Brasher State Forest - Part 1

We began our walk in the woods near an outhouse in the camping area, partly because we'd never explored that area before and partly because I had an inkling I might not want to get too far from an outhouse on that day. The dogs didn't care where we went. It was all good for them:


 We passed by the outhouse and into the forest, nearly 100% White Pines:

The dogs ran and sniffed, as is their custom:

And the forest did indeed appear magical after such a long, arduous winter. At times, a golden light seemed to reach down through the tree canopy and light up the pooches down below:

I was not surprised to find patches of snow remaining. In fact, I was surprised to find so little snow. As I keep saying, we had a particularly rigorous winter:

I stopped to examine the Tree Club Moss, commonly called Princess Pine, scattered among the White Pine cones and needles, Beech tree leaves and dead grass:

We entered into a section of forest with much smaller trees and I began wondering what species they were. They weren't Balsam Fir. Perhaps I was thrown off by the pile of Birch wood in the foreground, but I was embarrassed to discover, upon looking way up into the canopy, that they were all White Pines. It's just that they were younger White Pines than the ones we'd seen so far:

Seamus and Fergus found these small trees a delight to run through:

We arrived at a brushier area, and that too was just fine with Seamus:

The three little dogs seemed to enjoy the snow. Perhaps they'd just become accustomed to it after such a severe winter. But there was yet more to see, and I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: