Five Overexcited Dogs In The Wild Forest - Part 3

The dogs and I had just hiked the Indian Rock Waterway Access trail (see also previous two posts) to the St. Regis River and the dogs were very happily enjoying the clean, clear water:

As for me, I climbed up onto a mound of earth to get a photo of the river beyond our location. People carry their canoes to this point so they can paddle into the wilderness and enjoy this spectacular scenery:

We explored the area a bit, but there wasn't much else to see so we began our return journey:

The dogs had slowed down a bit by this point, but not much:

These tiny plants were sporting whitish berries and I wondered if they were Partridgeberry or Wintergreen. I thought it was the latter, so I crushed a leaf and indeed, the aroma of Wintergreen filled my nostrils:

Seamus lagged behind and, given his age and faltering condition, I thought I'd better go back and find him. He was smelling something and seemed to have forgotten about us, so I got him back with his pack and we began walking the trail back to our car:

The little dogs were as spry and excited as ever - maybe more so:

It was a perfect day except for my constant yelling to keep the dogs close by me:

The dogs ran ahead barking at one point and, when I caught up with them, discovered they'd met a couple carrying two canoes. Luckily, they thought my friendly dogs were fun. Reindeer Lichen, Bracken Ferns and various mosses lined the sides of the trail:

We took occasional side trips to see the sights:

But mostly we stayed on the main trail:

When the parking area appeared ahead of us, I almost called the dogs to heel, but decided it didn't make much difference here:

So I let them run ahead to reach the car before me. I always marvel how they're just as excited to find the car as they were to leave it and begin their adventure:

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:

The Canoe Carry Trail To The St. Regis River

Yes, indeed, if you thought that hiking up to the summit of Azure Mountain and then hiking along Quebec Brook was enough for one morning, you'd be wrong. There was one more short hike along Blue Mountain Road that I wanted to show my sister and niece. So we drove just a couple of miles from the Quebec Brook trail head to an unmarked canoe carry to the St. Regis River and began down the sandy, level trail:

I confess that I was tired and even this short, level trail felt long to me. But it was beautiful. We passed by this unnamed pond:

My sister searched the pond for ducks or loons but saw none:

We continued on. I reminded my sister how we'd pulled up Bracken Ferns in Oregon as kids and used them as spears as we played in the forest. This trail was lined with them:

We broke into a clearing with the St. Regis River just ahead of us:

And this was why I wanted to take this hike. The payoff was enormous - breathtaking, wild beauty:

Seamus walked right into the water but little Madeline thought that was crazy. She certainly wasn't going in:

Daphne, however, has learned that water can be lots of fun to play in:

No, I was not peeing in the river. I was holding up my pants' legs to keep them dry. I took off my shoes and waded into the river in an effort to convince the dogs to follow. As you can see, it didn't work very well. It felt wonderful, though, to be walking on such a sandy river bottom with cool, clean water washing my tired legs and feet:

The sandy shores were growing lots of Eastern Teaberry, also known as American Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens). Its little red berries had a friendly, inviting, homey look to them:

But all good things must come to an end, and we had to begin our hike back to the car:

We were all tired but had seen much exquisite natural beauty. We schlepped back to the car and went in search of lunch. We had to drive all the way to St. Regis Falls to find a convenience store, but they had great pizza and subs and hot wings. And our hiking for the day was done: