The Long Pond Trail - Part 2

The dogs and I reached Long Pond where a marked trail ran along its shore. This was a happy occasion and the dogs ran and played and gave everything a good sniffing. I stopped to take a photo of me holding Daphne who could only be halted from her play time for a moment. She was anxious to keep running and sniffing:

Dogs are so happy to be out in nature that I can't imagine hiking without them. Look at Fergus' ears flopping as he runs joyously along the trail:

I've lately been pondering where I got my vision of how dogs should run freely through the woods while hiking. I've decided that it must have come from my childhood excursions with family in Oregon. My cousin, Derry, had a big ol' Spaniel named Ruff who ran ahead through the forest, returning to us every few seconds to share such joys as a mouthful of minced Banana Slug. We'd be thoroughly grossed out but still his joy was infectious. We don't have Banana Slugs in New York, but my dogs certainly carry on the tradition of joyous hiking:

The water must have been pretty darn cold because even Seamus declined to wade on in:

A moment along the shoreline:


And there was still some autumn color on the opposite shore:

That blue trail marker indicates that this is a hiking trail of intermediate difficulty. I thought it was as easy as a trail could possibly be, but I suppose it was wet and rocky in spots:

Fergus and the puppies had a lot of excess energy to work off:

And overall it was a gorgeous autumn day, albeit pretty darn chilly:

As we reached the far end of Long Pond I could see a pier ahead, now mostly pulled up on land. This again brought back memories as I used to come to that pier with a friend and (against Park rules) go swimming. Well, there would be no swimming on this day as it had already begun to snow. I'll post more tomorrow: