Homeschooling, Horses & Motocross: Hartwick Pines Hiking

I have driven past the sign for Hartwick Pines National Forrest hundreds of times. And never stopped. On this last trip north, I did exactly that. I grabbed a trail map from the park office and set off down the road to the trail head where two different loops started. I decided on the Forrest Trail that crosses the Au Sable river in two spots.

It was an incredibly beautiful day with sunshine, puffy white clouds and about 65 degrees. Walking into the forrest is a bit enchanting with the needle lined pathway.

I found some unusual little plants here and there - this one was absolutely glowing against the dark ground.

Some areas had more deciduous trees.

Small things amuse me - and this little mushroom with it's upturned edges made me smile. I could almost see it in Alice and Wonderland.

Not too surprisingly, some trees were already starting to turn even though this was just a couple days into September.

Tall, tall trees.

I loved how sometimes the path didn't take the obvious route.

More interesting fungus.

And then I got to the part of the path that basically crosses a very swampy area. This had to be under water earlier this year when we had so much rain. It was still pretty mucky. I hunted around for a walking stick to use for balance and found nothing - they were probably all at the other end! I made it all the way to the end of these logs before I slipped and sunk a shoe. Thank goodness they were waterproof!

It was like a little fairy garden!

This set of logs was a bit easier to traverse!

While the path meandered, there were no real hills. The only negative was that you could still hear I-75 in the distance - probably about a mile away.

First crossing of the Au Sable river.

I'm not sure what I was expecting but the water was very clear.

Mini fairy trees!

The path then followed alongside the river for a while.

There were some fall blooming flowers/weeds along here where there was more sunshine getting through the trees.

I had passed a nice couple at one point and they told me about a tree down across the path and said it was a bit difficult to get over. It wasn't exactly difficult but it was a bit awkward because of all the branches sticking out.

Not far from this point, the trail came back out to the parking area but I wasn't quite done yet. It was just so darn nice out! So I headed down the Mertz trail setting a timer for 20 minutes so I could turn around and walk back out the way I came in.

This trail was also relatively flat but a little more open and I didn't go through any wet spots.