The Bloomingdale Bog Trail, Part 1

I'd just arrived at the farm on a Sunday morning, but a major winter storm was predicted for Monday night, so I loaded the dogs up into the car and headed home to Albany before it hit. But I had a plan. I'd be passing near one of the trail heads for the Bloomingdale Bog Trail, a place I wanted to investigate. So when I arrived there, I parked and let the dogs out for a rest stop:

The skies were lovely, the air reasonably warm considering the snow on the ground and the predicted winter storm. The dogs were ecstatic and ran wildly up and down the trail, sniffing everything:

We'd barely begun when the dogs discovered some thoroughly wonderful smell and collected into a small cluster to investigate it:

Old Winky was having some trouble walking, and toddled along slowly. He seemed to be forgetting where he was and what he was doing. I had to watch him carefully:

Old Wally did a little better, but it became clear to me that we'd never get to see more than fifty feet of the trail with the two oldsters along - and I might wind up carrying them both back to the car at that. So I coaxed them back to the car and got them comfortable in the back:

With the older dogs snoozing in the car, the youngsters were free to run. You can see Fergus' ears flopping joyously as he flies along the trail:

Even tubby ol' Seamus ran and frolicked:


It was all great fun for the dogs and level for my injured tendons. We were all happy:

We couldn't go far, but the walking was easy and the day couldn't have been more beautiful. We were making good time and covering a lot of ground:

So far we'd seen only forests but no bog. I believed the bog to be in a different part of the trail, but I hoped we might see some here also:

If a tree falls in the woods, will Madeline, Fergus and Seamus find it fascinating? Apparently so:

A sign along the trail advised us that there was a bridge ahead. But I'll post about that tomorrow: