A Return To Dyken Pond - Part 1

It was a slightly chilly Sunday but the sun was shining and I was in the mood to get out into nature somewhere. So I loaded Seamus, Fergus, Daphne and Clover into my little red car and drove back to Dyken Pond Nature Preserve in Grafton, New York to finish what I'd started some weeks ago. There were still trails we hadn't taken. We began on the Long Trail, which took us at first through the deep woods. These lovely red shelf fungi were unlike anything I'd ever seen before and were the friendly greeters welcoming us to the forest:

We'd had a considerable amount of rain thanks to Tropical Storm Nicole, and Seamus was delighted to splash around in the resulting high water in the streams:

I wanted this hike to begin on a quieter, calmer note than previous hikes, so I told Seamus and Fergus to heel. The two "Happy Pappi Pooper Puppies" were kept on leashes for a while to help keep them from running amok. They didn't seem to mind too much:

We arrived at a peat bog surrounded by and filled with trees. This was not a floating bog and I suppose that it was old enough to have been anchored by the encroaching forest. But it was lovely and a delight to feel beneath my feet:

I dropped the puppies' leashes so they could go explore and that's just what they love to do:

The trail continued through the forest and I set the camera up for a photo of us all. But all the dogs except Seamus were too busy giving the woods the "sniff test" to appear in the picture:

As we approached another wetland, the trail traversed these boards:

The dogs seem to particularly love such additions to their woodland experience. A forest hike is a delight for any dog, and adding planks on which to play is near heavenly for Papillon puppies:

This is one of my favorite photos from the hike. It's Seamus ambling calmly through the forest. If you click to enlarge it, you'll get a good representation of the colors and beauty of the northern forest:

On through the Balsam, Pine, Hemlock and hardwoods:

Apparently Fergus didn't want to get his feet wet. So he had to wait for placid Seamus, who was taking his sweet time ambling down the planks:

I let the puppies off of their leashes but endeavored to keep them close at hand. If you've never seen Papillons run, take my word for it that they can disappear in the blink of an eye. This day they were showing some improvement and staying fairly close as long as I kept Seamus and Fergus at heel. If I released Fergus, however, the running would commence:


The trail took us alongside a marsh and I couldn't resist walking right out into it. Here's a brief video of us on our little side trip into the marsh: