Brasher State Forest During A Midwinter Thaw, Part 1

We had a rare thaw and almost all our snow had melted, but the prediction for that evening was a big. wet and heavy snowstorm with winds which would likely bring down power lines. I filled up the car with gas and took the dogs for a walk in Brasher State Forest before the weather turned bad:

This is the place where we often go and walk along the edge of the reservoir, but this time I took the "trail" (I use the term loosely) which had been filled with Pink Ladyslipper plants this past springtime. It was lovely in winter also:

The dogs were unusually well behaved and almost never ran too far ahead. I wondered if they sensed my apprehension about the weather (and figured I'd be crabby) or if this, being a new trail to them, was just too filled with interesting things to pass without stopping:

The Beech trees held their copper leaves and the Red Pines, planted long ago by the Civilian Conservation Corps, were a lovely green. Patches of snow still clung to the ground:

The dogs were happy and found lots of interesting smells, which I could only guess at:

We began on what must once have been a road, but it quickly ended and I tried to find the remains of old trails as we made our way farther into the forest. I will always be a extra cautious since getting lost last year, so I was careful to keep track of how to return to the road:

But the pooches cared about none of that. They were having fun, and that was what mattered to them:

Daphne and Jack ran through the Red Pine seedlings while Clover and Daphne watched them. Seamus was preoccupied with sniffing interesting smells:

Much of our walk was quiet and peaceful, blessedly without excitement:

We arrived at what appeared to be diverging deer paths, so I took the wider one and looked around for landmarks to use on the return trip:

I figured that all of this would be once again buried in snow by the next day, so it was an extra pleasure to walk freely and comfortably beneath the pines. But we weren't done yet, and I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: