Gull(less) Pond

What a spectacular day for a short hike to Gull Pond, which is near Schroon Lake. The sun was shining, making the changing leaves even more vibrant.

This is another new trail for us, and it was a little over half a mile to the pond. It must be wet in the spring, because someone had taken great pains to divert some of the creeks and make a stone walkway and wood bridge to keep everyone dry. 

This looks to be a heavily used trail, aka a herd trail. Even though it is a little out of the way, we were disappointed to see several other vehicles in the parking area already, and it was only 9:30 AM. We didn't pass anyone though, until we were almost at the pond, and it happened to be a couple portaging a Stand-Up Paddleboard that they must have explored the pond with (quite a feat...I wouldn't want to do that with our kayaks). The wooded knoll before the pond is really pretty and looked to be a good picnic spot amidst the carpeting of pine needles.

Then we heard before we saw, a 3 generational family at the water's edge (actually we could hear them when we first entered the trail). The two little kids were having a good time, but very noisy and yelling. There was also another couple sitting on a rock overlook, but at least they were quiet and enjoying the serenity. When we get to a place like this, I feel like we need to be quiet and almost reverent. Plus noise scares away a lot of the nature. We were standing off to the side and suddenly everything got quiet and we realized we were all alone! We ventured out to see the different views of the pond. No gulls were there, but we did see a kingfisher diving into the water in the distance. The cliffs across the lake are quite impressive and I have read that there is a very rough trail around the pond, but one we wouldn't attempt.

There is even a tiny rock island in the middle of the pond. We did see a turtle, and wondered how far it had to come to get to this body of water.

We had a guest come visit us, and we could tell that this chipmunk was used to people and being fed, since it came right up to our feet. At least it can get some food on its own because it looked like it was eating a bee honeycomb. A small brown snake went right in front of it at one point, startling it...and me!

The walk back reminded us of Hansel and Gretel and we were looking for the witch's house or at least some kind of troll house. It certainly is a very picturesque place, especially if you time it right.