High Falls On The Salmon River - Part 1

The day was lovely and I had a lot of farm work to do. But it was simply too beautiful to spend it forking cow manure and laboring, so I took the four younger dogs to Franklin County for a hike to High Falls, on the Salmon River:

The forest trail was lined with Bunchberry in bloom:

And it took us alongside the lovely Salmon River which, at this point, was quiet and serene:

There were log and plank bridges over muddy spots and ravines. The dogs had no problem with them, but I discovered that my braces were too wide to allow me to safely stand with my feet together. I began experimenting with different ways of walking across them:

I stopped to let the dogs go into the Salmon River but only Daphne was interested:

Foamflower was beginning to bloom and, in some places, fully in bloom:

Clintonia bloomed everywhere, filling the forest floor with its banana yellow flowers. My camera didn't register the color well at all. In reality, they were a gorgeous, full bodied yellow:

We'd had heavy rain the previous day and the trail was wet in places:

In some places, it was exceedingly wet. I was happy to note that some recent repair work on the bridges had made hiking easier:

Much of the trail took us through Balsam forest and the aroma was sweet:

The smaller dogs and I walked the planks, but Seamus didn't bother. He'd trudge through the mud or walk down into the gullies and back up the other side:

Like this:

It was a thoroughly pleasant trail through a lovely forest and toward a great destination. But we weren't there yet, so I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: