SheldonTimes

Dunning Pond is a beaver pond a few miles up Dunning Brook trail off Route 30 north of Wells, NY. As the weather continued to be rainy, we decided to day hike to Dunning Pond, delaying our backpacking trip another day. The hillside trail follows the brook generally, but at a distance, and from time to time there are some nice views of the brook below. As we neared the pond, the trail turned a bit marshy and more difficult to follow in places. Paul walked out over the beaver dam, while I wondered what I could do to help if he slipped and his legs become entangled in the interlaced branches. I was much relieved when he was back on the shore.

The trail did not appear to have much traffic, but there was one clear sign of human activity -- an unopened can of beer left in the notch of a fallen tree. It was facing us as we traveled inland, and we guessed that someone had intended to pick it up on the return trip. We moved it to the top of the log where it was visible from both directions. We had a good time thinking up preposterous stories of how it came to be left there, and we took it with us on the return portion of the hike.

We found a wide variety of mushrooms, some we took back to the campsite to identify, including a chanterelle from a lovely patch right beside the trail, near the trailhead. If we were lucky they would still be there when we were ready to leave the Adirondacks for Black Point.

See photos.