On The Eastbound Rutland Trail - Part 1

My sister arrived for a visit and of course we wanted to take the dogs out for a hike. The weather was still cold and I figured any forest trail would still be covered with snow and ice, so we went to the nearby Rutland Trail, the eastbound section which is an old, elevated railroad bed through wetlands. It didn't begin well, however, when we found this headless deer skeleton near the trail head. There was also a pile of garbage someone had dumped:

Just to the right of the deer skeleton were two porcupine carcasses. I wondered where all this had come from but there was nothing we could do anyway, so we began our hike. Alas, Clover later began limping and I found a short piece of porcupine quill stuck between the pads of one of her paws. But it was easily removed and we went on our way:

And the dogs were ecstatic. With water on both sides and a level, straight trail, it was easy to keep them in sight:

My sister and the dogs walked on ahead while I checked something out:

Most of the adjacent wetlands on our left were still covered with thick ice. The water on our right was mostly clear of ice. I never did figure out why, unless perhaps one side was deeper than the other:

It was chilly, but not too much so to have a happy experience. The sun was shining and the sky was blue:

There were both patches of ice and deep puddles, but the dogs didn't mind. My sister and I had on rubber overshoes, so we were OK as well:

Daphne, Seamus and Clover stopped for a breather:

There was beaver sign all along the water. We also saw a number of beaver lodges out in the water, but none of those photos were usable:

Both sides of the trail had been brush hogged, which seemed a shame but I must admit it opened up the views:

We came to a large body of water which was filled with Canada Geese - thousands of them:

Most of them moved away from us or flew away when we got too close. There were also ducks mixed in, but none close enough to tell what species they were:

We had the geese on our right for a considerable distance because there were so many of them - some swimming, some resting on gigantic sheets of floating ice. They were fun to watch. But there was more to see on this section of the Rutland Trail. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: