The Canoe Carry Trail To The St. Regis River

Yes, indeed, if you thought that hiking up to the summit of Azure Mountain and then hiking along Quebec Brook was enough for one morning, you'd be wrong. There was one more short hike along Blue Mountain Road that I wanted to show my sister and niece. So we drove just a couple of miles from the Quebec Brook trail head to an unmarked canoe carry to the St. Regis River and began down the sandy, level trail:

I confess that I was tired and even this short, level trail felt long to me. But it was beautiful. We passed by this unnamed pond:

My sister searched the pond for ducks or loons but saw none:

We continued on. I reminded my sister how we'd pulled up Bracken Ferns in Oregon as kids and used them as spears as we played in the forest. This trail was lined with them:

We broke into a clearing with the St. Regis River just ahead of us:

And this was why I wanted to take this hike. The payoff was enormous - breathtaking, wild beauty:

Seamus walked right into the water but little Madeline thought that was crazy. She certainly wasn't going in:

Daphne, however, has learned that water can be lots of fun to play in:

No, I was not peeing in the river. I was holding up my pants' legs to keep them dry. I took off my shoes and waded into the river in an effort to convince the dogs to follow. As you can see, it didn't work very well. It felt wonderful, though, to be walking on such a sandy river bottom with cool, clean water washing my tired legs and feet:

The sandy shores were growing lots of Eastern Teaberry, also known as American Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens). Its little red berries had a friendly, inviting, homey look to them:

But all good things must come to an end, and we had to begin our hike back to the car:

We were all tired but had seen much exquisite natural beauty. We schlepped back to the car and went in search of lunch. We had to drive all the way to St. Regis Falls to find a convenience store, but they had great pizza and subs and hot wings. And our hiking for the day was done: