The Trail Toward Madawaska Pond - Part 2

I was hiking the trail toward Madawaska Pond with my four younger dogs on Easter Sunday morning and the scenery was lovely:

I'd read that Madawaska Pond was one of the gems of the northern Adirondacks but that the private land owner may have closed the last part of the trail to the public. Alas, we came to this "No Trespassing" sign and had to stop and turn back:

But we made the most of our time as we made our way back to the car. Little Clover bounced her way through a grassy section, just about as happy as a dog could be:

And frankly, the area was so lovely and wild that I wasn't too disappointed that we couldn't see Madawaska Pond:

Adventurous little Clover climbed up a hill into the forest and then burst out of the trees as she returned to the trail. This was great fun!:

I saw a sort of trail leading off into the forest and turned up it:

It soon opened into a broad road:

But apparently this "road" wasn't maintained and got few hikers. Fallen trees had blocked the way in many places. I pressed on for awhile, but soon decided that I might just as well return to the main trail and continue our journey back to the car:

So we continued on our way back toward the trail head:

Fergus had lots of fun, effortlessly keeping up with the two Papillons:

Grand and glorious:

I heard a burbling brook and saw a mossy, rocky creek just off the trail through the trees. I was tempted to go investigate but I'll post more about that tomorrow: