The Duck Pond Trail - Part 1

It was a lovely April day and I drove the dogs down Blue Mountain Road, planning to take a couple of the short hikes located along its length. I got about 8 miles into the forest when the road became so covered with snow and ice, obviously not plowed all winter long, that I backed up and began returning home. Then I saw this sign and remembered that here was a pleasant hike to a little pothole called Duck Pond:

The "road" (I use the term loosely) was closed, but there was a nice parking spot. By the way, that's Azure Mountain ahead of us:

This was so far from any traffic or other people that I left Jack off leash altogether. He did make a few exuberant runs, just to use up some excess energy, but was otherwise perfectly behaved:

There was no green yet of any kind - except for one large patch of Shining Clubmoss, a most welcome sight:

There were still patches of snow and frozen waters, but not enough to slow us down. Clover thought the snow was there for her to play in:

And Jack delighted in rolling in the snow:

The only other time I'd been here, I drove this road instead of walking. Being on foot was surely better, and it I was surprised, when I saw the Oxbows ahead, at how quickly we'd arrived:

This oxbow is a a portion of the St. Regis River which became severed from the main current when the river washed out a new shortcut. We headed down for a closer view:

There was supposed to be a canoe put-in on the oxbow, but everywhere I looked, I found steep banks:

So we veered to the left, where I thought I detected the overgrown remains of an old path or road:

It took us close to the water but still there was no easy access and, with my damaged ankles and resulting clumsiness, I didn't want to take any chances:

So we simply enjoyed the views and then turned back toward the car. But I'll post about that tomorrow:

A Return To See The Miniature Donkeys

It had been nearly three years since I visited my neighbor's miniature donkeys (you can see the former posts here), so I paid him another visit. He welcomed me back and opened the gate for me to follow:

He told me that he only had two donkeys now but had added a Swedish goose. She was friendly and plump, mostly ignoring us as we walked past her:

When we got out to the field, I discovered that he'd added two pet goats to his two miniature donkeys. They all looked at me at nervously and from a distance at first:

But within moments they were trotting right toward me:

The donkeys were so friendly that they were pressing right up against me and I couldn't get a picture of them. So I quickly snapped a picture of the two goats before they also got too close for photos:

There was a male and a female goat, a wether (neutered male) and a doe (female), both them quite sociable:

The owner, a retired dairyman, generally brings them carrots when he walks out and they were disappointed that he had no treats this time. I decided to start buying carrots to feed to my cattle:

I used the opportunity to get some photos while they clustered around him:

But I was a novelty, a new person who, while he had no carrots, did lots of petting - and they were back to me in short order, once again cuddling in so close that it was nearly impossible to get photos. I kept backing away, but they could move faster than I could:

It was a beautiful day and a pleasure to be out in the sun, surrounded by friendly critters:

 Miniature donkeys are indeed tiny, shorter in stature than the goats. They are intelligent, affectionate animals:

But this was just a quick visit and we soon left the animals in their field. I passed the Swedish goose on my way out, taking one last photo: