Part 3, Mountain Laurel Heaven

We arrived at the summit of Mount Everett and my recovering injured calf muscle still felt fine. This summit used to be open and grassy, with a fire tower. But Massachusetts has removed the fire tower and small trees are now growing up all over, blocking most views. It is, nevertheless, a glorious summit and especially so on a fine June day such as this. Our friendly hiking group with the Yellow Lab took my photo (and I took theirs):

I explored the summit with my dogs for a bit hoping to find some place with a scenic overlook. I never found one. Another hiker or two passed by with heavy backpacks on their way along the Appalachian Trail:

It was time to begin our descent, but first one one more photo op, this time with Seamus in the picture (resting in the shade) and Molly, the friendly Yellow Lab:

And then we began descending the rocky, narrow trail:

When we arrived again at the rocky promontory with the scenic overlook, I couldn't resist making the detour once again:

The dogs don't much cotton to scenic overlooks, but they do somehow seem to understand that they are in a special, exciting and exhilarating place:

But then we continued our descent. The rocky trail along this stretch is treacherous, with many sharp edges and ankle twisting traps. I walked extremely carefully lest I again injure my healing leg or add a sprained ankle to my list of woes:

We began to pass more Mountain Laurels:

And always the air was clean, the sun warm, the breeze refreshing and the scenery outstanding:

I stopped at another scenic overlook which I'd missed on the way up. We continued carefully downhill, always more treacherous than hiking uphill, albeit less strenuous. But we were still had lots of trail to cover. I'll post more tomorrow: