Finding A Swamp, White Hill Wild Forest Part 3

I was hiking the snowmobile trail in the White Hill Wild Forest with four of my dogs. I was the only person in the entire forest as far as I could tell and, as the trail led us farther and farther into the deep forest, it began to feel a bit eerie. But it was also lovely to look at and easy walking, so we kept going:

As I noted previously, there were mushrooms galore. I stepped over these miniature shelf fungi which grew on an old limb in the middle of the trail:

Trees of various sizes had fallen across the trail and it was clear to me that there'd been no trail maintenance performed recently. That added to the sense of eerie isolation, of wandering back into another time:

I saw a few red mushrooms. These had been common on our last hike here but perhaps their growing season was coming to an end:

And then I saw, on our right, a field of ferns and a swamp off through the trees. The dogs broke into a run to get there and I followed. I thought we might have found Rock Pond:

The dogs arrived first and were all excited at this great find. I was less thrilled. There was very little water, just enough to prevent us from entering the area. Mostly I saw fetid mud and oil slicks on shallow, opaque water:

Although it was not a comfortable place for humans, I was sure that this swamp supported much plant and animal life. Heaven knows, it certainly supported mosquitoes and deer flies! The dogs found a hillock from which they could investigate more closely:

I did some rock hopping to position myself inside the swamp a bit and began snapping photos of its eerie beauty:

In every direction were dead trees, shallow oily brown water and large, moss and fern covered rocks:

I suppose that this swamp would have been more of a pond if we'd arrived earlier in the season, but late in this hot, dry summer the water was very low:

Fergus tried to make his way through the mud and discovered that was a very bad idea. You can see his muddy feet in this picture. After that, he stayed on the rocks with the other dogs. He and little Clover did a bit of rock hopping. I'll post more tomorrow:

Exploring Dyken Pond Nature Preserve - Part 5

This is the final post from our Dyken Pond hike. We'd explored the deep woods, several peat bogs and a boardwalk over the swamp. When the trail returned us to the woods, I was feeling unusually tired and took a shortcut back toward the gravel road on which we'd traveled to arrive at the trail head. The dogs must have lost their excess energy also, for they were by now pretty calm:

Another small boardwalk took us across a small stream:

Seamus was happy to use the boardwalk, at least initially, but Clover went immediately down into the wet ferns:

And this time all the dogs got a drink of cool, clean water:

Seamus and Fergus were happy to pose for a "Poodle Portrait:"

Daphne and Clover, the two Papillon puppies, were still exploring, checking every odor, sight and sound:

Even at the young age of four months, Clover now considers herself a confident, veteran hiker. She'll go exploring even when Daphne is busy elsewhere:

It's amazing what one sometimes finds in the forest. We passed this WWII Army trailer, apparently still used sometimes. It reminded me of the WWII Army canvas tarps of which the sweat lodges were built. But beyond that, it's all still a mystery to me:

We emerged onto the gravel access road and began the long trek back to the trail head. I was uncommonly fatigued, especially considering how flat the trails had been. I put the dogs on leashes and we walked back to where we began:

And I discovered that we were no longer the only hikers in the Nature Preserve. Six more cars had parked alongside mine. Still, that's very few people for such a large area. There's many more miles of trails we hadn't traversed, including three more boardwalks across swamps. I plan to go back there soon and explore them:

I'll end with two videos. This first one is the dogs enjoying the boardwalk and viewing platform at the swamp:



And lastly, a brief video of crossing a boardwalk through a peat bog. Seamus and Fergus were at my heels, so don't appear in the video. Clover and Daphne, the two Papillon puppies, are leading the way:

Exploring Dyken Pond Nature Preserve - Part 4

The dogs and I were hiking the Long Trail in Dyken Pond Nature Preserve and had already seen quite a variety of habitat types. There are so very many trails in the Preserve, both named and unnamed, that even with directional signs at the intersections (well, at some of them), I'd have gotten pretty darn lost without a good trail map. But on we journeyed, following the signs for the Long Trail:

We passed by several very large rocks on both sides of the trail called The Sentinels. I assume these are what are called Glacial Erratics, bits of debris left behind as the glaciers retreated:

And then we arrived at what I'd most looked forward to, a boardwalk across a large swamp. A tree had fallen across the beginning of it, making it difficult to access, and it had sunken badly in many places, but it was still for me a place of magic and wonder:

The dogs considered it pretty wondrous also, and ran up and down its length many times:

Because the weather was so hot and sunny, Seamus left the boardwalk in search of water but didn't seem to find much. At the place where there was abundant water (see the above photo), the boardwalk was elevated perhaps four feet and he apparently didn't want to jump. But there was so much water available on this hike that I didn't worry about him:

There were birdhouses in many of these dead trees, but I never figured out for what species they might be intended. I never saw any Pitcher Plants or Sundews. So I just enjoyed the solitude and the sounds, sights and smells of nature:

In this rather quiet, peaceful video of the dogs on the boardwalk, you can see the tree which had fallen across the access point. You can also see Seamus longing to get down into the running water but deciding not to jump down that far. Mostly, the video just displays the quiet, peaceful experience that it was. I should add that we did not see even one other person on our hike. We apparently had the entire Preserve to ourselves:

Owl's Head, New York

I continued plunging headlong down the Port Kent Road (it was no longer called Red Tavern Road), taking little notice of anything but the cabins and the scenery. I was snapping photos like a cub reporter on steroids. This sturdy cabin was large enough to be a year 'round residence. I liked it:

I took a side road which traversed a sort of swamp. It lead only to a dead end road with one residence, so I retraced my route back to what I naively still believed to be the Port Kent Road:

There were pines in this part of the Adirondacks, not hardwoods or spruce/tamarack forests:

And then I drove into a tiny town called Owl's Head. I took only this one photo, its only church, but I now wish I'd taken more. A huge chunk of solid rock watched over the town and I guessed that was Owl's Head Mountain. That may be the shoulder of the mountain just visible behind the church. But the town was not on my map so I stopped at the Post Office (a miracle in itself that such a tiny town would have a Post Office) and asked for directions. "Just go back that-a-way, take a right, then a left, then a right" I was told. I tried to do as I was directed but soon had to admit that I was hopelessly lost:

I was beginning to panic. There are almost no road signs in these parts. I suppose they assume you wouldn't be here if you didn't live here. So I just kept driving, still snapping a few photos, though with considerably less enthusiasm with each passing mile:

The roads were easy to travel, being mostly straight, level and well paved. But they went on and on for miles and miles and miles with no cross roads, no traffic, no people:

More pines. I suppose it says something of my state of mind that I stopped in the midst of my panic to take a photo of "more pines." What was I thinking?:

A pretty little mountain pond:

All right, I'll admit it. This scenery was so gorgeous that I put on hold my panic at being lost:

I finally found a man who told me that I HAD (yes, I HAD) to return to Route 30 to get to Albany and I whined that I had begun on Route 30 several hours ago. But he insisted, so I went were I was told and within 15 minutes or so was back on Route 30. Apparently I'd been traveling in a big circle and was almost back where I'd crossed the highway. Oh well, I took one more photo of the scenery before getting back onto the main roads. I'll finish my trip in tomorrow's post: