Clear Pond In The White Hill Wild Forest - Part 1

I'd just finished a driving tour in West Bangor, NY (see previous two posts), returned home and edited the photos. But the day was still young and the weather was beautiful, so I gathered the dogs and drove to White Hill Wild Forest, just 18 miles from my front door:

There was not another car or person in the parking area, so I let the dogs run unleashed as we began the trail:

They, as you might have guessed, were thrilled - so much so that they wanted to run. I had to keep calling them back:

In just a few minutes I could see Clear Pond ahead of us through the trees. The dogs, however, were not impressed. They were more concerned with who had peed on which tree:

We arrived at beautiful Clear Pond and Seamus was the first to go in:

Daphne and Clover raced excitedly up and down the shoreline:

Fergus and Jack discovered a pine tree which the beavers had recently felled. This caused more excitement and gave them more interesting new smells over which to obsess:

And then we began walking along the scenic shoreline, with puffy clouds in the blue sky above us:

It was a joyous and lovely afternoon at Clear Pond:

Seamus tried to convince Clover and Jack to go in the water with him but they wanted no part of such foolishness:

Daphne, Jack and Clover investigated every smell on every inch of ground:

We continued along the shoreline, forsaking the trail, and enjoying the sights, sounds and smells. The warm sun was heating the sap in the evergreens and scenting the air. White Throated Sparrows were whistling their high, plaintive call as we walked beside the lake. But we had more yet to see, and I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: