Degrasse State Forest - Part 2

The dogs and I were hiking in Degrasse State Forest and had reached an oxbow where they went swimming (see also Part 1, posted yesterday). This was my favorite photo of the day because of the look of joy on Seamus' face:

But of course we couldn't stay at the oxbow all day, and the time came to head back to the main trail. We began climbing uphill and I spotted this blue Gentian flower and bud, the first of the season. I looked it up when I got home and decided it was a Soapwort Gentian:

And I saw large patches of Running Ground Pine, a Club Moss:

And Bunchberry, a miniature relative of Dogwood trees:

Fan Club Moss:

We got back on the main trail and continued on our way:

 But I had to stop when I saw this Club Moss. It was different from the Running Ground Pine, above. I looked it up when I got home and decided it was One-cone Clubmoss, Lycopodium lagopus, a northern species:

We reached the border with private land and someone's beautiful cabin among the pines:

They'd mowed the grass all the way down to the Grasse River (no longer the oxbow), but I didn't walk down there because it was private land. I could have pushed through the underbrush on state land but decided instead to begin heading back to where I'd parked the car:

Along the way I spotted some ripening Wild Blackberries:

And stopped to enjoy them:

We were on our way back the way we'd come. I'll post Part 3 tomorrow:

The Riverside Trail - Part 3

We were hiking the Riverside Trail along the banks of the St. Regis River and began to see these lovely Gentians in bloom. It's difficult for me to know which species they were, but comparing them to my field guide now, after the fact, I'm inclined to call them Soapwort Gentians:

We pushed onward through the shoreline brush as the trail got longer and less well marked. I had not yet seen the trail intersection which would give us another route back to the car and I was becoming concerned. The dogs, however, were still having a grand time:

The trail continued to be sparsely marked, and then not at all. We retreated back into the forest to search for it, leaving the river just close enough to act as a guidepost:

I explored several possible trails which proved to be illusions. I finally decided that our only option was to return the way we came, so we started back along the riverside trail. Daphne and Clover danced out onto the rocks whenever possible:

Papillons aren't much for swimming, but rock hopping is definitely a specialty:

We returned the way we'd come, retracing our steps through the forest:

There were lots of white mushrooms growing on the forest floor, but these yellow beauties were my favorites:

Seamus and I were both slowing down at this point. In fact, I had to help Seamus over a fallen log and it became apparent that his back legs were very tired:

But the St. Regis River was ever present, ever lovely, a wild presence wherever we hiked:

We made fewer riverside stops on the way back, yet still there were places where we just couldn't resist:

We stopped at the river one last time where the trail made a sharp turn back into the forest and up the steep incline back toward where we'd parked:

It was all forest from then on and we were tired - even the Papillons. Poor Seamus was so exhausted that he needed help standing up when we'd returned home (he was all better by the next morning). So the Riverside Trail in Parishville had lots of surprises for us, both good and bad. But the most memorable part of the hike was the magnificent, wild St. Regis River: