Clear Pond, In The White Hill Wild Forest - Part 2

We were hiking along Clear Pond in the White Hill Wild Forest. Clover and Daphne were having a grand time:

And I was finding the wild scenery to be magnificent:

Seamus led the way down to the water, but only Daphne and he actually went in:

Pickerelweed bloomed near the shore and between the rocks:

I turned away from the water's edge and back uphill into the forest, where more joyful running and jumping over logs told me the dogs were happy, happy, happy:

The pooches slowed down occasionally to look around and sniff the landscape:

And I saw a whole patch of Indian Pipe, a flowering, parasitic plant without chlorophyll:

Daphne stood next to two Indian Pipe plants while Clover watched from atop a rock in the background:

And then we continued on through the forest, headed back toward where we'd begun:

We returned to the water's edge, where the happy dogs once again got their toes wet and played:

Clover and Daphne ate a lot of green grass, but I've become accustomed to that. It doesn't seem to hurt them and they sure do enjoy it. But our little hike was not over yet. I'll post part 3 tomorrow:

Clear Pond, In The White Hill Wild Forest - Part 1

My ankles had been very troublesome, but the day was so lovely that I felt I just had to get outdoors with the dogs and do something. I needed someplace nearby, with easy walking and great scenery, so I took the dogs to Clear Pond in the White Hill Wild Forest in Parishville. I let them out of the car and they hit the ground running:

Daphne and Clover, the two little racers in the above photo, ran together, wrestling and stopping only to sip water from the lake or nibble green grass:

And as for scenery, I had picked a winner. We'd always hiked on the opposite shore in the past, so this time I figured we could see some new sights and explore some new trails:

A Loon was out on the water calling loudly. It was too far away to show up in a video, but I tried taking one anyway to record the sound. Alas, the dogs were far too noisy for the video to be useable. But that was no problem when I had scenery like this:

We began following a path into the forest, fully intending to stay near the lake shore:

Indeed, we veered off the trail and into the conifers so that we could keep near the water:

We picked up another trail along the lake shore and followed it until it ended:

So back up the hill into the forest we went:

Fergus was a very happy dog:

And all the dogs continued running and playing:

We saw a lot of fungi, but these squash colored mushrooms were my favorites. But we had barely begun and there was a lot more to see, so I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: