The Pink Ladyslipper Trail 2017 - Part 1

Last year I found a trail in Brasher State Forest which had an astounding population of Pink Ladyslippers in bloom. This year I was five days earlier and the blooming season was running late, so I doubted I'd find anything. Nevertheless, we needed an outing so I drove to the forest and let the pooches out:

The first thing I noticed was this Pasture Rose right next to where I'd parked. It wasn't blooming yet, but it was distinctive:

And of course Wild Strawberries. There were millions of them, growing abundantly in the sandy soil covered with old pine needles:

I'd feared there would be a lot of black flies, but instead we got lots of mosquitoes. But we were here to look around and enjoy ourselves, so off we went:

The dogs, not surprisingly, were ecstatic. They love an adventure:

Oh no. I began seeing Pink Ladyslipper plants, newly emerged, with no flowers. Clearly, we were much too early:

I did, however, see lots of Starflowers:

And the dogs raced through the forest, sniffing and peeing on things:

More Ladyslipper leaves. Too early, too early to see any flowers:

So I concentrated on the beautiful forest and happy dogs:

The tall White Pines and Red Pines were lovely and the dogs looked tiny as they ran through the trees:

Partridgeberry and Common Haircap Moss. It was sad that we were too early for Pink Ladyslipper flowers, but the forest was still a beautiful, fascinating place. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: