The Long Pond Trail - Part 3

I was hiking along the shoreline of Long Pond, one of the lakes in Grafton Lakes (New York) State Park. We'd bushwhacked through the woods down to the trail. Then we came to some remote piers intended for fishing and for launching canoes. This was a fine, open spot for Papillon puppies to play (well, I guess ALL places are in that category):

The piers had been pulled up for the winter so that most of their bulk was on land. But I still could (and did) walk out on them over the water. From that vantage point I could watch the dogs playing:

Clover climbed up onto a concrete structure while Fergus explored in the grass and Seamus once again contemplated entering the chilly water. He never did go in:

And from my position out at the end of the pier I got an unobstructed view of the shoreline of Long Pond, clothed in the rusty colors of late autumn:

If you enlarge this picture you can get an idea of why this lake was called Long Pond. It's quite long and skinny. At that far end, way down as far as you can see, is the State Park swimming beach and facilities, a very popular spot on hot summer days:

Along this shore was the trail on which we'd just arrived:

It doesn't show in the photos, but by this point it was snowing lightly and the temperature had dropped. I decided it was time to head back to the car so we started down the trail toward where we joined it. There were numerous signs, such as these two toppled trees, of a big storm in Grafton's recent past. The winters in these parts can be fierce. But it sure was pleasant on this autumn afternoon:

Daphne has become quite comfortable in the woods and unafraid to go wherever the trail leads. She didn't hesitate to trot right out onto some floating debris to grab herself a cold drink:

The hike was almost over so I set the camera on a rock, turned it to self-timer and snapped a photo of us all. Fergus is there too, barely visible behind my legs: