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5.

[[image - a black-and-white photograph of a lake and a building with a small dock on the shore; glued to the upper left corner of the page, with caption]]
[[underlined]] Rock Fern Lodge [[/underlined]]

This is a beautiful little camp owned by Mr. and Mrs. D. B. Eckler of Pittsford, N. Y. From it a path leads up to the Raquette Lake Railroad from which the trail to Mountain Pond commences. The Eckler camp was to be our connecting link between Mountain Pond and Fourth Lake, Mr. and Mrs. Eckler very kindly allowing us to leave our canoe on their dock and our superfluous luggage in their camp.

By the aid of a lantern we picked our way up to the Railroad. This is a single track road connecting Raquette Lake with the main Adirondack line. A railroad is a blot upon the Adirondack landscape; the whistle of the engine is a discordants note midst the singing of birds and the chirping of squirrels; the smell of the burning oil is a hostile odor in the balsam-scented atmosphere. But, invisible until breaking through the trees you come upon it and with but three or four trains a day, it is endurable.

The trail leading to Mountain Pond is a most obscure one. In broad daylight it is often very difficult to detect the narrow break in the woods at the side of the railroad. Now in the blackness of the night it was still

[[image - a black-and-white photograph of a grey-haired man clothed in light shirt, dark pants and suspenders, standing in front of a building's porch, with his right hand on the wooden railing; glued to the bottom left corner of the page, with caption]]
Mr. Eckler