Driving down from Burlington to Port Henry took a few hours. There is one bridge to cross onto the New York side near the south end of the lake. It brings us through Crown Point, a preserved revolutionary war structure. It served as a British fort. Today it’s a well maintained, beautiful land area at the south end of Lake Champlain.

Informational signage regarding the fort

What a nice surprise to find a picturesque place to enjoy. Not gonna lie, I was tired from driving in from Burlington. So I was glad we found something so close to the airbnb. The host recommended we come here. He is a photographer, professional for over 30 years.

Truffle and Trees in late afternoon light

The clouds in the sky were sparse, but I increased their appearance in the image with a circular polarizing filter. The polarizer deepens the blue of the sky when oriented correctly. The image of the clouds are pronounced because of this. The polarizer can also improve color saturation of leaves. The apple tree on the left is heavy with worm-bitten fruit. The black walnut in the center of the image is heavy with green fragrant walnuts. They remind me of tennis balls, but emit a strong citrus like scent when crushed.

The discovery of these fruits is exciting, especially when you imagine that you are a british army soldier in the late 1700’s. Waiting to fend off American forces coming up the Hudson river, doing marching and shooting drills, being driven by cruel army sergeants. Discovering a tree that has apples growing wild. And walnuts.

Walking down to the lake, rock beach is exposed and a fish carcass shines in the light. It is picked clean of meat. The fish must have been very large. Our dog discovers it by its smell.

Truffle just before crushing the fish carcass

Walking back to the parking lot, we found plenty of wild flowers. Truffle found plenty of things to sniff.

Next morning, we had this view of lake Champlain from our airbnb. The sunrise showed some light and dark streaks radiating from the point where the sun comes over the mountain. It was cold which made setting up my tripod a challenge. My dog was also pulling on his leash looking for a place to poop. Truffle pooped just after I took this shot.

This day we took a hike at Poke-O-Moonshine. There is a trail to fire tower which is no longer in use. The hike was long and Truffle was the most energetic hiker.

Tao and Truffle on Poke-O-Moonshine tower trail

Truffle’s energy was unbeatable. We took breaks because we, as humans, needed to stop to rest. We gave him water and told ourselves we stopped for him. But Truffle was always ready to go. He even found some creative ways to get up the trail. He is still very excitable even at 3 years old.

After this intense hike, we stopped at Ausable Brewing and got a flight. They had a good band playing Americana / Folk songs like Doc Watson. The beer was very good.

After Ausable brewing, we stopped at Ausable Chasm. However, we were took late and did not go on a Chasm tour. Here I am looking at my camera waiting for Tao to get back from the bathroom. She captured me in my natural state.

Upstate New York

Dan Snyder

Upstate New York

Mount Fuji

Tokyo - Day 1

Dan Snyder