A Spring Hike

We went on our first spring hike - it was a perfect day - high about 72 - a nice breeze that didn't knock us off our feet - hehe - come along with us...

We started out here in the lowlands near the lake...
The Man-Cub asked for the camera to take this picture - he said 'it framed what he saw perfectly'...
The sky and the newly green trees were lovely...
The pretty meadows starting to turn green...
Just a pretty grassy slope - good for rolling down...no - we didn't...
Starting up a trail...
I just love trails meandering through woods...
and turning bends where you're sure to see something beautiful and surprising - they always make me think of my favorite Robert Frost poem:

The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Two very different bees on two flowers...
We saw this bird and the Man-Cub wants to put it in his Bird Watchers book - we'll look it up and log it...
The same big dead tree I always photograph - nothing in the big nest yet...
Driftwood alongside the lake...
Moss sprouting...
An anthill...
A burned stump from a fire long ago...
A fallen tree...
A lone violet...
A woodpecker's work...
More woodpecker work - there must have been a lot of bugs in this fallen tree...
A bog...
A beaver felled this tree - but must have forgotten to come back for it...
Some dainty wildflowers...
We saw a lot of wild strawberries - maybe we'll pick some later in the summer...
Another view of the bog - from the other side...
A beaver dam...
Some more pretty wildflowers...
A stream...
A way across...
Footprints...
A smaller stream...
More beaver's work - fairly recent...
Even more recent...
The view from the ridge...
The lake in the distance...
The way up - it always amazes me that you can't see the scale in a photo - this was a very steep climb...
I could have laid on the grass and watched the clouds for hours - but we didn't - we had 21 ticks in all when we got home - so laying in the grass was out of the question...
Finally on our way out we saw some bison...
They are really large...
Some sweet babies 'though...
...This one is just getting a kiss from his Mama...thanks for hiking with us...