Such a beautiful morning I just had to go for a ride, and decided to take Apollo since he hasn't been getting as much exercise lately. We took the Hillside trail straight down, then looped around the Lakeside trail in reverse of what I had done with Flash last time. I wanted to get a GPS trail, since for some reason I never got one on my last two rides. I finally discovered that somehow my GPS locator had been turned off! I seem to recall I had an app ask to be allowed to use my location finder and I said no, but I didn't think it would mean to not let ANY app to use it, which apparently did! Oh, well, I didn't make that discovery until almost the end of my ride today, so once again, I didn't get a good GPS map of the Lakeside trail. I'm hoping Hubby will feel well enough one day to do this trail with me, as it's only a little over three miles long and not too rugged, so I'm thinking it will be okay for him. Apollo seemed to enjoy himself as well, though it was a bit mucky in spots and he didn't much like that. Just enough exercise for him with all the ups and downs. Got back in plenty of time, but then had some problems with Hubby's dialysis Ipad, apparently somebody has accidentally unenrolled us from our current clinic, so I had to spend an hour chasing that problem down, only to end up having to revert back to a paper report while everyone tried to track down what happen and sort it out. Not much fun, but we got on with it, just another obstacle to overcome! I'm hoping the solution will be one that will be permanent, the one systemic challenge we have yet to overcome is allowing us to keep one Ipad no matter what clinic we're enrolled in. It's hurdle everyone's aware of, but has yet to be addressed, hopefully this will be the pivot point to solve the issue! Settled down in the evening to old recordings on the Dish, as again, not much of a signal here.

Got up and out early today, headed down to the Richmond Post Office where I've had several packages delivered (2 out of 3 had arrived), discovered there was NO cell phone data service in town, not even a library or cafe with wifi, so I headed back toward camp. When I got to the top of a hill just outside town, though, I noticed 4G on my phone, so I pulled into a church parking lot right at the summit and had a fabulous signal there. I spent about 45 minutes or so sending off email, uploading pictures to my diary, doing some planning and research for our travels later in the month, and general housekeeping on my computer before heading back to camp. Since we had the day dialysis free, I decided to take a longer ride today, but my plans changed a bit when an organizer from one of the local horse groups that help maintain the trails told me that they were doing trail work today on the trail I was planning to ride (Logan/Red), and that they had had reports of a number of trees down along that trail, so I decided to explore the other side of the park instead. I saddled Flash and we headed down Hillside to the lake, then took Lakeside trail counter-clockwise around the south side of that lake. That led me past the dam that created the lake, past the ball fields, then up into the woods on the other side of the road for a bit, then back across the road to the parking lot and beach area. From there I connected to the yellow trail, which turned out to be the most treacherous trail yet, very narrow, a bit slippery, and with quite a number of trees and brush to traverse around. Eventually that led me up the hill to some wider trails, back around on the green campground trail, where Flash steered VERY wide of the hole he had stepped into the other day, then back across the campground to the trail that led to the old horse camp, which had a surprising number of sites, though unkempt. Rather than take the same trail back to camp, I decided to follow the driveway out to confirm what I already thought, it came out at the playground area. A nice canter up the hill to camp (passing Lola's lost chucker on the way!), and we finished a lovely ride, about 6.5 miles, though I accidently lost the GPS info by closing the app before it synced, though I thought I had done that before and it saved it, but this time it went missing somehow. Anyway, after putting Flash away, I walked Lola down to get her chucker, which she had evidently carried down there when some kids were playing in the playground, then I taught her to go down slides and through the tunnels that make up the jungle gym. We settled down for the afternoon, reading and watching TV as the clouds started rolling in. Rain in the forecast for tomorrow!

Happy to have another beautiful day, and Hubby feeling fit enough to ride! After breakfast we saddled up and headed out on a short ride that I planned for him, on trails that I mostly hadn't been on yet and hoping they didn't present any surprises for us. Fortunately they didn't. We left on the campground loop trail, that was a bit narrower than I expected, but it provided a fairly gradual downhill grade which Hubby could handle just fine, then went down toward the lake, but didn't go all the way to the beach, since we had Lola with us and there were quite a few people around this holiday weekend. We took a trail just above the lake, which led us to the Hillside Trail, which was a straight shot up the power line, but not too steep, which was a perfect end to this short and sweet 2.4 mile ride. Hubby felt just fine when we got back, which is the way we like it, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Looking forward to a few more of those during our stay! Got him going on his dialysis machine, and relaxed the rest of the day.

After a decent night sleep and a quick breakfast this morning, I saddled up Flash under a beautiful sky and headed out for our first ride here at Jefferson Lake. The trail map that the park provides online is pretty poor, but I was pleasantly surprised when I got out on the trails that they are quite well marked, with "you are here" placards at all major intersections. There are also names for some of the trails, and intersection letters out there, but their park map shows neither of these, so it was a bit challenging until I got started using the placards. It's a fairly small park, but the trails are nicely formed to make the most of it, and we covered part of Logan's Trail and most of the western side of the park except the southwest end, which is the longest part of the trail, which I'm saving for another day. Flash did a great job, though he got a bit nervous when the trails got really narrow, and at one point, he stepped off on the downhill side into a culvert and his legs collapsed. I stepped off and let him get back up, looked him over for any damage and found none, remounted and carried on. The ride even included a short section down by the beach area, where I found a flock of Canadian geese obviously gathering for their annual southward migration. So beautiful to see, but definitely a harbinger of the coming change in the weather which is bound to start happening after Labor Day next week. It was a great ride, the trails were in pretty decent shape, though I started out with boots, and when we lost one in deep mud that I had to climb back down and up a hill to retrieve, I decided to take them off since there was very little gravel or stone on the trail for the most part, other than a few isolated places, and he didn't really need them anyway. Got back after a couple of hours to a happy husband who spent the afternoon reading in the screen room, then settled down for the evening. A perfect day!

After a good night sleep, we were once again awakened by all the activity over on the other side of the campground, but it wasn't too long before they all started breaking up and going home. Hubby decided he was up for a ride after breakfast, so I saddled up the horses and planned a very short ride. He started to feel poorly after less than half my planned ride last time, so this time I planned something very short, less than an hour, essentially just down to the dam and back. He managed to climb up on Apollo with no help from me except holding him still, and off we went! Fortunately, the new trail that I took had quite a gradual grade down the hill, just right for him, and we went as far as the far side of the dam so the horses could put their feet in the water (which is how this whole adventure began almost 10 years ago!), then headed back toward camp on the red/white trail for a bit, then up on one of the black/white trails to get us back to camp. All told it was about 2.5 miles, less than an hour, but he was feeling quite strong when we got back, which is a great improvement from the last couple of rides when he was really fatigued and in pain from one thing or another, so he was a happy camper! Of course, once again, the weather forecast had predicted no rain until the wee hours overnight, but we had several storms come in throughout day, so I was scrambling to put tack away before one storm, and feed the horses before another storm. It was a tough dialysis session, too, for some reason, I suspect Hubby let himself get a bit too dehydrated, both on the trail and when we got back, so we had to deal with some issues with that, so he ended up being exhausted by the end of the day from that. By the end of the day, we finally had the place to ourselves, with all the campers (horse and otherwise) gone, and all the day riders, until the entire campground was empty. I let the horses graze on the grass for a long time before putting them away in the portable corral just before the third storm of the day passed through. Now that I've given them some of the new hay, they're not eating as much of the stuff Lisa gave me, though they were tucking in a bit on the bales under the gooseneck when they were loose, so it's all good. With them both getting a longer than usual ride in over the last two days, the short ride today must have been a relief, and tomorrow, they're going the have the whole day off as we go shopping, housekeeping and laundry, whoo-hoo! Off to bed now, though, to join Hubby is his fatigue.

All week, our neighbor Lisa and I had been trying to plan a day of riding together, and that day finally arrived today! We were also joined by a bunch of other women, some who had come in for the day, others that were camping for the weekend. We headed about before 10:30, with a plan to do as much of the inner perimeter Red/White trail that we could (a small section was closed, so we went around that on the Red trail), starting out to the north again. It wasn't long before it started raining (the forecast said rain after 3:00, par for the course this week!), so we all paused to put on our slickers. We stayed together as a group for 3 or 4 miles before Lisa and I finally outpaced them, but they seemed to know where they were going, and the trails here are quite well-marked, so we didn't worry about them. We knew they planned to stop for lunch anyway, so it was all good! Then the sun came out and we were able to put our slickers away, thank goodness. Another lovely ride, varying terrain and footing. Apollo lost one boot a couple of times, but we always picked it up right away. I kept it off for awhile when there wasn't any gravel on the trail, then put it back on again when the gravel got bad. A really nice ride again today! I really like this place, it's so quiet most of the time, and there are still miles of trails left to explore. It did get a bit noisy yesterday and today, though, as a large group of kids came into to tent camp and used the pavilion that used to be the old observatory, wasn't sure what the group was yesterday, but today they were all dressed in jungle fatigues, so I'm guessing it's an ROTC weekend for the young folks. Yesterday they played field games in civilian dress, today it seemed more like exercise and training, but they're well behaved and actually quieter today than during the games yesterday. When we left camp, Lisa had brought over her husband Jamie and introduced him to Roy, and we left them chatting away. We wondered if Jamie would pull out this afternoon (they're both leaving today), but I predicted they would still be talking when we got back, and sure enough, they were! They packed up and pulled out within the hour, though, just as a huge thunderstorm came in (well, it was after 3:00 now), with winds that blew the screen in so far we had to come inside, and then we had some hail come down as well. Fortunately, that didn't last too long, and we were able to do chores and have a nice evening, though I had to wear my Wellies to keep my feet dry from the puddles after the storm! A very nice day!

With no dialysis today, and the forecast saying it wouldn't rain until later in the day (yeah, right, like I believe THAT by now!), I saddled up Flash and headed out with the intention of doing the entire Red outer perimeter trail. After making him stand around so much yesterday, Flash was raring to go, and we set out northward at a nice quick walking pace. It wasn't long before he wanted to cordo and largo, but it was limited because of all the narrow and often rocky trails. We managed to keep his boots on (his fit better than Apollo's), but one did come off a couple of times when we had extenuating circumstances. It was a lovely ride, with all kinds of varying terrain and footing throughout the journey, and we completed the 14+ mile trip in just 3 hours and 39 minutes, with an average of over 4 mph despite the terrain. Not exactly endurance race speed, but certainly respectable. When we got back to camp, our neighbor Lisa commented that she should have warned me the entire red trail would be an 8 hour journey (with lunch stops and breaks, I suppose), and she was shocked to see me back in camp already, sure that I must have taken a shortcut back, but no, I did the entire Red Trail! I never felt like we were really rushing, though, I just let Flash go at whatever speed he wanted, which is always faster as the day goes on, unlike a stock horse that generally gets slower. Crazy! Anyway, it was a great ride, and we were very satisfied with it all around. As always, we sat in the screen room relaxing for a bit before settling down for an evening of dinner and a movie! This is the way to live!!

Had a great night sleep (Lola has been sleeping in the truck lately, which could explain that!), and didn't get up until almost 8:30. Got the horses fed and the yard cleaned up, then rousted Hubby out of bed before it got too late. A few minutes to dress and a glass of juice, and he was ready! I got the horses saddled, and we headed out on what I hoped would be a ride of suitable length for him. He's been getting stronger, but he's still a long way from where he needs to be, but he managed to get up on Apollo with hardly any help from me, and we set off northbound on the red trail. Our plan was to go out past the overlook about a mile and a half away, then cross down to the red/white inner trail and come back that way. From my GPS elevation profile, it seemed like it had the most gradual grades on it. We were doing great until we got to the red/white inner trail and found another "closed trail" ribbon. I had noticed there was what appeared to be an alternate route that other horses had obviously taken, so we backtracked to that and followed it only about 100 feet, when it ended up right back on the trail that had been closed! Well, we didn't know quite what to make of that, but we kept on, figuring that maybe since we had had so many dry days, and the trail was probably closed off because of mud, that by now it would be in better shape. It was, for the most part, only a few really muddy places, but far fewer than any other trail I've been on since we left Tennessee in June! By now, Hubby was feeling a bit achey, not in his back, which is where we thought the trouble would be, but in his groin area. Guess his muscles are out of shape since he hasn't been on a horse in a while, and Apollo is really round, even though he did lose some weight this year. He's still a big, wide horse! We were doing great, checking to make sure their boots were on after every puddle, then we turned up a trail and the horses started trotting, and when we went through the next puddle and I looked back to check, Apollo had lost one of his boots, dang it! I climbed down and tied up Flash, and started hunting, walking back a long way, but no sign of the boot. I'm thinking it might have slid off when we picked up speed, but I couldn't find it. I went back to earlier puddles which I'm sure I checked after we went through, still no boot. Unfortunately, there is some long grass along the edge of the trail here, but Hubby was really starting to ache, so I gave it up and we headed back to camp, which was only about a half mile away. I guess I know what I'm going to be doing tomorrow! I hope I can find it, I hate to lose a boot, and so far, I've only ever lost one that I didn't bother to go back for, in the Badlands of North Dakota. Usually I can find them pretty easily, but this one is a bit of a mystery, or else we lost it earlier, or it got flung a lot farther off the trail than usual. We'll know better tomorrow! Got back to camp just after 1:00, I let the horses wander in the grass after I unsaddled them while I moved the corral around. I didn't want them to overgraze the area behind the highline. That done, I got the horses settled in there and started to get Hubby on his machine. Just as I was getting ready to put him on, a park employee showed up to tell me that I couldn't put the fence where I had put it, as it was too close to the pavilion, and made a series of suggestions as to where I might put it, though I had to not put it in any other campsite, not put it near the pavilion, not put it where trailers come in, which left me with either all the way on the other side of the campground, or in a long thin line along the edge of the long grass, with no way for the horses to reach water or the highline where I had hay for them. Well, I guess it's either that or back where I started from, and just let them overgraze the same area all week. What would you do? Well, eventually I decided to just put the fence back where it was and then whenever I get the chance, just let the horses wander the area grazing wherever they want. My neighbors, Lisa and Jamie, insisted it wouldn't bother them in the least, though I'm sure against some rule or another, but at least that way they'll have a chance to eat some nice clover and fresh grass for a few hours a day, which will help to not wear out the grass where I have the corral. Fixed dinner and settled down for the rest of the evening, as usual!

By the end of the day yesterday, the campground got pretty full, and unfortunately the people that came in last parked right next to us, and they had a couple of yapping dachshunds, which woke me up earlier than I wanted this morning, and picked a fight with Lola the moment she came out the door. Sigh... But I wasn't going to let that stop me from my good mood, I was ready to go out on my first ride here. I planned about a seven mile ride, in the southern section of the park, as I had learned there was some kind of biking event on the north side of the park, and they evidently use some of the same trails, or at least cross the trails, so in order to avoid any conflict, I planned a southern route. I rode Flash today for the first time in a while, his fetlock is perfectly healed, and I put boots on his front as I heard the trails can get rather stoney, and in fact, they were! There was some mud, too, but nothing like I've been seeing in other areas, so I'm very grateful for that! We headed out on the main Red trail, which is a perimeter trail that goes all the way around the park, with a plan to just go as far as the family campground, then move on to the interior perimeter trail, which goes around the lake, and return on that. Well, my plan got a little waylaid when I came across a ribbon that said the trail was closed, so I had to improvise. Fortunately, it's not a huge park, and between the two main trails are an abundance of trails marked black/white which link the two, so as long as you don't get turned around as to which way you need to go to get back to camp, it's not too hard to get around. I did miss one turn that I wanted to take, went left instead of right, but all it did was take me back to the red trail I came in on, so no worries. Flash was excellent today, very calm in the beginning, like always, but he does tend to get a bit friskier one he warms up, but still very manageable. It was a very nice ride, only one fairly steep climb (which we had to descend as well due to the wrong turn), but not too bad, especially compared to some of the more challenging ones I've been on lately! We got back to camp at a good time, and it wasn't long before Hubby was hooked up to his machine, dialyzing away, and we were watching old movies to pass the time!