'Whatever you do, don't go off the trail!'

That was the last thing the helpful lady at the information centre told me, before embarking on a walk for a couple of hours near Lake Placid, in upstate New York a few years ago. Don't go off the trail. Noted.

Oh, that - and it may get a bit marshy at one point...

Um, yeah. That would be a beaver dam, making a lake of unknown depth. And if you look REALLY close, you can probably make out the trail marker out in the middle of the lake. Don't go off the trail, she says.

Fortunately, just about that moment a hiker appears, right around the other side of the lake / dam / marsh, so, we wait - because obviously, they're coming back from the mountain, so they've found a way around the marsh once already!

The Adirondacks are a beautiful area, which I'd never explored in all my years living just across the border in Ontario - but this one time, coming back from the Montreal Grand Prix, we decided to drive south of Lake Ontario for a change, stay overnight, and visit the (amazing) Eastman House in Rochester on the way home.

The walk in the woods was just meant to be an afternoon stroll, not a land war with beavers; but even with wet feet, getting a bit lost, the walk being longer than expected (stupid non-metric distance measurements), it was worth it.

And inadvertently led to finding the most hilarious and amazing place to stay - but, that's another tale from the riverbank...!

[p.s. this is possibly the most literal of my Lost & Found series. They're not usually about getting lost while taking photos, they're meant to be about photos from my archives that haven't been seen!]