The fire-service roads lead deep into the Nantahala National Forest northwest of Murphy, and this morning — with dew still on the grass and mist thick in the air — we followed one of those roads into the trees to a clearing where it eventually gave way to a game trail.
CLICK ON ANY OF THE IMAGES FOR AN EXPANDED VIEW
Phoebe was on point, as she often is, with short-legged Hazel just behind, then me, then Poe ringing up the rear as he always does.
Apart from the occasional bird call, the woods were quiet.
The closest human was probably at least three miles away, maybe at the Panther Top Fire Tower — a popular local sight-seeing spot that provides some great views of the surrounding mountains. But I doubted it. That’s mostly an afternoon undertaking, and it was not yet quite 8 a.m.
So I was pretty sure the pups and I had the woods to ourselves apart, of course, from the deer, black bear, possum, raccoon, squirrel, bob cat, and all the other critters that make their homes here.
With September more than half over, there was a carpet of leaves covering much of the forest floor, but the dampness still made for relatively quiet walking. Even so, the four of us made a fair amount of noise that would have alerted any forest dwellers to scoot to deeper cover long before we actually arrived on the scene.