With plans to leave tomorrow, and after having such a short ride yesterday, I was looking forward to a longer ride with Apollo today. He seemed much more willing, so evidently he had rested well, so after our usual Sunday blueberry pancake breakfast, I saddled up and headed out of camp. I decided to do the ride I had planned yesterday, now that I knew where the correct trailhead was. I kept Lola on a leash until we crossed the road our of the pasture area, and our first sight was a fairly long and rocky climb. Not too thrilled at that auspicious beginning, I was hoping things would improve, and thankfully, they did. In fact, today was the best ride here yet. Now that it had been dry a couple of days, many of the mud patches were greatly improved, so that footing was better. Trail #9 was my goal today, and it was overall much better than anything I had been on so far. There were still a few gravel spots, and a few mud spots, but there were also some wonderful fields where we could stretch out. Some areas were like a country lane, and some were more like a forest road, but there wasn’t anything like a single track trail, which is our preference. I managed to stay on track this time, there were actually a couple of extra confidence markers on this trail, so I was much more at ease. Apollo also seemed to enjoy himself a lot more today. He’s really been good this past month, he’s gotten so calm and mature, I haven’t had to worry about a thing! That’s always a good thing :-). I put him on his anchor yesterday, and he was surrounded by horses on highlines in the campsite next to us (the place was packed by Saturday morning), and he didn’t even give them a second glance! Anyway, I met a couple at a rest area who had been out all day and weren’t sure where they were, so I showed them on the map where we were, and they were surprised they had gotten so turned around. At that point, I had originally planned to veer west to Trail #5, but it had already been two hours, and I figured that I was only halfway, so I decided just to stay on Trail #9, which would be a slightly shorter route back to camp. So off we went, down more forest roads and country lanes, until we arrived back at camp. As I was crossing the barn area, I once again met up with the folks from the rest area, they evidently made it in pretty good time! I understood they were going to come back on Trail #9 in reverse of what I did, so I guess I was just about halfway when I met them! By the time I got back to our campsite, it was about 4:30, and the entire loop was empty except for us. It really emptied out in a hurry! I put Apollo up and did some preliminary packing in preparation for our trip tomorrow, and Hubby and I relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Okay, so I know that a lot of people really love this place, but frankly, I'm not getting to like it any better the longer I stay here. After a good night sleep and a good dialysis session for Hubby, I was saddled up and ready to go before 1:30. I had a plan mapped out, but once again, I couldn't determine exactly where the trailhead began. The trail map shows approximately where the trailheads start from the camp, but it's so small it doesn't really make sense, and the campground map has arrows pointing to the various trailheads, but don't mark WHICH trails they are the trailheads for! So once again, after struggling with Lola on a leash (they're very strict about leashes in camp, so even riding through requires a leash, which is very ungainly, and to my mind, pretty dangerous, but I understand that many dogs aren't as well trained as Lola, so I get it-don't like it, but get it!), we reached the riding barn, which according to the map, was the beginning of the trailhead I wanted. What it DIDN'T tell you is that the same trail numbers got out about 100 yards apart from each other, but you have to go all the way to the sign before you realize that, and since it had the same numbers on both signs, there's no way of knowing you're taking the wrong trailhead! So I once again headed down the trail in the wrong direction. Which is fine, I decided to take the trail backward. Until I got to the first intersection, where once again, there was confusion. According to the map, to take the loop I wanted to take, backward, I needed to make a left turn on trail 5. So when I reached an intersection that showed trail 5 going both left and right, I went left. Half a mile of struggling up and down muddy hills, passing another unmarked intersection and guessing which way to go there, I quickly realized I was headed straight back into camp! What the heck?? It turns out the first left wasn't really at the loop, I needed to turn right there, then make a left later! By now, Apollo had made it clear he was fed up with all the mud and gravel and was exhibiting distinct signs of exhaustion from yesterday, so I decided enough was enough, I wasn't going to torture us both any more. We headed back down the same boring county lane by the barn, where I hooked up Lola on a leash again, and headed through camp struggling with her. Hubby was surprised to see us back so early (me, too!), but it just wasn't worth the aggravation. Hopefully Apollo will be better rested tomorrow and we can take a longer ride, or I may just decide to take another short ride, hopefully by the lake, which I hope will be more interesting, though I assume it's a popular trail, which means the hundreds of horses traipsing it will likely have left it even muddier than the other trails I've been on. Sigh. I really wanted to like this place more, but it's not happening. I will say that if you have a gaited horse and want to ride 20+ miles a day, this is probably great for you. If you prefer buggies or wagons, there are plenty of trails for that, too. But for MY kind of riding, single track through the wilderness, this is definitely NOT my cup of tea! Got back after less than three miles, though it took us nearly 90 minutes, and spent the afternoon relaxing with Hubby, which was a nice change anyway. I can't WAIT until he has a horse and gets his back fixed so he can come with me! So it was a disappointing day, I'm sorry to say, considering this is the last weekend out for awhile, though we have a couple of horses we're going to try to take a look at next week, hopefully Hubby won't be horse-less for long, and naturally, I'm already starting to plan our next trip, as soon as possible! We love this life, even in a smaller-than-we-like trailer, it's still the way we want to live!!

Got up early to dialyze Hubby, and downloaded my plan for my ride this afternoon. Got everything wrapped up (including having to retrieve Dottie from the kennel at the main gate, she somehow managed to slip out of both her collar and the new harness I bought for her last week!. Such a slippery girl!), and was saddled up by 1:00. I had double-checked at the gate about dogs being on the trail, and evidently that's fine, as long as they're leashed in the campground, so Lola was able to come with us this time. I headed out the trailhead at the foot of our loop, and promptly missed the opening of the trail I had intended to take. By the time I realized the trail I was looking for didn't run into the trail I was on, I was too far along to turn back, so I kept going, revising my ride as I went. Unfortunately, the trail I was on was only a couple of miles long, and before I knew it, I was heading right back into camp. I looked at my GPS and reckoned that if I followed the utility line for a bit, it should take me to the back end of the original trail I had intended to take, and then I could do it in reverse. Turns out there are a LOT of trails out here that aren't on the trail map, and the one on the utility line quickly became a well traveled path that did, indeed, take me to the trail I wanted. I had no more trouble following the trails and map after that, though I'm a little surprised as how few trail markers they've put in, essentially only at the intersections, which are few and far between. No tree markers, not even a paint splotch occasionally to give one reassurance. If you miss a marker at an intersection, there's very little else to go on. I ended up doing a bit over eight miles, and I have to say, even though I love being on the back of my horse, this was a pretty boring ride. There was maybe a quarter of a mile of single track trails, all the rest were at least ATV width, some were full-on forest roads, and there was even a paved road or two that became part of the horse trail. Not my idea of interesting riding. There was a lot of deep mud made worse by the hundreds of horse hooves that had plowed through them, and there was a honeycomb of alternative trails in many places, all trying to avoid the muck. That didn't last very long, and was replaced by some heavily graveled areas (thank goodness I had put my horse boots on before leaving camp!), and a lot of roads that circled around fields. It felt like I was riding on someone's farm. Not my favorite kind of riding. I'm hoping tomorrow's ride will be a bit more interesting, with maybe some more single track, wooded trails, but I'm not holding my breath. After a beer and dinner, remarkably, after not having a cell signal all day, it suddenly popped into one bar of 4G if it was left sitting in a chair outside, enough to start up Netflix and watch a few more Longmires before the battery on my phone crapped out. That was it, bedtime!!