Chapter 2 - Southville State Forest

I'd taken the dogs hiking in the Southville State Forest, not too far from the farm. We'd hiked downhill until we reached the St. Regis River. Seamus knew exactly what to do with that river:

And he seemed to enjoy gazing at the scenery also:

My sister called my cell phone (who knew one could take a phone call in such a remote, wild location?) and I sat on a rock at the water's edge, holding the phone in my left hand and snapping photos with my right:

Clover and Madeline explored the shoreline:

Who, me? I'm not going into that water!:

False Hellebore, Veratrum viride, was springing up all along the edge of the water:

And fiddleheads, of course - thousands upon thousands of them:

We began walking back upstream:

Seamus led the way while the other dogs sniffed here, there and everywhere:

I was at the back of the pack, stepping carefully to protect my injured ankles:

But all in all, it was a gloriously spectacular day at a wonderful, beautiful, natural spot:

When we arrived back at the lane which we'd walked to get to the river, Madeline decided to go down to the river one last time. I thought for a second she might consider getting her feet wet, but apparently the very thought of it was too much and she scurried back uphill to get away from it. But we had more hiking yet to do, and I'll post about that tomorrow: