A Day of Chores & History

In between my photo outings I have chores like mowing the grass which is what I did yesterday afternoon and this morning. We did a bit of exploring after lunch today going to Russell, the place that our road is named for. Since moving to the new house I've learned that the road (Russell Turnpike) that passes in front of our home was one of the first three roads built in this area.  The other two went from other areas to Russell.

The road out front went from Lake Champlain near Westport to Russell from where there was access to the St. Lawrence river. It was called the Northwest Bay Road then and transited many sections of current road that are familiar to me on my excursions to photograph in the Adirondacks. During the War of 1812 (during which my twice great grandfather Stephen was in the Vermont militia) this road was used by the military to get from Lake Champlain to the St. Lawrence and there was an armory in Russell.

GG Grandpa moved to this area after his service in the war and it is an odd feeling to realize that his first visit to the area probably involved a march past where I now live and took him over sections of road through landscapes that I now photograph. It is doubly strange because a maternal grandfather  (James) spent time in the Adirondacks as a tourist in the early 1900s and I have photographs he took of Barnum Pond, one of the places  Stephen would have passed on his military travels and one I too have photographed numerous times including this one.

The photo above is not from the route of the Northwest Bay Rd. but isn't very far afield. It was made in Wilmington which is a bit North of Lake Placid, one of the communities that was on the route. It is another image from my latest excursion. Made with a Canon 7D and 18-135mm lens, 1/10th sec. @ f/29. I did the B&W conversion in Lightroom 4 and toned it in Photoshop CS6.

Addendum: Sept. 13 - I did some web searches this morning and found a map of the Westport to Hopkinton portion of the original road. http://hsl.wikispot.org/Northwest_Bay_Road?action=Files&do=view&target=Northwest%20Bay%20Road.jpg That is the route that I usually take when I go to the mountains to photograph. Without knowing it and without intending to I have been following in Stephen's footsteps.