A Return To Dyken Pond - Part 5

When we reached the little stream which was swollen from all of our recent rain, the dogs and I followed a different path. At that point there seemed to be no more trail markers anyway and I did, after all, know which way to go to reach the road. So we turned away from the stream and began following another trail:

By this time it was afternoon and had warmed up under an October sun. The woodland was beautiful, peaceful and quiet. And for Daphne and Clover, the two Papillon puppies, it was a marvelous playground:

On and on we hiked beneath an emerald green canopy and blue skies. Brown leaves and pine needles were softening our footsteps and sending up a friendly, earthy aroma:

I stopped for a photo, but only Seamus could hold still long enough to be included in it with me:

Clover found a fallen tree and began climbing it as if she was a spotted version of a Gray Fox:

And then, to my surprise, we emerged out into another marsh. According to the trail map, this had to be Dustin Swamp. It looked much like the swamp we'd crossed in a previous hike, but not quite. Surrounded by colorful autumn leaves, it was gorgeous:

We walked out onto the boardwalk. I could see that there were places where it had risen or sunk considerably. There were bird houses nailed to many of the standing tree trunks, but I never did figure out what birds they might be for. The entrance holes were too small for Wood Ducks:

The puppies ran ahead while Seamus and Fergus returned to check on my welfare. To their way of thinking, I'm quite the old slow poke:

I shot this video clip as we began to cross the boardwalk and mention in it that this was not the same swamp we'd crossed in our previous hike. I later realized that it was indeed the same swamp, but we'd approached it from the opposite direction and the fallen trees had been cleared: