St. Regis River Walk, Part 2

I was walking along the St. Regis River in the tiny Adirondack town of Santa Clara, New York with 4 of my dogs and enjoying the scenery. I began seeing lots of these blue flowers which I then believed were called Blue Bottle Gentian:

I snapped some photos and looked them up when I got home. There is such a plant as Bottle Gentian, and sometimes it's grown as a garden ornamental. Its more proper name is Closed Gentian. But these plants, I decided, were a closely related species, Narrow-Leaved Gentian, Gentiana linearis. They sure were beautiful and a pleasure to have blooming all along the trail:

And the common and lovely Joe-Pye-Weed. Once again I looked it up when I got home and learned that there are 3 species. This one, I feel quite sure, was the Spotted Joe-Pye-Weed, Eupatorium maculatum:

Our trail strayed away from the St. Regis River, but we came upon a muddy marsh and Seamus climbed right into without a second thought:

Seamus is huge, overweight (though on a diet) and black, so he was hot. He sat right down in the cool muck and gave his hind quarters a mud bath:

But I stayed out of the mud and just enjoyed the view:

Daphne and Clover, the silly young Papillons, mostly just ran and played. Running and playing are, after all, their specialties:

I came upon more Lowbush Blueberries:

And once again helped myself:

The trail took a broad turn, so broad that I didn't even notice. I found myself back at the starting point without even realizing we'd gone in a circle. Figuring I'd missed a turn-off, I walked it all once again but without success. So I enjoyed the lovely views of the St. Regis River and greeted the guitar man once again. Seamus went into some clean water this time, rippling the surface and causing the cloud reflections to dance in the sunshine. It had been a pleasant afternoon: