Catherineville State Forest Hike

The dogs and I were on our way home after a short hike in a county reforestation area (see yesterday's post) when I saw a sign for Catherineville State Forest. Then I saw a trail, so I parked along the side of the road and we began our second hike on that lovely but chilly Sunday afternoon:

And lovely it was indeed:

The dogs were a bit less inclined to run too far ahead since it was our second hike, and we all proceeded deeper into the forest:

The autumn gold was spectacular in places, and all the more so when contrasted with the greenery of the conifers:

I stopped at this old log to admire its healthy mixture of mosses and lichens - and one blackberry, also growing from the old wood:

We stopped to examine a bit of old trash, apparently a remnant from someone's forest cottage or, perhaps, a logging camp of many years ago:

I admired the golden beauty of it all, but the dogs smelled lots of interesting things which I could only guess at:

And they played, having a grand time. Just look at Fergus' ears flopping as he frolicked:

Many of the rocks were covered in an emerald blanket of moss:

And the middle of the path abounded with Wild Ginger, a plant I'd formerly only seen in nature blogs. It's not an edible, real Ginger, but its flowers are oddly beautiful and I may return in the spring to see them:

But of course our hikes are pretty short these days, so we were soon on our way back toward the road and our parked car:

I was surprised at how many things I'd missed the first time, and the return trip revealed lots of interesting things and autumn beauty that I'd somehow failed to appreciate while hiking the opposite direction. Soon we were back at the car and on our way home. There are supposed to be additional interesting trails in the Catherineville State Forest and it's incredibly close to home. I plan to return for more exploration: