Part 4 - Finishing The Beebe Hill Hike

I'd hiked with my four youngest dogs up to the Beebe Hill fire tower on an exceptionally mild, sunny Sunday afternoon. We'd taken a different trail back down toward our parked car and were enjoying the woodsy walk. I could see more Taconic Mountains off through the trees and supposed that Harvey Mountain, another of my favorite hiking spots, was one of those:

I continued to see many burls in the trees and noted that they were all in Black Cherry trees. It seemed that whatever parasite was causing those burls was species specific:

Most of the snow had melted and there were many Princess Pines poking up through the dead oak leaves. Many of them looked a bit wilted, but they seemed to be thriving nonetheless:

The trail became quite steep in places and the mud made it slippery and hazardous. When I got home I discovered that I had no photos of the steep sections and realized that was because I'd had to put my camera in my pocket on the steep slopes to hold on to the trees to keep from falling, But on the more level spots, the dogs continued to run and play. We met several hikers on their way up to the fire tower and they all quickly made friends with my sociable dogs:

There were many old stone walls in the woods, evidence that these hills were once farm fields:

The dogs ran on ahead and crossed a little bridge spanning a ravine. I could still see Taconic mountains ahead of us through the trees. Daphne, Clover and Fergus were the first to cross:

And then tubby Seamus followed. Of course, I was still far behind Seamus so I called to the dogs and insisted they wait for me to catch up:

Once we'd crossed the little creek bed, Clover wanted to run down along its length and explore the woods. I thought this was a fine idea and since I knew it'd take us toward our car, I left the trail and began following the ravine down through the woods:

But that still wasn't active enough for Clover who danced merrily across the ravine and up its other side. She perched playfully on the other bank encouraging us to follow her example. We didn't, though, but continued our way down through the forest toward the trail head:

Another large burl on a Black Cherry tree with little Clover trotting happily in the background:

Daphne and Clover were the first to reach the log bridge spanning the brook by the trail head:

Fergus and Seamus arrived next, with me bringing up the rear. That's my little red car in the background There was an old cemetery on the hill behind my car and we went over to investigate, but I'll post about that tomorrow:

Part 3 - Hiking Down Beebe Hill

Once I'd descended the fire tower and collected my dogs, I bid farewell to the family from Pittsfield and began the hike back down to the trail head and my parked car. No one else was around by then, so I let the dogs off their leashes to run and play:

We passed by Opal Pond, still quite frozen over in spite of the mild weather. Little Clover of course ran out into the center of it and I recalled a spring hike several years ago when Opal pond was teeming with thousands of Wood Frogs. Wally was still hiking then and he wanted to investigate all those frogs, so he swam out to get a closer look. Of course they all disappeared when he got too close and I soon had a wet and frustrated Wally on my hands:

The top of Beebe Hill is quite broad and flat, so we had easy walking for awhile:

We arrived at the lean-to and went over to have a look - that is to say I went over to have a look and the dogs went over to have a sniff:

This old log with its emerald upholstery was home to both ferns and ferny looking mosses:

And a giant old boulder, presumably a glacial erratic, had big chunks of white quartzite glistening in the sun:

The boulder was also home to a large variety of mosses and lichens:

I was particularly taken with these round cushion mosses:

Ice crystals remained atop much of the moss, lichens and quartzite:

And then we continued on toward the trail head, the dogs sniffing everywhere as well as running and playing:

This photo caught little Daphne in full run, her normally curled tail plume stretched out from the speed and excitement. Just about then the trail began a sharp, muddy descent but I'll post about that tomorrow: