The Duck Pond And Oxbow Trail - Part 2

The dogs and I were hiking the Duck Pond trail and had made it to the Oxbow (see yesterday's post), but hadn't found any easy access to the water. So we headed off along a deer path which skirted a side hill:

The brush was thick, and there were many fallen trees, causing me much difficulty walking because of my leg braces. Many of the pictures I took were unusable because it was difficult for me to keep my footing and because the brush hid the dogs I was trying to photograph. But I did snap this photo of Seamus and Fergus with their new haircuts:

And I got a photo of these Blue Bottle Gentians (Narrow-Leaved Gentians) along the way:

Despite the difficulty of taking good photos at close range in all that brush, the vistas out over the Oxbow were magnificent:

I kept hoping to find an easy path to those lovely waters, but I never did:

Eventually we gave up and turned back toward the trail:

We started back toward our car, an occasion every bit as joyful for the dogs as when we'd begun our hike:

This was lovely country:

The dogs had slowed down by this time and took numerous side trips to sniff interesting things:

As for me, I was happy to stop and eat wild raspberries:

I remembered seeing Azure Mountain from this trail in the past, but never spotted it on this hike. So we just walked happily along:

We don't hike far anymore, and shortly we were back at the car. I hope to return soon and drive in as far as we hiked this time in order to explore farther: