Clear Pond Again, White Hill Wild Forest Part 5

I'd been hiking in the White Hill Wild Forest with four of my dogs again and we were almost back to the trail head and my parked car. As you may have noted in previous posts, there had been lots of interesting mushrooms, most of them growing right in the trail. When I came to this sight, it gave me pause. Then I realized that my thundering herd of excited dogs and trampled right over these unfortunate fungi:

And then we arrived at Clear Pond. Well, I couldn't pass by without first walking over to explore the shoreline once again:

The dogs were all excited to be there (again), but then one of the wonderful things about dogs is that they are overjoyed by nearly everything. If only we humans could learn to enjoy life so much!:

A handsome pair of puffballs along the way to the lake:

The afternoon was quiet, peaceful and sunny. I was still the only person in the forest preserve. I had no need to worry about leaving the dogs off leash:

The clouds were reflected beautifully in the waters and there was something watching us from the shallow edge:

A close-up reveals a Green Frog. He stayed and watched us until Fergus tried to lap up water near him (without ever realizing his presence). That was too much for Mr. Frog and he took off:

Seamus cooled off in the beautiful waters again. I tried to encourage Fergus to go in because his feet were still coated in stinky swamp mud, but he would not:

Clover and Daphne danced along the lovely shoreline, all excited and happy:

While Seamus continued to do his brontosaurus act:

Well, our hike was over but I snapped one last photo of Clover posing beautifully on a shoreline rock. This is why I like my brand of hiking. It is solitary and peaceful, yet still I get the happy companionship of such happy dogs: