Arriving Back At The Quebec Brook Trail Head

This is the final in my series from the Quebec Brook hike. It was magnificent, heart warming, inspiring, informative and all the wonderful adjectives you can think of. A lovely example of unspoiled Boreal forest, yet easily accessed. I will most certainly be back:

The sun was quite low and the shadows were lengthening as we walked back toward the trail head. I kept finding new beauty everywhere I looked. I certainly missed a lot on our first leg of the journey:

That's Quebec Brook just off to the right of trail, but at that point it was more of a marsh than a brook:

We hiked back over the moss covered trails, inhaling the almost overwhelming perfume of the Balsam Firs. It would be many days before the memory of that aroma began to fade. I remember thinking that the effect of that much Balsam perfume was as if I'd gorged on candy - a favorite flavor, but perhaps I'd ingested too much:

Clover posed on a mossy carpet:

Seamus turned around to be sure I was keeping up with them. To tell you the truth, I was tired and slowing down. This was, after all, the second hike of the day:

Every time I saw a clearing up ahead I thought it must be the trail head. But the trail continued on:

I'd missed these brown sugar mushrooms on the way out. They were intriguing. Have you noticed that most mushrooms remind me of some type of food?:

This red mushroom was a common species, but this individual was more pale than usual:

Another clearing up ahead, and this one really, really must be the trail head. Even the dogs were acting tired by that point:

But they broke into a run when they saw the car. We were parked on Blue Mountain Road, about 20 minutes south of my farm. That bridge spans Quebec Brook. This was one of my all time favorite hikes, in large part because it was so remote, untraveled and unspoiled. But the time had come to drive home and make dinner: