The First (Mini) Hike Of The Year - Part 1

It was a beautiful day, with almost all the snow melted from the fields. I kept myself busy for most of the day but then decided to try taking the dogs for a small hike in the Fort Jackson State Forest. The access road was still snowy and slushy, but we made it as far as this logging header. I parked and walked over to see some huge logs:

They were perhaps five feet in diameter, so I lifted Daphne up on top of one in order to demonstrate its size. I've cut plenty of trees in my life and, in fact, have worked on a logging crew, yet it seemed a shame to have cut down such a magnificent tree. And all the more so if they were going to leave so much of there as waste:

We walked from there along the wood road, the lane I'd have driven if it was summertime. Even this late in the spring, it was still covered with snow:

We strayed off the road in several places to explore areas without much snow:

And then returned to the road because I quickly discovered that my injured ankles were quite painful on the uneven footing in the forest, especially when my feet broke through the crusted snow:

The dogs were happy and excited to get out for the first time in many months. There were lots of wondrous smells to be smelled:

Daphne and Clover did a bit of exploring as a pair and I continued to miss dear little Madeline (see yesterday's post):

When the road became too wet, we hoofed back into the forest and discovered another lane which we began walking back toward our parked car:

And the dogs again found this very exciting, kind of like following the yellow brick road to adventure and fun. But, as you can see here, the lane became fully blocked by tree limbs, etc. as we arrived at a clear cut area:

So we turned back into the forest and aimed toward the original lane on which we'd come. But I'll post the rest of the story tomorrow: