all around. Notice the road sign up on the right, a squiggly arrow indicating a winding section of road just ahead:

Look at the expression on Fergus' face. He looks like he was just about to pee but saw me with my camera and was saying, "Can't a fella have some privacy around here?"

The forest floor was mostly open and easy to walk, so we did some exploring. I found a section with several kinds of club mosses, such as this Fan Club Moss:

And Tree Club Moss, or Princess Pine:

This one was more difficult to identify, but I think it was Running Club Moss:

Trillium, with its flower long gone and beginning to develop fruit at its top. But there was much more to see here, and I'll post Part 2 tomorrow:

Hiking The Pinnacle, Part 3

I'd reached the scenic overlook of The Pinnacle and enjoyed the magnificent view, though I tied the dogs up first to keep them away from the edge:

I didn't know if this was the final overlook or if the trail would lead on to more scenic wonders, so I followed a little trail into the woods only to have it end near a patch of Trilliums already in fruit:

There was nothing to be done at that point except to begin the descent down the same trail which had brought us to the top. But it was a lovely path through the Adirondack forest and I knew it would be a scenic, pleasant walk:

Princess Pines, also known as Ground Pines or Club Mosses, grew in little mini-forests scattered along the trail:

And these rather large mosses holding their spore capsules aloft:

Daphne, true to form, stopped frequently along the way to browse on vegetation:

We hiked down, down, down the magnificent Adirondack forest mountainside. You can see in this photo how the mountain drops off just past the trees:

And little Clover once again gave me her "She-Wolf, Queen Of The Forest" pose:

A happy moment with the camera on self-timer mode:

And onward through some level parts of the forest with Seamus leading the way. He had lots more energy now that he'd lost some weight:

And soon we were back at the trail head. There had been not one other person on the mountain. Once again, we'd had that lovely forest and scenery all to ourselves. I signed out at the kiosk and began driving down the 1.7 mile gravel road to the highway:

Hiking The Pinnacle, Part 2

I was hiking up the trail to the scenic look-out on "The Pinnacle" in the northern Adirondacks. I had my four hiking dogs with me and they were ecstatic to be outdoors and hiking once again. I snapped a picture of little Daphne on the trail ahead of me as we climbed our way upward:

The trail ziq-zagged back and forth instead of going directly up the side of the mountain as had the Azure Mountain trail. This made the hiking much easier and more pleasant. My two little hiking Papillons, Daphne and Clover, were having a great time. They'd been spayed only 7 days ago and I was not sure if they were ready for hiking. But I needed have worried:

Big ol' giant Seamus had recently lost 10 pounds (though he was still 120 pounds!) and had a haircut. So he was more energetic than I've seen him in a long time. He too was having a grand time:

I tried to photograph some bright red Trillium berries at the base of a cliff, but just before I snapped the picture, Clover raced through and knocked them to the ground. Sigh. Well, such are the "delights" of hiking with rambunctious dogs:

We climbed higher and higher, and I could tell by looking through the forest canopy that we were already above the surrounding hills:

And then I saw a glimpse of the surrounding St. Regis River Valley and Adirondack mountains. It was nice, but I hoped this wasn't the best view which this hike had to offer:

A few more bends in the trail, however, led me to this wondrous overlook:

The north country spread out before me in an amazing display of great beauty:

Incongruously, there was a picnic table at the top of the mountain and I wondered how on earth they got it up there. It kind of spoiled the wilderness feeling but was handy for tying the dogs to keep them away from the steep edge:

Do you see that strip of blue water off in the distance? That's the St. Regis River, where it's been dammed at St. Regis Falls and Santa Clara. I'd hiked along its shoreline the previous day with my dogs:

These are the northern highlands of the Adirondack Park and only a few miles south of my farm. Who could ask for a more scenic, wonderful place to spend one's retirement? Notice the little bog at the base of the cliff just below where I was standing. This was most likely an old beaver pond beginning to fill in as the cycle of forest/pond/bog/forest continues. Well, I assumed that this was the end of the trail but wasn't yet ready to hike back down to the car. I'll post more tomorrow:

Exploring An Adirondack Wood Road

The dogs and I were driving back home through the Adirondacks after a two night stay at the farm. We'd been making more "rest stops" than ever before and having lots of adventures. Still on the Port Kent Hopkinton Turnpike, we saw much lovely scenery:

I passed by this unidentified waterway/wetland on the left side of the road, admiring its beauty. And just past it I saw a small dirt lane, likely a wood road, entering the forest and of course turned onto it:

We drove along the wood road for a long way, paralleling the waterway and passing through a pine forest:

I eventually stopped to let us all out to investigate this new terrain. Daphne and Clover, the two young Papillons, ran right down to the water's edge but , thankfully, did not go in:

There were Trillium's in bloom all around:

I tried to keep the dogs from trampling the Trillium flowers. Notice the plant just in front of Seamus' big feet:

I followed Clover down to the water's edge to take a look for myself:

And I was rewarded with this pristine wilderness view:

And finally, my two favorite photos from the trip, both of them worthy of clicking on to get an enlarged view. In this one, Seamus, Wally and Winky walk together through the piney woods near our little red car:

And dear, sweet Wally enjoying himself in the forest with a blooming Trillium behind him and a blooming Lowbush Blueberry (the little waxy bell-flowers):