Heading For Home, A Stop At Hays Brook

It's difficult to find rest stops in the wintertime, but I try. On this trip home from the farm I was (barely) able to drive through the unplowed snow to get to the trail head for the Hays Brook Horse Trail. The dogs were excited:

I let them out of the car and they ran off in all directions, sniffing and playing and having a grand time:

The trails, road, forest and everything were covered with snow and I figured the small access road into Mountain Pond would make a nice winter trail:

So I began walking away from the car and called the dogs to come with me. A couple of them were "stuck" on a fascinating smell, but they came after a moment's hesitation:

The youngsters ran on ahead while I urged the old timers onward and admired the spectacular scenery:

And pretty soon I more or less had the dogs together in a group:

Imagine that - All seven dogs together and easy for me to keep an eye on:

We kept walking as Clover, ever the adventuress, ran too far ahead. Usually I get miffed and call her back, but on this day I just let her have fun:

By this time Winky had fallen far behind, but he was working on keeping up:

So we turned around and rejoined old Winky not too far from the car:

I got all the dogs loaded up into the car and ready to continue on our way except for.................

..........except for crabby old Winky, who was just plodding along. He finally arrived back at the car and had a great deal of trouble jumping up into it. But with a bit of help, he made it and we continued on our way. As it turned out, there would be no more rest stops on this trip because there was too much snow: