A New Way Into Fort Jackson State Forest - Part 1

I'd had my eye on a certain Barrett Road, which I could see on the map would take me into a little used, little known section of the Fort Jackson State Forest. As a bonus, it looked like it would have access to the banks of the St. Regis River. I took the dogs there one Sunday and traversed the one lane dirt road, stopping now and again to remove fallen trees across the road. But the clouds of deer flies were so incredibly fierce that I hurried out of there, never even letting the dogs out of the car. A few weeks later, thinking that deer fly season had passed, I took the dogs there again:

I found a place to park and let the dogs out:

The wind was blowing and kept any deer flies away from us as we explored the woods:

I took off through the trees in search of the river. Daphne and Madeline kept watch on me:

At first we just traveled in the general direction I thought the river was located:

Fergus, I think, was questioning my sanity. Who could blame him?:

I decided that we were on a wild goose chase with the distinct possibility of getting lost, so I turned around and headed back to the car:

I drove farther into the forest, found another place to park and headed once again toward the river, this time on a dirt lane:

This dirt lane wasn't safe for my car, but it made a fine hiking trail for the dogs and me:

And before long I saw the St. Regis River just ahead of us:

We broke out of the dark forest and into the bright light of the riverbank. Seamus waded right in. But there was more to see and do once we'd found the river, and I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: