The Hike To Duck Pond, Part 2

The four younger dogs and I had just begun a November hike to Duck Pond and were traversing an old dirt road through the Adirondack forest. It was a lovely experience:

With almost all the leaves off the deciduous trees, my attention naturally turned toward other natural wonders such as this diverse collection of lichens and mosses. The only one I knew the name of was the wonderfully named Pixie Cups. I don't need to explain which one is the Pixie Cup, do I?:

And then we arrived at a wash-out perhaps eight feet deep through which a small stream passed. Clearly no vehicles could pass beyond that even if the gate was opened. But we simply walked down and back up to continue our hike on the other side:

The downstream side of the small brook which had apparently caused the washout:

And the upstream side where it burbled its way down from higher elevations:

I took this picture to remind me to tell you about the grouses which were abundant and allowed us to walk right up to them or, in many cases, past them before they flew off in a huff. I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that for one stretch of the trail, a grouse appeared every ten feet or so. The grouse in this picture is visible only as an oblong blob toward the top of the trees on the left. In real life, it seemed rather close and plainly visible:

We passed a beaver pond on the right down through the trees. I wondered briefly is this might be Duck Pond, but since no trail led to it I decided it was not:

Natural beauty was everywhere. This old log carpeted with emerald moss rivaled anything in any art gallery:

And minor Adirondack mountains were visible here and there through the trees:

The dogs kept stopping and getting fixated on smells along the trail. It turned out to be poop and was so common that I began to investigate them myself. This old one was full of hair and clearly from a carnivore. I began to wonder what animal frequented that trail, but I'll say more about that in upcoming posts:

Another natural work of art, a moss covered boulder. I was truly enjoying this hike: