Martin Dunham Reservoir Hike - Part 3

A glorious sunny day in October it was, and I was hiking the perimeter of Dunham Reservoir in Grafton, New York. The first part of the trail took us along the edge of the lake. We clearly had the entire forest to ourselves, so I relaxed and let the dogs run freely through the woods. They frequently collected at scent hot spots where some animal apparently had recently been:

And often we walked over to the shoreline. Little Clover is a brave explorer and I snapped this picture of her gazing off across the lake. She looked so well put together in this photo that I emailed it to her breeder to illustrate how well she is doing:

And the other dogs soon joined Clover to explore. Hey, wait a minute. Where's Daphne? She apparently was still running, a favorite pastime of Papillon puppies:

The scenery was spectacular but also calming and restorative. The woodsy aroma of fallen leaves was behind me, the lake in front of me:

I didn't know it at the time, but the trail would take us to the top of that small mountain when we reached the other side of the lake:

Seamus, for the most part, walked placidly at my side. He's just the right height for me to scratch his ears as we walk:

Daphne, Clover and Fergus, on the other hand, are most commonly running full speed up and down the trail and taking big loops through the woods. This picture captures Daphne and Fergus running full speed:

I was glad that I'd forced myself to take this hike. It was quickly becoming one of my all time favorites:
From the woods to the lake:


Happy dogs, happy me in a gloriously colored forest: