Almost Home On The Quebec Brook Trail

The Quebec Brook trail passed through the Boreal forest, a magnificent wilderness path thickly carpeted with various mosses, Bunchberries and fascinating mushrooms:

We were by this point on our way back to the trail head and the path opened up and leveled out. If it is possible, the aroma of Balsam Firs had continued to strengthen so that by this time I almost felt overwhelmed by it - not that I was complaining:

Dainty little pinkish mushrooms with crimped borders. I sure would like to learn more about fungi some day, but can't imagine where I'd wedge it into my schedule. For now at least, I'll be content with just admiring their beauty and diversity:

The sun was beginning to set as we hiked through a ferny section:

I stopped at this mushroom family which looked to me to be kind of beefy, or perhaps toasty:

I'd been up since well before dawn, this was our second hike of the day and it was almost dusk. I was tired. Seamus was tired. But Fergus, Daphne and Clover were as excited and full of fun as ever, running full speed just for the pure joy of it:

Though they stopped occasionally to see what old Dad was doing:

Clover seems to fancy herself a great hunter and is always alert for lions and tigers and bears from which she might have to protect us. But as I learned from the wild turkey incident, the wildlife has nothing to fear beyond annoyance:

C'mon, Dad. We're almost back to the car:

An orange juice colored mushroom:

We passed through a shrubby section and stopped to looked around. We were surely almost there - weren't we? Well, I'll post more tomorrow: