Getting to all three lakes

I wanted a flat hike on Wednesday, so I opted to do the 3 Lakes Loop, as suggested in the park brochure. The 3 Lakest Trail starts at Canopus Lake, passes Hidden Lake, passes John Allen Pond (hey, not a lake!) before ending at Dennytown Road. But to do the loop, I exited 3 Lakes at Sunken Mine Road, returning via the Old Mine Railroad, 3 Lakes, and the AT.

   

I found the trail to be rather charming, especially on a foggy morning that gave me Adirondack feelings, and I'm not sure the photos really capture that.

   

The bit of AT south of 301 is interesting, too, in that it's on a built-up berm rather than following the contours of the land. I don't know what the story is here - if this is also part of an old railroad, or something else. 

The only part I didn't love was the large number of mosquitos. A lot of this trail is low and near marshes, so it's not suprising that our bloodthirsty friends were out. 

One last photo of a stream crossing - the orange is iron mine runoff, but I don't know what the cloudy yuck is.