Santamont Trail In Catherineville State Forest - Part 3

We'd hiked as far as I thought I could go on my bad ankles, so we turned around and began our trip back to the car (see also previous two posts):

Seamus looked healthy in his newly svelte body and Clover jumped up onto a rise to survey the forest:

But mostly we just trudged along. My ankles were becoming painful and, though the dogs could have gone on all day, they too had slowed down:

Clover and Daphne went off the trail to explore a rocky, mossy, wet area:

Seamus and Fergus looked noble:

Marsh Marigold, Caltha palustris, was blooming abundantly in the many wet spots:

And everywhere we saw the beautiful Painted Trilliums:

By this time I was slowing down and the dogs didn't seem to mind. They certainly weren't as full of excess energy as they were when we began:

The quieter, more leisurely pace of the return hike is more pleasant to me than trying to control five excited dogs at the beginning of the hike:

We were soon approaching the gravel road on which we'd parked. I called the dogs to heel, which they sort of do (except for Jack, and even he is beginning to get the idea):

Shadbush was blooming abundantly along every road and lane, but I never saw a single one in the forest. So I simply waited until we reached the gravel road to snap a photo of this beauty:

And a close-up of Shadbush flowers. But our hike was done and it was time to return home: