A Return To Dyken Pond - Part 6

I'd been hiking the Long Trail at Dyken Pond Nature Preserve in Grafton, New York with four of my dogs. This was our second trip to the area and, just as before, we never saw another human being during the hike. We had all this beauty to ourselves. As we hiked the boardwalk across Dustin Swamp, the two Papillon puppies frolicked a bit on the observation deck:

Clover and Daphne are best friends and playmates. May it always be so. The play wrestling has, on recent occasions, escalated to a point which made me uncomfortable and I ordered them (loudly) to cease and desist. I'm pretty firm about enforcing peace amongst the dogs, whether or not they're in the mood for peace. But on this day the two "happy pappis" were like loving twin sisters:

There were few sounds of either birds or insects, but the sights and aromas were beautiful and the day was serene:

The boardwalk had raised up in some places and sunk down in others. It was much more extreme than it appears in these photos. You may notice that the rangers had nailed 2X4s to a low side of the boardwalk to keep people from sliding off into the water:

One last farewell look across Dustin Swamp before we hiked on:

I allowed the dogs to run ahead and they discovered a lean-to for camping. Imagine all the interesting smells for a dog - strange people, strange dogs, campfires, spilled food, bacon:

Happy pooches checking out the lean-to:




We reached the dirt access road a mile or so from my parked car and I decided that it was high time to give certain young Papillons a lesson in how to heel. Daphne was quite good at it, but Clover was determined to show me that she should be leading the way. I could only insist that I knew better and could be quite persistent. We arrived back at our little red car and everyone got to relax and rest for the ride home:

As we drove home, the two puppies zonked out on the seat next to me. They were more tired than they'd wanted to let on: