Fort Jackson State Forest Via Barrett Road - Part 1

One sunny autumn day, I'd finished everything I wanted to do by 2:30 in the afternoon and decided to take the pooches back to the Barrett Road entrance to Fort Jackson State Forest. This is a little known, little traveled, dirt lane leading far back through the forest. I traveled through private lands into public property and kept driving (slowly!) until the road got too rough to go any farther. Then we began walking the road, hoping to find the river:

This was the place I'd tried during the summer but got turned back by the ravenous, vicious deer flies. On this day, I'm happy to report, there were no flies of any kind and the scenery was lovely. We turned off the main "road" down a lane which I thought might take us to the banks of the St. Regis River:

The dogs were happy, happy, happy:

And the Mountain Maple leaves were spectacular:

When the trail turned sharply downhill and the forest became mostly Hemlocks, I figured there was a good chance we were on our way to the river:

Little Clover positioned herself up on a hill to watch us pass by on the trail below her:

And then I heard and saw the river off to our left. The way down to it, however, looked mighty rough so we kept walking, hoping the trail would lead us to an access point:

The forest was lovely and mysterious. The river made gurgling noises as it tumbled over rocks just below us:

And then I saw an access point and headed straight down to the banks of the St. Regis. It was even more lovely than I'd hoped:

And the dogs, of course, were happy too. They ran to the water to wade and drink:

Daphne and Clover pushed through the tall grass as they explored, and I followed them:

Fergus and Seamus stayed behind, but only briefly:

All in all, it was a fine day, a beautiful natural setting and a wonderful hike. The dogs were happy, but we'd seen what we'd come to see and had to find our way back uphill to the car. But I'll post about that tomorrow:

More Pets At Home

It's time once again for another collection of happy pet photos, beginning with this one of Bramble, Clover and Snoozey on the floor pillows. They surely do all get along well:

Little PeeWee has two doggy beds of his own, a small one downstairs and a bigger one upstairs:

PeeWee does also like to get up on my bed with some of the other dogs. I just don't leave him there unless I'm right nearby to keep an eye on him:

Bramble, always kind of shy, peeked around the half-wall at the top of the stairs to see what I was up to:

Georgette used that same half-wall to leap up onto her cat tree:

Best buddies, Seamus and Fergus:

And another floor pillow collection - Daphne, Snoozey, Madeline, Clover and Fergus:

Seamus and Madeline are also buddies:

I made a wooden scratching post, hoping that Draco would use it instead of the woodwork in the house. So far, no feline toenail has touched it, although Snoozey likes to nap between the uprights. Besides Snoozey, this photo shows both PeeWee and Madeline (watching from the background):

Snoozey stretched as he woke up while Bramble kept a wary eye on me. He never knows what I'll do:

And all six happy dogs on their ramp:

I happened to have the camera in my hands as I descended the stairs and saw this scene - faithful dogs and cat, awaiting my return from the wild unknown of upstairs: