A Wintry Rest Stop Near The Ausable River

Just after we got on Route 73, I pulled off the road for a rest stop at our favorite little camp site near the Ausable River. I let the dogs out of the car and we all climbed over the snow banks and into the forest:

Winky was slow and uncomfortable, and this photo captured him in a hunched over position which I am seeing more often these days. He's getting old and increasingly decrepit, though he still has fun and sometimes prances like a puppy. This day, however, he struggled:

The younger dogs raced ahead toward the bank over which we could have found the Ausable River. We didn't try going there, however. It was too cold, icy and snowy:

The youngsters reached the campsite but I held back, urging Winky and Wally along:

The two old timers were far behind and at this point, they both decided they'd had enough. They simply stopped walking and assumed I knew they wanted to go back to the warm car. They were right, I did know that's what they were trying to say:

So I called the youngsters:

And we all began walking back to the car which wasn't really very far away. Notice that Winky balked at walking that direction also. But he came along when we all proceeded without him:

We all moved slowly back toward the car, with the young dogs sniffing everything and the old dogs just moving slowly:

Seamus found an interesting smell along the way:

I got all of the dogs back into the car, counted noses several times and continued on the way to the farm: