Lovely Waters, White Hill Wild Forest Part 1

I was spending two nights up at the farm and had one entire day to do with as I pleased. I'd hiked up to The Pinnacle in the morning (see previous posts) and then stopped back at the farm apartment for lunch and to tend to Wally and Winky, both too old to hike with us. But then I decided to return to the White Hill Wild Forest for the afternoon, only a few miles south of my farm:

Once again I signed in at the kiosk. It's important so the land management team has some idea how many people are using the forest. But, more important to me, there's some way for the rangers to find me if I should be hurt along the trail. I especially like this photo because it caught little Clover leaping for joy. I also enjoyed the juxtaposition of the "Toilet" and "If You Carry It In, Carry It Out" signs. The third grader in me found that humorous:

The first stop along the trail was Clear Pond, which really is clear but perhaps too large to be a pond. It's more of a lake:

Clear Pond is a gem, a pure and unspoiled Adirondack lake. To Seamus, it was a nice swimming hole:

Seamus wanted the rest of us to come in and I might have been tempted if I'd brought my rubber slippers. But alas, he had to enjoy the cool waters all by himself:

The trail continues along the shoreline and then deeply into the forest. But first, I had some exploring to do right were I was:

Fergus and Clover explored the shoreline but were careful to keep their feet dry:

Pickerelweed, Pontederia cordata, was blooming beautifully all along the shore:

And the blue Pickerelweed flowers formed a nice frame for the view of the opposite shoreline:

But we'd come to hike the forest trail, so we set off on our afternoon journey:

When I arrived at a trail junction, I opted to bear right onto a trail I hadn't tried before. It bore no foot trail markers but only snowmobile markers, so I was unsure this was were I wanted to go. But we were going there nevertheless. I'll post more tomorrow: