A New Discovery At Barnam Pond

We were on our way up to the farm for the weekend and had made it all the way to Route 30 north of Paul Smiths. I stopped to snap a photo of Barnam Pond, whose water's come within a foot or two of the highway's edge, and the lovely snow-dusted mountains in the background. I noticed, for the first time, a dirt lane leading into the forest across the road from Barnam Pond:

I continued on my way toward the farm but then changed my mind, turned around and came back to that little dirt lane. I drove into the forest, found a campsite and let the dogs out. Little Winky was very happy to be out in the woods exploring:

The younger dogs bounded into the forest with great joy:

And a beautiful forest it was, mature enough to have little underbrush:

Winky and Wally, my two old-timers, were slow and I had to keep stopping to urge them on. Wally is nearly blind and Winky is deaf, so it was important that I not let them out of my sight. Nevertheless, they always have a grand time as they toddle through the forest:

I walked ahead a little bit to check on the younger dogs. They were running, playing and sniffing and doing the usual doggy things:

I told little Madeline to sit so that I could get a photo of her. It's difficult when she's on the move because she keeps her head down and her nose to the ground. I think she was a Beagle in a past life:

Seamus, Fergus, Daphne and Clover had gotten too far afield and had to be called back:

When I had all the dogs back together in a group, we started moving back toward the car. This was, after all, just a rest stop and I was in a hurry. I had a lot of things to do when we got to the farm. This was going to be a busy weekend. I would be moving from the apartment into the house and - well, I'll post all about it in the next several days:

Look just to the right of those big rocks and you'll see blind old Wally making his way back toward the car. He had a problem when he reached that pile of old tree limbs. He made it, though, with a little guidance from me:

I got all the dogs back into the car , counted several times to put my mind at ease that they were all there, and continued on our way:

I got another nice view of Barnum Pond as we pulled back out onto Route 30. We'd be at the farm in about 30 minutes: