Part 2, Coney Mountain In The Horseshoe Lake Wild Forest

The trail up Coney Mountain was both scenic and easy, just the ticket for an old geezer who had recently experienced some leg weakness:

And the dogs were happy, happy, happy. This, after all, was their second hike that morning. By the way, don't let the radiance of Daphne's "smile" cause you to miss the cluster of Painted Trilliums near her feet:

We continued gradually upward. Many trees were just beginning to leaf out even though this was mid-May and we'd had an early spring with 80 degree temperatures in March:

And then the trail became steeper. The dogs turned around to look at me as if they wondered if my legs would poop out on us again. But I was doing just fine and we continued on our way to the summit:

And I found Trout Lilies in bloom in mid-May. Boy, these mountainsides were really experiencing a late spring!:

My legs were fine but Seamus, overweight as he is, needed a rest. We all waited for him to catch his breath. He's since gone on a diet and is looking thinner these days:

I got down on my belly to photograph a Red Trillium in bloom and Fergus walked over to keep an eye on me. It made for quite a terrific picture:

And then I began finding Spring Beauties in bloom! I wondered just how late the mountainside snows had melted this year:

More Red Trilliums:

And then we reached the steeper, final rocky ascent toward the summit. Views were already opening up to the right:

The higher we went, the better the scenic overlooks became:

Higher and higher, through a small clump of trees. We were almost there - but I'll post photos from the summit tomorrow: