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:

Catherineville State Forest - Part 2

The dogs and I were hiking in the Catherineville State Forest (see also Part 1, posted yesterday). It was a beautiful location on a near perfect day. I only felt a few mosquitoes, although they became more numerous as the day warmed up:

To my surprise, the trail became narrower and the trees smaller as we proceeded. I would have expected to find bigger, more mature trees farther into the forest:

It was a happy experience:

We came to a small, winding brook with big rocks - a perfect place for thirsty dogs to get a drink of water:

Clover went upstream and Seamus went downstream for their drinks:

And then we got back on the trail to continue on our way:

The trees kept getting smaller and I began to consider turning back toward the car:

I kept saying I'd go around that next bend, and then if there was nothing new, I'd turn around. Eventually I did just that. We'd already gone farther than usual anyway:

The flowers were pretty well spent, but these Foamflower plants were looking healthy. I also passed lots of Wild Ginger, whose odd flowers I've never seen, but we were too late to see them on this hike:

We were on our way back to the car, retracing our steps. There were no side trails to confuse us or provide a bit of variety:

The dogs were still feeling peppy, and bounced through the Bracken Ferns along the side of the trail:

And then we saw our red car. It's wonderful to live in such a beautiful part of the country, where we can access such splendor only 8 miles from home:

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:

Chapter 1 - Hike To Grasse Pond, Debar Mountain Wild Forest

I'd gotten an early start that Monday morning and hiked Panther Mountain and taken driving photo tours of the hamlet of Keese Mill and the town of Brighton. But it was still morning and I wanted to do one more hike. I chose to hike in to Grasse Pond (some spell it "Grass Pond") in the Debar Mountain Wild Forest. The trail head was adjacent to Mountain Pond and the Hays Brook Horse Trail where I frequently stop with the dogs on my way to and from the farm. The sign said it was 3 miles to the lean-to:

This trail was reported to be level and exceedingly easy walking. It was exactly that, and lovely also.

The dogs were ecstatic to be on another hike, and gave everything a thorough sniffing:

We passed through deep forests on a broad, level trail which enabled me to enjoy the views instead of carefully watching where I set down each foot:

We arrived at an old plank bridge spanning the Osgood River:

I made a mental note to explore the Osgood River on our return trip:

The trail forked shortly after we crossed the bridge and we bore to the right, heading for the Grasse Pond lean-to:

This trail was lined with ferns of all kinds, but especially Bracken Ferns. I don't think I've seen so many Bracken Ferns since my childhood summers in Oregon where we used to pull them up and use them as spears to throw at each other while playing "Cowboys and Indians:"

Are we almost there yet, Dad?:

The trail wasn't marked, but I thought it was obvious enough where to walk and didn't think we'd get lost:

The dogs alerted me to a pile of feathers in the trail and I took a closer look. Some bird, possibly a Blue Jay (judging by the striped feathers), had become someone's dinner here. I didn't notice at first, but whoever had eaten this bird had left behind its intestines, which look rather like earthworms in this photo:

And then we reached the Grasse Pond lean-to. The dogs ran quickly around to the front of it where they hoped to find food scraps or bacon drippings. I was more interested in seeing Grasse Pond, but I'll post more about that tomorrow: