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:

Five Overexcited Dogs In The Wild Forest - Part 2

The dogs and I were hiking the Indian Rock Waterway Access trail (see also Part 1, posted yesterday) and the dogs were beside themselves with joy:

The pooches ran ahead, then I'd call them back, then they'd run ahead again:

Most of the dead trees were covered with Usnea, or Old Man's Beard, a lichen which grows in forests where the air is clean. They grow on dead or dying trees because the lack of foliage allows them more sun:

There were patches of Shining Clubmoss along the path. That's Clover's snout in the lower right of the photo. She likes to be right in the middle of things:

Daphne and Fergus ran too far ahead, then returned to me when called. They were happy and smiling:

And onward we proceeded, headed for a bend in the St. Regis River:

And everybody was busy sniffing the interesting smells. As for me, I was sniffing the aromas of Balsam, Pine, Spruce and Fir which filled the air:

The trail narrowed toward the end:

I spotted this, the largest patch of Indian Pipe (a parasitic flowering plant without chlorophyll) I've ever seen, along the way:

And then we walked out into a clearing. The dogs took off as if shot from canons, for they knew there was water ahead:

By the time I'd caught up with them, they were already enjoying the waters of the wild St. Regis River:

It wasn't a hot day, but these pooches have learned to love the water:

Seamus came down to join his little buddies. I'll post Part 3 tomorrow:

Five Overexcited Dogs In The Wild Forest - Part 1

It was a beautiful day and I was in no mood to do any work, so I put the dogs in the car and drove down to Blue Mountain Road. The road began as blacktop, then narrowed to oiled stone, then narrowed again to dirt, then narrowed even farther to mostly sand. It was about 12 miles from my house to Blue Mountain Road, then about 13 miles of winding, backwoods road to the trail head. But as you can see, the scenery was spectacular:

The dogs were all excited because they knew they were going on an adventure. The three little dogs rode in the front seat, and the two bigger dogs rode in the back:

I parked and let the dogs out. They were overly excited and so happy that they were hard to control:

I'd call (yell) and get them to come to me, but then they were off and running again:

I kept seeing these signs, asking for people to report any Spruce Grouse sightings. With Ruffed Grouse so common, it might be difficult to tell them apart:

We started down the main trail but then quickly turned off onto a side trail, which I knew led to a beautiful wilderness pond:

Half the dogs ran forward, half ran back to the main trail and I had to do more yelling to get them all together with me. They didn't seem to mind, though - they're used to me yelling:

We arrived at the pond, but I couldn't get any closer than this because the greenery you see around the pond is a barely floating peat bog and each footstep sinks right into the water:

Daphne and Clover may be little foo-foo dogs, but they have the most adventurous spirits and love to run excitedly ahead to scout things out for the rest of us:

I managed to get us all together again and we walked back to the main trail:

This is spectacularly scenic boreal forest, so lovely it reminded me of a fairy tale landscape:

Back on the main trail, the dogs ran full speed ahead. They love to get out of their house dog existence and consider themselves canine wilderness adventurers. I, however, know there are bears, coyotes and other people (some with big dogs) to consider, so I work hard to keep my crew right where I can see what they are doing and control things:

They began to slow down after we'd walked a bit. But we were just getting started, and I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: