Hays Brook Horse Trail Becomes A Dog Trail

I was on my way up to the farm with all the dogs and it'd been quite a while since our last rest stop. I was hoping that I'd be able to drive safely in to the Hays Brook horse trail, but the access road is not plowed in the winter and I knew that it'd be a gamble. I looked at the road and decided it would be safe to drive on. And the dogs were absolutely overjoyed to be out and free in this spectacular, natural wonderland:

They spend a great deal of their time "reading the newspaper," stopping at every smell to check it out:

The three youngest dogs ran on ahead, Seamus sticks close to me and the two oldsters toddle along in the back of the group. It was a job for me to keep them all reasonably close together and under control:

Wally and Winky are always slow (and getting slower as they age), but they sure were charming as they trotted along the forest path. It warms my heart to see these two old timers, dogs no one wanted and were almost put to sleep at the shelter, being so happy:

Seamus ran ahead to join up with the youngsters:

This is the same trail which my sister and I walked a year ago in December when she visited me at the farm. And the snowy conditions were just about the same as they were then also. It brought back nice memories to have all the dogs back in that snowy forest:

I called the youngsters back to me so we could begin our return to the car:

Christmas was in the past at that point, but it sure looked like a Christmas card come to life as we made our way back to the parking area:

All the dogs were happy:

This is, I believe, part of the Debar Mountain Wild Forest and it is a beauty:

I got Daphne, Clover, Seamus and Fergus back into the car, but little old Wally and Winky lagged behind as usual. I called and I waited and I encouraged and I did a bit of hollering. They finally arrived:

Once all six dogs were comfortably back in the car and I'd done several head counts to relieve my fear of leaving one of them behind, I pointed the car back toward the highway and continued our journey to the farm. The Hays Brook horse trail is fairly close to the farm and I knew we'd be there shortly. But I'll post about that tomorrow: