Exploring Dyken Pond Nature Preserve - Part 4

The dogs and I were hiking the Long Trail in Dyken Pond Nature Preserve and had already seen quite a variety of habitat types. There are so very many trails in the Preserve, both named and unnamed, that even with directional signs at the intersections (well, at some of them), I'd have gotten pretty darn lost without a good trail map. But on we journeyed, following the signs for the Long Trail:

We passed by several very large rocks on both sides of the trail called The Sentinels. I assume these are what are called Glacial Erratics, bits of debris left behind as the glaciers retreated:

And then we arrived at what I'd most looked forward to, a boardwalk across a large swamp. A tree had fallen across the beginning of it, making it difficult to access, and it had sunken badly in many places, but it was still for me a place of magic and wonder:

The dogs considered it pretty wondrous also, and ran up and down its length many times:

Because the weather was so hot and sunny, Seamus left the boardwalk in search of water but didn't seem to find much. At the place where there was abundant water (see the above photo), the boardwalk was elevated perhaps four feet and he apparently didn't want to jump. But there was so much water available on this hike that I didn't worry about him:

There were birdhouses in many of these dead trees, but I never figured out for what species they might be intended. I never saw any Pitcher Plants or Sundews. So I just enjoyed the solitude and the sounds, sights and smells of nature:

In this rather quiet, peaceful video of the dogs on the boardwalk, you can see the tree which had fallen across the access point. You can also see Seamus longing to get down into the running water but deciding not to jump down that far. Mostly, the video just displays the quiet, peaceful experience that it was. I should add that we did not see even one other person on our hike. We apparently had the entire Preserve to ourselves: