Wild And Remote Debar Pond - Part 3

The dogs and I had hiked to Debar Pond:

The views of this secluded gem, surrounded by mountains, were excellent:

But it was time to hike back to where we'd parked:

We hiked across dry ground with planks over the wet spots:

Through the Adirondack forest:

Until we reached the elevated planks through the cedar swamp:

The dogs had a grand time playing on the planks, but I had to be careful as I'm quite clumsy with my leg braces:

The planks were covered with chicken wire to prevent them from being too slippery, but they were also beginning to rot, sag and lean in various "interesting" directions:

We crossed back over the bridge where the beautiful Joe-Pye-Weed was in bloom:

And also where a lot of Turtlehead, a member of the Snapdragon family, was blooming:

We reached the dirt lane which had brought us to the trail head. I signed out at the register and snapped a photo of my four very happy pooches:

We loaded back up into the car and began our journey back out of the Adirondack forest to where we could again be on a regular, paved road:

Wild And Remote Debar Pond - Part 2

I was hiking with the dogs to Debar Pond, a short walk, much of it on elevated planks through a cedar swamp:

We eventually reached the end of the planks and continued on a trail through the Adirondack forest:

The dogs ran and played. They were having a grand time:

I saw more yellow mushrooms, this one in a miniature "forest" of Shining Clubmoss:

And soon we arrived at Debar Pond, a little known and secluded gem:

The dogs were less interested in the water than usual, perhaps because the weather wasn't very hot that day:

As for me, I luxuriated in the spectacular scenery:

I knew from our last trip here that the trails led to no other scenic overlooks, so I confined my explorations this time to the areas immediately adjacent to our arrival point:

I coaxed Seamus and Daphne into the water and they seemed to enjoy it:

And then we explored a little more for different views of Debar Pond:

On our last trip, I hiked the full length of the pond in a search of more shoreline access but never found any, so this time I didn't even try. I did, however, delight in the scenery:

Clover wouldn't go into the water but she sure enjoyed getting next to it and gazing out over the pond. I'll post Part 3 tomorrow:

Wild And Remote Debar Pond - Part 1

It was already afternoon and rain was predicted soon, yet the sun was still shining and I decided to take the dogs to Debar Pond. We drove 30 miles to this overgrown sign and parking area, far off the main roads:

We walked up the dirt lane to the trail head, where I signed the register and called the pooches to begin our hike:

There were beautiful yellow mushrooms along the way:

This was a short hike, but a scenic one. Much of it was on elevated planks through a cedar swamp:

There clearly hadn't been much maintenance done and much of the wood was rotting:

We crossed over this lovely stream:

And continued on through the cedar swamp:

Joe-Pye-Weed was blooming profusely wherever it could take root near water:

The planks were springy and saggy, a little worrisome for an old codger like me with leg braces. But I was careful, in one place even getting on my hands and knees to get past a particularly rickety spot:

The little dogs weren't worried about falling, though. They even wrestled and played as they traversed the planks:

And there were occasional side trips for the small dogs:

Big Seamus, however, wasn't so agile and did take a spill off the planks into the swamp. He managed to right himself and get back up onto the boardwalk without any help from me. We were almost to Debar Pond. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: