Onward And Upward On Windham Mountain

The trail up Windham Mountain in the Catskills was becoming steeper. Seamus decided to rest on a hill and Fergus joined him. But the rest was very short and we continued our ascent:

The dogs love to climb rocks and strike poses. I think it is an instinct which enables them to better scan the surrounding area, probably an evolutionary adaptation which helped their ancestors find food:

We continued onward. Fergus ran back to check on my progress every few minutes:

And we passed many glacial erratics, random stones left behind as the glaciers retreated:

And many mushrooms, though nothing so colorful as those we found on the Jug End Ridge hike. Alas, I doubt I'll ever find such odd and beautiful mushrooms ever again. Nevertheless, this hike had some very large mushrooms:

The trail continued to narrow:

And it continued to get rockier and steeper:

Daphne perched atop a small rock to greet me as I passed by:

Onward and upward through the rocks:

And through the forests:

I could sense that we'd gained significant elevation and the bedrock became more evident when the trail for a while consisted of solid rock. The passing of untold numbers of hikers had worn down the thin layer of soil to expose the rock beneath. Seamus again took a rest on the soft, mossy soil on the side of the trail: