Brasher Falls State Forest - Part 2

The dogs and I were hiking a truck trail in Brasher State Forest (see also Part 1, posted yesterday). They love to run ahead, then I call them back and they return with just as much joy. Notice that Jack is running so fast that all four of his feet are off the ground:

Seamus is slowing down now that he's getting older. So am I, so we often lag behind the little dogs:

And the scenery was wondrous:

With hardwoods and pines on both sides of the trail, we had beauty in every direction:

We stayed on the trail, though, as the snow in the forest was too deep:

Except this one time, when the four little dogs discovered they were light enough to walk on top of the crusted snow:

But of course we soon turned back toward our parked car:

And the dogs stopped again at the fallen beech which they'd stopped at before. Apparently it smelled very interesting to them:

Jack explored the sides of the trail, but mostly stayed in the center with the rest of us:

We were almost back to where we'd parked:

I could see the stop sign up ahead, to warn people on motorized vehicles that they were coming to a road. My car was parked just to the right of the sign:

We were almost there, so I had four of the dogs heel. Jack has never learned how to do that, though he approximates it. Our hike had come to an end, so I loaded the dogs into the car and continued on into town to buy chicken feed on my way home:

Brasher Falls State Forest - Part 1

I haven't had much energy lately, but one fine morning I felt I had to get out into nature with the dogs. I drove to Brasher State Forest and found what is called a truck trail, leading off of McCarthy Road. It had a closed gate but that wouldn't have been needed because there was a four foot snow pile along the side of McCarthy Road which I had to climb over to get onto the trail. Snowmobiles had packed down the snow on the trail:

The dogs were ecstatic and had trouble deciding if they'd rather run wildly or stop and sniff everything. They tried to do both:

They'd run too far ahead and I'd call them back - and then we'd repeat the process:

The sun was bright but trees shaded parts of the trail and made photos difficult. But of course the dogs didn't care about my pictures - they were having too much fun:

Daphne, Clover and Jack kept finding what looked like small dog poops, too small for coyotes. I wondered if someone besides me had been walking their dogs here:

Jack, the little engine that could. He chugged along running first one way, then the other:

I hadn't planned on going far, but the dogs had other ideas:

Seamus looked like a new dog since he got his haircut. He didn't seem at all cold, though:

I've tried teaching them the meaning of "Stop!" Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't:

The four small dogs stopped to sniff something and Daphne came over to me to be sure I was OK with that. I was:

Besides running, Jack likes to roll ecstatically. In this case, his rolling took him downhill on the ice:

And onward we walked. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: