Happy Dogs In The Brasher State Forest - Part 2

I had taken the dogs to Brasher State Forest to look for early spring wildflowers but there were none yet (see also Part 1, posted yesterday). So we just enjoyed our walk through the trees:

I almost deleted this photo but then decided that it truly represented the forest experience. Shafts of magical sunlight shone down through the tree canopy and highlighted certain spots. In this case, the dogs trotted right through the beam of sunshine:

Our walk began in a stand of Red Pines, but soon the forest became primarily White Pines. This is a White Pine cone, which you can compare to the Red Pine cone in yesterday's post. Also, White Pines have long needles, five per bundle. Red Pines have shorter needles, two per bundle. And then there is of course the reddish orange bark of older Red Pine trunks:

Daphne and Clover didn't care about pine trees. They were having too much fun. Look at Daphne's face. That's one happy dog!:

We were headed back toward our parked car, which I'd been able to pull far enough off the road so that it wouldn't be seen by any passersby (not that there were any):

It was a pleasant, happy afternoon in lovely surroundings:

We veered off the trail a few more times, just to see what we might see:

And then continued on our way back toward the parked car. If you've noticed a shortage of pictures with Jack in them, that's because he was running farther and faster than usual, not staying close to us. He doesn't have the training the other dogs have, so I had little choice but to let him run. Of course I could have put him on a leash, but with five dogs and a camera, that didn't seem wise:

Daphne, Seamus and Fergus saw something up ahead:

It was our little red car, hidden in the trees quite a distance from the road. And there was Jack, waiting for us:

I was just loading the dogs up into the car when I spotted these emerging Trout Lily plants, the first flowering plants of any kind I'd seen that day. They were right next to my front tire and will be blooming soon. Spring comes late this far north:

And Fan Club Moss. But our hike had come to an end. Jack resisted getting back in the car, so I clipped a leash on him and helped him in: