A Return To The Hays Brook Trail - Part 2

The dogs and I were hiking the Hays Brook trail (see also Part 1, yesterday's post) and having a grand time:

 

We'd had extremely high winds several days ago and the snow was littered with twigs, cones and needles which were especially apparent every time we left the trail to explore beneath the trees:

 

Right on the trail I found bits of lichens, adhering to twigs which had been blown down:

You might expect that gigantic Seamus would lead the way when we explored off the trail, but he is a follower and usually reluctant to leave the trail. So I just give him a call and he comes bounding through the snow to join us:

 

Lowbush Blueberries were nothing but twigs this time of year, and sticking up above the snow:

We tried following what appeared to be a deer path, but my footing became difficult and I opted to turn back to the easier trail:

Clover and Daphne, always the adventurers, were more than happy to bounce through the trees and explore:

But we were on our way back to the car and had to keep making progress:

Seamus was his usual happy, goofy self:

It's taken some time to get these dogs, who once were accustomed to running to their hearts' content, to stay close to me, but they seemed to be pretty good at it on this day:

Until, that is, they realized that our parked car was just up ahead. Then they broke into a run:

It was a short hike, but just right on that snowy day. We were all happy and ready to go home: