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Mother's day, portals, & secretive Wolf Pond Road- Adventures in the Adirondack Mountains
- Nat
- May 12
- 10 min read
Updated: May 20
Mother's day,
we woke up and the weather was so blah.
It looked like the gray was an out of town visitor with no plans of ever going back home.
"It's mother's day we should at least ride around for a little bit" I whined to Dave as if I were a two year old toddler wanting to go to the playground.
Sciatica
I was in bed all week, sounding like a moose, and trying to survive. I had a sciatica nerve flare up from sitting at a picnic table last weekend. Crazy how I've solo camped and kayaked in several states, woke up with a 10 foot gator near my tent, have swam with sharks, and even jumped out of a perfectly good airplane but sitting at a hard picnic table led to me being in bed for about 5 days!
Thank goodness that only happens once every other year roughly. I believe it is a result of falling way too much. I'm a bit clumsy and that isn't a great trait when wooden stairs are around. Anyway, enough about blown out backs.
Emerald and I had managed to get ourselves out of the bed bird nest and I wanted to stretch, see things, and explore something new. The rain wasn't going to keep us cooped up for another second and neither was an angry almost healed back.
Our rides
Usually always start off with a general idea of the direction we want to head in, and then everything unfolds based off spontaneous feelings from there.
Living in Chazy, NY
Has given us so many random adventures without repeating the same places over and over. Within an hour from the house we can be in the massive Adirondack mountains! We have access to the northern most peaks closest to us which is full of trails, mountain peaks, views, history, and foraging opportunities that makes the woods feel like a little fairytale market.
There are endless back roads, endless creeks, rivers, and streams, so many opportunities to get lost from the modern world and feel like we are the last people here.
We also have access to other mountain ranges such as Lyons mountain and Green Mountains as well as the well known Lake Champlain area with additional forests and trails. In other words, there are so many paths that lead to somewhere new to explore.
Once we pull out of the driveway we have a full view of mountains all around us in every direction. Picking where to go is like eating only one of your favorite chips when the whole bag is wide open and not having a second. Basically, impossible so we go off vibes, gut feelings, and what looks moosey or interesting!
In search of wild berries
Too early for wild berries here (May 10th 2026) but that didn't mean we couldn't scout out some locations so we can have a game plan when it is time to get to picking. We also wanted to keep our eye out for morel mushrooms, ramps, and some fiddleheads.
We headed to Lyons Mountain since our online search said that was a great area for looking for wild berries to harvest. We haven't really explored that area so it was a win win. Something new while scouting for something old.
This portal thing happens...
It seems every time we go on one of our adventures as we head away from town we almost transport through a tunnel as if we are leaving society behind. The cars, the people, the stores, and the rat race just fade off in the distance. We relax, we ease into the presence, and enjoy every moment with every turn of the road keeping our head on a swivel as there is so much to see. Another mountain view, a different creek, an interesting house, something that doesn't make sense, an old abandoned place, stories and stories stretch across the land. It is often hard to remember it all.
Chazy
Is the town we currently live in.
Chazy Lake is not in that town. Chazy lake is in a different town.
Dave did some work out that way a few weeks ago and he said it was beautiful so as our drive to Lyons mountain took us around Chazy lake he was pretty excited to show me.
He wasn't wrong, it was gorgeous. We snapped a few photos, moaned about the yucky weather, and also at some point went by this medieval looking prison. Dave told me someone he works with said there was a prison break there where some inmates escaped from a sewer drain and there was a movie made based on the real story.
The prison looks like it holds some history, stories of sadness and eternal grief I am sure.
Bathroom stop
After a little potty break, car selfies, and gorgeous views we decided to continue our drive to Lyons mountain. As we faded further away from society the gray sky also faded and was replaced with that incredible blue 90s sky with the scattered enormous fluffy white clouds. The weather went from blah to yay. No more gray!
Yikes!
We went through what looked like a dumpster. Sorry for being brutally honest it looked like a small town that has given up and we started thinking we maybe decided on the wrong journey. Just as we felt like turning around we happened to see a natural spring for collecting water! This was very exciting because we've been hoping to come across one. Yes, we could have looked it up online but some of these things feel more magical when they are found and not searched. I marked it on our map as a future place to refill our jugs. We have missed doing that since our time in Kentucky.
Round two of, "should we be here?"
We decided to keep going. Something about experiencing something new, kind of does that, especially to us. We thrive off new adventures so we, well, Dave pushed the gas pedal and up up up the mountain we went!
Gorgeous views, more mountain peaks surrounding us in the distance, and a few hills later we found ourselves in another town. This one felt like it had a population of maybe 15 people.
I'm probably dramatically wrong.
It felt like the kind of tiny town you don’t want to accidentally end up in at the wrong time though. Our desire for a new adventure kept us pushing through as we talked about how we should have brought along snacks or a picnic. We skipped breakfast and our stomachs were starting to let us know.
I thought we would drive back through this town to get back home so I didn't take any photos. I now wish I had, we didn't see it again as our wondering around took us a different way.
This little speck on the map looked like someone lost the remote and hit pause by accident. It looked like time itself forgot to show up for work. The town looked like it had been long forgotten and the earth was slowly swallowing it back up. We did see a few people when we turned around at a dead end, it seemed like all of a sudden they just appeared. Maybe they heard our jeep and were curious who showed up. It seemed like the kind of place that hadn't had an outsider since sometime back in 1991.
Maybe we should turn around!
2 people on 2 different four wheelers got behind us as we went down a dirt road.
This was the actual road for Wolf Pond. The other road that ended up being a dead end had a hand written sign that read, "this is not wolf pond road!" It definitely came across more like a warning sign and not just for information purposes. This road though was the actual road and we decided to continue even if we were being slightly followed or maybe I was being dramatic again.
Either way, a dirt road always pulls on our curiosity, another thing Dave and I have in common.
Another portal...
As the forgotten town disappeared behind us it seemed like we went to another world.
A magical place, a place that no one knew about!
Obviously, people did know about it because the two four wheelers were still behind us and there was probably enough "posted" signs on the trees to wallpaper a barn. Aside from that though, it felt like no one else existed.
No houses, no stop signs, no red lights, no schedules, and no people once we let those two pass us.
They disappeared somewhere among the thousands of acres.
It finally felt like we were the only ones left.
That is the true magic of the Adirondacks.
We drove, we drove, and we drove.
No wolf lake in sight to our knowledge even though we stayed on the road which was named Wolf Lake. It was too gorgeous of a ride to even consider turning around.
Eventually we ended up at a very loose definition of a slight four way.
We had options, the options had gates across so our
options dwindled down and we decided to go by foot.
Before we got out we did see two of the most gorgeous ducks either one of us ever experienced.
Dave said it looked like they dipped their heads into some kind of metallic teal paint. We admired them for a bit and carried on about the immaculate views, the blue sky, and how we weren't sure if it was public land or private.
We finally agreed the road was public and was fine to explore by foot.
We loaded emerald into her handy dandy carrier and on Dave’s back she very happily went.
The temperature to me was absolutely perfect, we both repeated over and over how rejuvenating the sun felt on our skin, and we definitely repeated how gorgeous everything was!
We walked a good ways, I was beyond happy to be walking without the pain in my back. In the days prior a simple walk to the bathroom sent tears into my eyes. Gratitude filled my entire existence with each step. We went down that path for a while. We talked about how we want a driveway like that.
A driveway that isn't paved, a driveway that stretches beyond the eye can see,
a driveway that leads to our home far away from town.
Birch polypore, birch polypore, birch polypore
I'm sure Dave was getting tired of hearing me say,
"There’s birch polypore!"
I snapped so many photos of the ancient mushroom to save for an on going foraging book I'm in the process of putting together. Birch polypore heard the assignment and showed up!
So many photos later, so many conversations, and seeing a hand painted sign that read,
"4 1/2" miles... to where we aren't sure, we decided to turn around
and see what was along one of the other closed roads.
Hey jeep, bye jeep
We walked past our parking spot and over the other yellow gate.
The view was incredible!
"No, this is the driveway we are manifesting!"
We both pretty much said. There was a little creek and Dave said that would be a perfect spot for emerald to play this summer. We definitely want to take her back when it is swim suit season and let her splash.
These roads are snowmobile paths in the winter, they aren't open for wheeled vehicles until spring.
At least that is what we determined after putting together the clues from the assorted signs.
Emerald, she didn’t care about signs, the immense wind, or really anything. She was genuinely the happiest we've ever experienced her without being prompted in all 8 months of her little life.
She kept squealing with excitement. Nothing was entertaining her other than the big breezes, the gorgeous sun, and nature. Hearing her laughing and seeing her precious smile reinforced our feelings for making sure we keep her closer to the natural excitements of life and expose her in limited doses of, what everyone else refers to as
"real life."
We spent hours walking, talking, and taking photos. We had the whole place to ourselves, we stayed on the road as everything else was posted. We are still unsure if it was private or public property. The postings said no hunting. We stayed on the road and explored just to be respectful. We didn't have cell service. As a matter of fact our signal dropped off way back sometime when left Chazy Lake.
Aside from the four wheelers which had vanished a few hours before we didn't even see anyone else. Eventually we heard a truck, they turned on a side road that had a gate across it. We didn't see another vehicle or person for another several hours. We got back in the jeep and wondered down the road again continuing straight.
More miles, no people or vehicles in sight. Just slightly confusing signs, lots of closed off paths, and way more, "Wow that is gorgeous!" Statements than probably could be counted.
STOP! BACK UP!
How my eye spotted it I'm not sure but blended into the trees was a lonesome wild turkey. She was pecking away at the ground. Dave is great about that, he'll stop or back up anytime I see something I want to photograph and I'm truly grateful it doesn’t bother him.
Starving,
Okay maybe we weren't literally starving but we definitely wanted to eat. We kept going along the dirt road. It finally spat us out at a main road, a line of mailboxes were along the right side, and there was a little pull off space on the left. It suddenly felt like we entered society again although there were no signs of actual people anywhere. We did have cell service so while Dave looked up food options, I spotted birch polypore again and hopped out to snap some photos.
Another long road
Down another dirt path with a sign that basically warned drivers to act right or else, we went. At one point we were confused if we could even go down the road. It seemed like the dirt road turned into a walking path but everything kept saying go straight, straight we went.
We aren't even sure but how but we ended up on a real paved road again and it happened to be one we loved last weekend when we were out scouting for campsites. That is another interesting thing that happens in the Adirondacks. You wonder around enough you kinda end up overlapping places without realizing how it ever happened because nothing looked familiar along the way and then suddenly everything looks familiar.
Lisa G's never fails us
We debated on a few places, a lot of options were still closed because of winter.
We were at the crossroads of winter turning to spring and a lot of
places around here stay closed until mid-end of May.
Lisa G's never disappoints so we went there.
This was probably our 4th time eating there since moving to New York.
Honestly we were so hungry I forgot to take the obligatory food photos! I snapped one of our half eaten appetizer. The service, food, and atmosphere is always the perfect ending to an adventure packed day each time we've found ourselves sitting at a table on the covered porch at this lovely restaurant.
If you ever find yourself in the area we definitely recommend them.
Bellies full and the sun started going down
we meandered our way back home while we talked about next weekend.
Hopefully, it will be a camping weekend with some actual foraging.
It was such a special Mother's day and another wonderful adventure
THE GALLERY
almost to chazy lake
Reading this felt like watching a beautiful family adventure movie! I loved how you described the 'portal' feeling of leaving the world behind. It’s so inspiring to see how you turn a grey Mother’s Day into such a magical memory. Emerald is so lucky to have these nature-filled adventures with you both. 🥰