Six of us decided to do the intermediate hike this morning, a 1.9 mile loop around a small body of water named Hidden Lake.  With Richie at the wheel, we drove south on 402 to 209 east, then made a turn to the south on Keystone Road.

Here’s a view of the lake as we started on the trail.

Here’s another view from a different perspective.  The lake is popular with anglers.

Supposedly, you can see the remains of turtle eggshells in this photo, which lie scattered on the ground after the babies hatch.

Marshes and other wetlands are the preferred habitat for cattails (Typha latifolia probably).

Isn’t this an interesting natural sculpture?  The tree was probably injured in some way.

The sassafras tree (Sassafras albidum) has three different types of leaves: oval, mitten-shaped, and three-lobed.

We passed by a camp around half-way through the hike, but there were no campers today; we shared the trail with only a few others who came to enjoy being by the lake.