Hiking Along Hannacroix Creek - Part 3

I was hiking in the Hannacroix Creek Preserve just south of Albany with my four youngest dogs. We'd had a grand time so far with the exception that the two Papillons had found someone's lunch and helped themselves to half a sandwich (see yesterday's post). After the waterfalls, the trail turns up into the woods and we passed by several more stone foundations and stone walls. Once upon a time this area was settled and thriving:

The trail crossed a small brook and kept climbing upwards into the gentle hills:

And then I saw bright yellow flowers which I had already learned (from other peoples' blogs) were Coltsfoot, Tussilago farfara. It is an alien species but an interesting one. The pretty little flowers bloom before the leaves emerge. Alien or not, I was mighty glad to see them:

We climbed higher and higher into the hills, passing more old stone walls and foundations:

The puppies were still full of fun and energy. This hike had not diminished their penchant for playful nonsense:

The trail ended and I was tempted to climb up higher into those hills, but instead chose the easy route, backtracking along the trail to where we'd begun:

It became apparent to me that this trail was once a road which delivered materials to and from the paper mill. Judging by the stone walls, there must have been cattle and horses grazing in the surrounding fields which now are woods, at least in the more level places:

We were having a relaxed and pleasant walk through the woods on an early spring day:

The self-timer on my new camera leaves every picture it takes all washed out. I managed to salvage none but this one, and even then only with a lot of editing: