Happy Dogs At The St. Regis River Canoe Access - Part 1

I decided one morning to take the dogs for a walk and drove down Blue Mountain Road to the St. Regis River Canoe Access trail, in the Santa Clara Tract of the Adirondacks. The dogs were happy and it was a lovely day for a walk:

Lowbush blueberries were blooming all along the edges of the trail:

The aromas of Balsam and White Pine filled the air as we turned down a side trail toward a small pond. Daphne led the way:

The path was very narrow, and Clover and Fergus squeezed side by side, following behind me. Seamus (you can see his feet in the background) was behind them. Jack never followed us down this side trail, but was waiting for us back on the main trail when we rejoined it:

And there it was, an unnamed pond of exquisite beauty. There was no way, however, of getting any closer to it than this - at least here, so we turned around and headed back to the main trail:

Jack was happy to see us and I never did figure out why he hadn't come with us. The day was going to be very hot but it was still morning. I wanted to finish our walk before it became oppressive. The trails were dry and almost all sand:

I saw a new side trail which led to the opposite shore of the unnamed pond we'd visited earlier, so we headed down it. It was across a peat bog but reasonably walkable, and led to a lovely view of the lake:


Pink Laurels were blooming along the edge of the pond, and I recognized them as Pale Laurel, the same plant I'd seen blooming on the peat bog at Slush Pond. Those plants were only about 8" tall but these were about 24":

The small dogs ran out to the edge of the peat bog for a drink of water:

Daphne has become a water lover lately, but this was too deep for her. She enjoyed playing along the edges, though, and looked awfully cute, surrounded by the pink Pale Laurel flowers:

The Sphagnum moss we were walking on was mostly green, but the red and yellow varieties also grew there:

Wintergreen was growing there and I wish now that I'd have checked for its classic aroma - but I didn't. But we were still off of the main trail and needed to get back to it so we could get to the St. Regis River. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: