Old Dry Road Fram (Blue Marsh Lake)

Within Blue Marsh Lake is an outdoors men and photographers paradise called the Old Dry Road Farm area. Located off of Brownsville Road via car and by trail from the State Hill Road Boat launch.

All my visits started at the gate on Highland Road where there is a large parking area. You really have to want to get there for the road is dusty or muddy, full of ruts and starts with warning signs stating "road not maintained". No lie.

I love this area because it offers such diversity and you can experience several ecosystems in one visit. Today I walked along corn fields, wild plant fields, in a deciduous and evergreen woods and explored the shores of the lake. Nice views of the surrounding mountains are seen from the higher elevations offering big sky photo ops. I always leave with a diverse collection of images.

From the parking area we headed past the gate down Highland Road to the intersection of Sterners Road. I normally go right and head straight down to the lake. Today Max and I turned left. I suspected we'd end up at the another finger of the lake, but double checked with a couple of walkers who assured me that the lake was just ahead.

Along the lake, some of the trees had changed colors, while many were just starting the process. I just read by George Lepp's Tech Tips in Outdoor Photographer Magazine about taking fall colors. He made great points about bracketing and shooting leaves that are backlit instead of the harsher direct light.

Per the advice of another group of hikers, we followed the trail along the lake until it turns into the unmarked Sleepy Hollow Road. At the "Y" we turned left onto the unmarked Landis Road which lead us back the parking area on Highland Road.

About 60 and 3.2 miles.