Winter At White Hill Wild Forest - Part 1

I've been feeling so worn down by winter that I've had trouble getting myself moving, but one morning I managed to get the dogs in the car and drive to the White Hill Wild Forest in Parishville, New York. The parking area had about 6" of snow on it, but I was able to get in and park, facing downhill toward the road for an easy exit. I let the dogs out and we began walking:

Of course they were wild with excitement but, all in all, behaved well. Seamus and Fergus had an appointment for a haircut in just three days, so they benefited from extra thick fur coats. It was cold that day:

The snowy forest was lovely, though nothing could ever compete with the wintry beauty of our last hike here:

It appeared to me that the road had been plowed, though not recently enough for a regular passenger car to drive on. That was good for the dogs, though, and made for wonderful hiking:

They explored off the trail as much as possible, though the snow was deep and cold there. I noticed that they didn't stay off road for long or go far:

Little Jack always runs continuously, and he did so this time also:

I have to keep track of five dogs, some lagging behind, some running ahead, some exploring off the trail. I couldn't possibly keep all five of them on a leash, which is part of the reason I choose hikes where I'm unlikely to encounter anyone else. Luckily, my dogs are friendly and obedient, albeit excitable:

We were a happy procession, walking through the Adirondack forest:

Jack and Fergus did some off road sniffing:

And then we continued on our way, stopping to investigate interesting things every now and then:

I could see the opening up ahead where a beaver marsh was on the left. Jack, you may notice, was almost there already:

But we soon caught up to him and arrived at the beaver marsh. We had more exploring to do, and I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: