Christmas Scenery Along The Rutland Trail, Part 1

Merry Christmas! I thought a blog post from a recent wintry hike would be appropriate. I drove 5 miles to one of the starting points for the Rutland Trail, parked and let the pooches out. I don't suppose I need to tell you that they were very happy:

And the scenery was both wintry and Christmas-y. The walking was easy because it was an old railroad bed:

The dogs were not perfectly behaved, but were slightly better than usual, so I didn't have to spoil it with too much hollering. They sure loved to stop and sniff things:

And I think they liked the smooth, level, straight, easy-to-walk trail as much as I did. That way, they could focus on other things:

Daphne and Clover repeatedly ventured off the trail to investigate the ditch on the side and the woods just beyond. Then they'd propel themselves up out of the snowy ditch like dogs from a canon:

We had a few instances of running too far ahead, but no one else was anywhere on the trail so it wasn't a problem:

In fact, the dogs seemed to delight in running ahead, getting called back and then returning to me at full speed. Just look at Fergus' ears and face as he does his best Greyhound imitation:

A fallen pine bough on the trail drew a lot of interest:

When we arrived at the bridge over Allen Brook, the dogs all stopped to look over the edge:

And then proceeded carefully across. The bridge is a steel mesh whose openings are so big that dog paws would fall right through. But there are two rows of planks on the bridge and they understood instinctively to stay on the planks:

When I caught up to the dogs, I too stopped on the bridge to admire the snowy beauty. This was Allen Brook, looking north:

And Allen Brook, looking south. This had been a very nice, short hike but we were only half way. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: