Hiking Tyringham Cobble - Part 3

Fergus and Seamus were hiking with me up Tyringham Cobble in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. We'd gotten a late start and the afternoon would soon be turning into evening. But up we climbed. The trail, which began on a gentle slope, soon turned directly up the side of the hill. The dogs didn't care, but I found I was having a bit of trouble finding solid footing on the snowy slope. Here, the dogs are ahead of me but have gone too far and been called back. They're happy to do that also. They run for the pure joy of it:

When I passed this old tree trunk riddled with woodpecker holes, I thought of the pair of Pileated Woodpeckers I'd passed at the beginning of the trail:

And when I passed these Bittersweet vines laden with berries, I knew that the local bird population would not be going hungry this winter:

A closer look at the Bittersweet fruit:

Fergus checks out an interesting smell just off the trail:

Seamus takes a breather. The trail had turned steep and big ol' Seamus had a lot of weight to haul up the trail. Yeah, I know all about it, Seamus:

Fergus, however, could run right up the side of a tree trunk if he wanted (and he just might some day), ears flopping the whole way:

"Dad, look. I think we're almost to the top of the cobble:"

We emerged out onto a bare area with fabulous views of the valley below:

Seamus, unlike many dogs, seems to appreciate the views and to have some understanding of where we've hiked to and what's below us. We weren't at the end of the trail, though. Far from it. We still had lots of cobble to traverse and I'll be posting more photos of the hike in days to come: