Nice slow day at home.. We began with our ferret 4-ish mile hike from Bolton notch rode back to the house. Until a few months ago, this was the long trail.. now its just a spur. Someone even hiked the trail and repainted the old white blazes to blue to mark the trail as a spur.

it was a beautiful day to be out .. warm and dry… with a hint of fall coming..

 

we placed a few smartness along the way

 

then we had a pretty unpleasant surprise.. Chai managed to stick her nose into a hive of very angry ground bees.. they came swarming out and started stinging both the dogs and diane.. as they all ran away, the bees got in Diane’s  clothes.. she got stung 6 times..before she managed to get most of her clothes off and keep running  the dogs.. who knows..  i was at the back of the line and managed to avoid the first swarm.. as I detoured around

 

but then i went back for diagnose clothes and got stung twice myself.. OUCH !!!!

 

i

 

we ran for awhile.. then managed to slow down as our bodies processed the stings and the adrenaline..

 

wemade some mud at the first stream crossing and rubbed it on our aching bites..

 

as it dried, it eased the sting..

we hiked up to the now lonely lean to at duck brook for a short sit and some water. We could tell by the log book that fewer folk are visiting now that it’s no longer on the main trail..

 

we did see a smarten still there.. we always like to leave them in the long trail cabins when we visit

 

the hike back from there was slow and pretty.. allowing for the older doggies preferred pace.. gave us time to admire the first hints of fall looking over our valley (in winter you can see our house form here)

we came out on the power line at the other end.. here you can see the blue blazes over the original white

 

the power line clearing was full of wild apple trees.. a great snack after that adventure..

ok.. heading out for some music now.. more tomorrow.

nite all, nite sam

-me