The World's Shortest Hike - Part 1

We had a respite from our extreme cold and voluminous snow one day, so on a whim, I loaded the dogs in the car for a walk in the woods. Jack was all excited as we pulled out of the driveway:

I drove 10 miles to the Brasher State Forest camping area and was surprised to find the road plowed. I discovered that someone lives at the far end of that road, which is why it is plowed. The snow, however, was piled 3 feet high on each side of the road. I finally just parked on the side of the road, climbed over the snow bank and headed into the forest:

The snow was much deeper than it looked, even under the trees. The dogs didn't sink all the way down in it, but I did. Even so, Daphne began walking at my heels to get some small advantage and Clover's long leg fur began collecting snow balls:

I urged them on, trying to bolster their enthusiasm:

Seamus, usually the one with the leg problems, surprised me by having no trouble with the snow at all. Fergus needed encouragement:

I stopped at a stand of White Pines, and it was indeed lovely, albeit difficult walking:

It may be difficult to see, but look at the smile on Seamus' face. That's the happiest look I've seen in a long time:

I noticed that Jack wasn't with us, then found him running back and forth on the road, hesitant to clamber over the 3 foot snow bank. I called until he braved the big snow piles and came running full speed through the forest to join us:

The big trees were all White Pines (no Red Pines), and the top of the snow was littered with their cones:

Once Jack had caught up with us, he was happy and full of energy. He usually is the life of the party:

We didn't go far into the forest because the snow was deep and the walking difficult. I decided to make this the shortest hike we ever took and turned back toward the road. I'll post Part 1 tomorrow: