Beginning A Trip Up To The Farm

Sunday morning had arrived and I was headed up to the farm for the first time in over a month with all six dogs in the back of my car. I drove north on the main highway farther than normal in order to take an altered route just for variety and scenery. There are few roads through the Adirondacks, so my options were limited. I stopped at a rest area which had lovely views of the nearby mountains, but figured I had to get off of the main highway and onto some smaller roads running through state lands before I could let the dogs out to run:

I drove to the little Adirondack town of Ausable Forks and began up Silver Creek Road, a small local road now, but once part of the historic Port Kent Hopkinton Turnpike. Once we were passing through public lands, I pulled off the road and parked. The dogs needed a rest stop and so did I:

All six dogs piled out of the car with great excitement. Little old Wally was even excited:

Winky too was quite happy to get out of the car and onto a forest trail, chugging along like a furry black locomotive:

This grassy lane into the forest may at one time have led to someone's camp. I suspect that now it's used by New York State conservation officers to access the forest. For the dogs and me, it made a terrific foot trail:

We walked farther and, as you can see in this picture, the two Papillon pups ran back and forth at full speed just for the joy of doing so. Ah, to have such unbounded energy and enthusiasm!:

A rare moment when five of the six dogs were all reasonably quiet and in one place:

But that didn't last long, and soon they began to scatter in different directions to run, sniff and explore:

The four younger dogs ran on ahead, but the two short-legged oldsters, Winky and Wally, lagged behind. They were going as fast as they could:

But as always, the time quickly arrived for us all to return to the car and continue on our way. I'll post more tomorrow: