Degrasse State Forest - Part 1

We'd never been to Degrasse State Forest before, so one morning the dogs and I drove there, about 40 miles southwest of home. I found a place to park off the rough dirt road and opened my car door, only to discover a large Viper's Bugloss plant in full bloom. It was prickly and I had to step over it to get out of the car:

We hit the trail immediately. It was smooth enough to drive on - possibly better than the road we came in on, but we were there to hike, not drive:

The dogs were, as always, beside themselves with joy and kept trying to run ahead. That meant that I spent the first half of the hike calling them back:

We passed through a mixed forest of conifers and hardwoods, with so much underbrush that I never attempted leaving the trail. The dogs pretty much stayed on the trail also:

 I thought this was Spotted Knapweed, but it was too big. So I looked it up when I got home and decided that it was Black Knapweed:

It was a pleasant hike and we arrived before it got too hot, which is part of why it was so pleasant:

  I stopped at a patch of Wild Ginger. This plant blooms in the early spring so I've never seen its odd, brown flowers. This year I thought of it when the time was right but didn't want to hike in the chilly, muddy weather. Maybe some day I'll actually do it and get to photograph the flowers:

We took a side trail which I knew from the map would lead to an oxbow, a loop of the Grasse River which had become disconnected from the river and now exists as a sort of long, skinny, looping pond. The dogs saw the water below them and broke into a run:

The bottom was smooth and the water cool, so the dogs enjoyed it immensely. They've had a lot of water to play in this year and have come to regard it as a wonderful thing. Only Clover shies away sometimes:

Seamus immersed himself while Daphne and Fergus waded along the shore, where Jack had already gone back to so he could roll for joy:

The sun reflected off the water as the dogs lingered there:

I took a photo of the Oxbow, looking south. It looks just like a river, which it once was before it became disconnected. It sure was lovely. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow:

Taylor Creek State Forest, Selleck Road Trail

One morning I decided to take the dogs to yet another local forest we hadn't been to yet, the Taylor Creek State Forest. It had only two trails according to the map, and they were short. We began on the Selleck Road Trail:

There were the usual flowers in sunny places, but this time I also saw Viper's Bugloss in bloom. Surprisingly, it is a member of the Forget-Me-Not family:

The trail was actually a short service road, so well graded that I could have driven it to the end - but we were there to walk, so that's what we did:

The dogs were happy and the scenery along the trail was alternating forest and field:

We were having a spell of perfect weather - cool, sunny and spectacular - just right for a walk in a state forest:

There were deep woods just off the trail, though we stayed where the walking was easy:

As pleasant as it was, I was a bit disappointed that the trail didn't take us into the forest. The dogs, however, were ecstatic to be running wildly and exploring:

They found something putrid and I had to holler at them to keep them from eating it or rolling in it:

Yet it was a pleasant walk:

The map had shown a small lake but we never found it. Then, on our way back to the car, I decided that this tiny marsh was what the map showed as a pond:

Seamus climbed down the slope to get a drink of water and then couldn't get back up the hill. I was able to pull him back up, but he has been limping ever since. He is a giant dog and ten years old, so it is not surprising that he is beginning to have problems. I will have to keep a closer eye on him from now on:

It was a short hike, and uneventful except for Seamus' problem. But there was another trail to explore, so we headed for it. I'll post about the next trail tomorrow: