Floodwood Loop Trail, Pollywog Pond To Little Pollywog Pond

From Middle Pond (see yesterday's post), we set off again, this time aiming for Pollywog Pond:

Big, moss covered fallen trees were everywhere, so I set Fergus on one for a photo. He didn't look like he was enjoying it, though:

But he certainly enjoyed the hike, with so much to see, hear, smell and taste:

We crossed over an old beaver dam:

And stopped to photograph this bright red mushroom:

And then, just ahead, we caught a glimpse of Pollywog Pond:

We had to cross over this log to get to it, but I wanted to go down to the water's edge:

Pollywog Pond is, according to the map, quite large. But it consists of a series of loops, bends and bays, so it was impossible to see the entire lake. Nonetheless, it was both wild and beautiful:

But of course there was a lot more to see, so we continued on the trail toward our next destination:

And that next destination was Little Pollywog Pond. This one had a sandy, gradual shoreline so the dogs got to go in and splash around:

My dogs sure have a grand time outdoors, running and playing, sniffing and splashing:

But that was as far as we went. I turned back toward the trail head where we'd parked:

We crossed back over the old beaver dam and through the forest. I'll post Part 3 tomorrow:

Floodwood Loop Trail, Beginning At Middle Pond

Our early autumn weather inspired me to take the dogs hiking, but I wanted someplace new and interesting. After doing some research, I found the Floodwood Trail south of here, which promised to take us alongside several lakes and through a deep forest. I drove down to the trail head, parked and we set off on a new adventure:

There were hardwood forests, coniferous forests, little trees and giant, old trees:

Our first lake was Middle Pond. We veered off the loop trail to go see it:

Middle Pond was lovely, but I quickly discovered that photos of the lakes were not turning out well. This was the best I could do, and I had to stabd back in the forest for even this one:

But deep in the woods, generally a difficult place for photos, produced nice pictures of my happy foursome. They were having lots of fun:

These beautiful puffballs seemed to be studded with gems and lay on a green carpet of moss:

In fact, the trail itself was lined with moss, making the whole forest look magical:

Clover and Fergus began running ahead and I had to keep reining them in, but otherwise it was a wonderful hike:

And the dogs still got to do lots of running, even under the "Not too far ahead of me" rules:

There were magical looking mushrooms scattered along the trail:

And blue-green lichens on fallen logs:

Daphne was particularly attentive, wanting to keep me in sight at all times and often happy to walk by my side:

But she also liked to go exploring with Fergus. I had no intention of taking the entire loop trail, but what we'd seen so far certainly inspired me to keep going. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: