Archives for 2016

After a quiet day yesterday, and with only a couple of days left here, I decided to take the longer, Blue Trail, this time ponying Clio along just to see how that would go. I pulled out a long lunge-line I seldom use and once I had Apollo all saddled up, hooked her up and away we went! She was brilliant, staying up with us extremely well, jogging and trotting to keep up without being asked, at least until we got near the end, when she was clearly ready to get home. I had no trouble, except the lunge-line was so long I ended up stuffing a lot of it into one side of my saddle bags, and that helped. Towards the end I decided to try using Lola's retractible dog leash, and that actually worked wonderfully! I'll need to see if they make a horse version of a retractible lead, what a great idea! Meanwhile, the trail was magnificent! Big trees, great brooks, a couple of stream crossings, ravines, uphills and downhills, not to steep but enough to make if really interesting! We even got a few canters in! The weather was perfect, hardly any bugs, just spectacular! We were gone about 2.5 hours, a perfect length for an afternoon ride. I didn't bring the dogs, as I didn't want to try to handle two dogs and two horses, and there's a leash law here anyway, but I didn't get the impression it's enforced too dramatically (but don't quote me on that!) I did take Lola for a walk yesterday and found access to a lake next to one of the cottages, so she got her swimming. Also I took a drive around and found a boat launch and public fishing spot at the end of one of roads, next to a nature trail, so after lunch I drove down there with Lola and let her fetch and swim for about 45 minutes before coming back to camp and settling down for the evening. A great day!

Several storms came in during the evening yesterday, and one of the rangers came by and told us there was bad hail coming in, so just before midnight we put the horses in the trailer just to be on the safe side. Had a bit of rain, thunder and lightning, but not much else, but it fortunately dropped the temps down to a comfortable level. Slept well, then after breakfast got the horses saddle up and headed out to finish off as many of the trails as we could. I planned a trip out River Trail, a 4 mile linear trail to the northwest boundary of the park, with a return on the Yellow Jacket, then Pink trail, about 7.5 miles total. Wound through some marvelous woods, then along a stretch of sandy trail until we reached a long wooden bridge over some swampland. Our horses have no trouble with a long bridge like that, but if you're not that confident, the park folks have put in a nice mounting block at each end of the bridge if you want to walk your horse over it. There's really no way to get around it, just too mucky. At the far side of the bridge, there a loop you can take that meets up again on the other side, so we went straight on the way out, and came back on the other half of the loop. Where they merge on the other side, there trail continues all the way to the park boundary. We had one tricky bit, where there was a culvert pipe across the trail, but most of the trail had washed out, so there was a creek and a big corrugated pipe which gave the horses some pause. I got down and managed to get both horses across with only a little hesitation, fortunately. At the end of the official trail, I was expecting a fence, but there wasn't one. We were clued in by a couple of large logs that criss-crossed the trail, and the trail rather dramatically deteriorating (though that had been happening during the last half mile or so anyway), then when I turned around I saw the Park Boundary sign, so we headed back, talking the alternate River Trail loop, and found our way home. A very nice ride, though Hubby slipped on the culvert and hurt his shoulder a bit again, but only slightly, so hopefully it won't put him out of commission again. The dogs had a great time, with Lola doing her whirling dervish routine a couple of times, where she suddenly goes into some crazed mode and starts running circles around like a mad dog, usually in and out of puddles or water. The weather was perfect, temps in the low 70's in the shade, so Billy had no trouble keeping up either. Got back to camp, did a quick final load of laundry to get our muddy jeans clean, started packing up for our departure tomorrow, and settled down for the evening. A great day! Again, SO GLAD TO BE BACK ON THE ROAD AGAIN!!! YEAH!!!

After a weekend of doing laundry and resting Hubby's hurt shoulder, plus a short trip down to the trading post to extend out stay until Thursday, we decided Hubby was fit enough to try a short ride today, so we saddled up the horses and headed out on the trails with both dogs, with temps in the mid-80's and a bit humid. They really do have nice trails here!. Pretty thick woods but a nice, well-used trail that's mostly wide enough for two, but still mostly in the shade, which was greatly appreciated today! Sand and leaves for footing, and there are a number of good places to trot and canter, though we did neither because it jarred Hubby's shoulder too much. He's thinking now that maybe he actually bruised the bone, rather than just muscles, so we're going to put him back in a brace when we get back to camp. Two hours and five miles later, we arrived back at camp, where crazy Lola tried to get into the horses' water bucket to cool off. Little Billy had found a nice dirty puddle someplace, so I had to rinse him off at the faucet before letting him in the RV. Had some lunch, and then some rain came in a few minutes later, so great timing! Put the horses out on their anchors so they could graze in the field next to us. One thing I have to say about this place, no one has fussed at us about anything, not the dogs, not the horses, nothing, making it a very pleasant stay so far! This place really is a well-kept secret, there's very little evidence that it's being used very often, so it quite peaceful, though we are just off a highway so we can hear traffic occasionally, and the sites have a slight slope to them, but otherwise, it's all great!

As is my wont, I planned to ride as many of the trails here as possible, so today's ride was designed to map out nearly all of the remaining trails, which estimated to be just under 13 miles. We set the alarm in order to get out early, as the temps were forecast for the low 90's. Managed to get on the trail by 9:30, but this time we left little Billy home, which he didn't like, but he had trouble keeping up with us on the last ride, mostly because of the heat, and we knew that this would be too much for him today. We headed south to the first intersection, then made our way north and eventually to the east side of the park, which opened up into a lot of fallow fields, many with some gorgeous wildflowers, not to mention the occasional cactus in bloom. When we got close to the road, I stopped to put a leash on Lola, didn't want to be too far out of compliance here, anyway. 🙂 The trails that went around the edges of fields gave us a good opportunity to trot and canter, but got a little boring after a while, and then hot as there was no shade and the temps rose. At one point, near the farthest point from the camp, of course, Hubby's mare Clio shied at some approaching hikers, which she seldom does but we hadn't seen anyone else on the trails here at all, so I guess it startled her, and she went sideways unexpectedly. Hubby couldn't hang on (his hands just aren't as strong as they used to be), he lost his balance and took a slow motion fall, landing a bit on his shoulder. Clio didn't go anywhere, she just stood there wondering what happened. The hikers were very apologetic, though it wasn't anything they did, but we appreciated their concern. After a few minutes of rest and recovery, Hubby got back up in the saddle with the help of a nearby fallen log, and we were on our way. We took a couple of rests on the way back, especially at the bridge where Lola and I tossed a stick in the water, which had quite a good current going, and she got some swimming in. Hubby was too sore to do anything but walk all the way back, so it was nearly 3:30 by the time we got to camp. Fortunately, the west side of the park is mostly wooded, so the shade helped, but it was still hot. Can't wait to get back north in 70 degrees!! Anyway, Hubby helped a little, but his shoulder hurt him too much, so I sent him in and finished up with the chores. We put ice packs on his shoulder during the evening, and that helped some, so hopefully he'll recover without too much fuss. In any event, it was a very nice ride, 13 miles in all, and I managed to get a great GPS map out of it, which I've passed along to Trailmeister (along with the one from earlier in the week), and have both available if anyone wants them!