With another event planned, we left Talkeetna with heavy hearts and headed for Palmer, where I had found another horse outfitter that seemed to have a more interesting ride than the one I took in Homer. I had hoped to schedule a 1 or 2 hour ride to get Hubby back in the saddle gently, but unfortunately, the only thing going this afternoon was to be a 4 hour ride, but he insisted he could handle it (even though a 4 hour ride is too much for him even WITHOUT any broken bones), and off we went. We met him and the rest of the group at an open beach area next to a bridge on the edge of a national forest and the Knik river. We were introduced to our horses, which, oddly, were mostly Tennessee Walkers. I've never ridden one, and have always wanted to try, because I had heard how smooth their gait was. We soon learned that their walk is really choppy, much worse than our app/quarter horses, and unfortunately, we almost never were able to get up into the smooth gate that's one gear up from a walk. We both managed to do it a couple of times, just to see what it felt like, but obviously the rest of the group, or at least the wrangler, wasn't up for that. Nevertheless, it was a pretty good ride. We left the beach and headed almost immediately into the forest for quite a while, with the only disturbance being the many ATV's that were barreling along on many of the same trails we were using. Being a Saturday, it was quite busy, and this area is apparently a public area with few or no restrictions, though our wrangler, Joshua, said it was actually less busy than usual, probably because the Alaska State Fair was in full swing up the road in Palmer, and the weather was absolutely perfect (for a change), so that meant the park was a little quieter, relatively speaking. Anyway, after going for a ways in the woods, we emptied out onto a beach, with a beautiful lake and a glacier on the other side, and a number of fishermen along the bank. We skirted around them, and went through a bunch of mud flats, getting a bit damp in spots, though I did my best to lift my legs up on my saddle to avoid it as much as possible. After two hours we stopped and rested, and Hubby and I ate the lunch I had packed (though no one else seemed to have done that, and no snack was provided), before heading back home again. In the end, the ride was actually longer than four hours, and Hubby was hurting for the last 90 minutes, but stoically kept it to himself (though I could tell he was in pain, no one else could), and was quite happy and exceedingly proud of himself that he made it in one piece, as was I. I helped Joshua pack in the horses, trailering them in a way I don't recall ever seeing before, nose to tail from front to back, which made sense when he explained it to me. Then off he went, and Hubby and I decided to just spend the night where we were parked, as it was off the road, in the woods, next to a river... What more could you want? ATV activity didn't slow down much until much after dark, so it turned out to be a pretty good choice. Didn't want to get to Anchorage early anyway, with their rules against parking overnight there, and we were close enough that it didn't matter. RV portion of the trip almost finished!

Up early, as we had to be back to the barn by 8:00, according to what the wrangler had told me. Arrived 10 minutes early, found a spot to park the RV, said my good-byes to Hubby (he couldn't come because his broken bones aren't quite healed enough, and four hours is just too long for him at this point) and went out to meet the group. It took longer than I expected to get going, after 9:00 by the time we pulled out from the barn, then got stuck several times by construction before making another stop to pick up three more horses. A helper then ponied those three down to a parking area at the (almost) end of the road, where we were then matched up with our horses. I got a pinto gelding named JJ (funny, since that's a nickname for me as well), and after EXTREMELY brief instructions (not enough for the novices, in my mind, but not my job), we headed down the now private section of the road. I had read somewhere that the trail would be through forests and would end up on a beach before heading to the barn, leading me to believe it would be a linear path. Not true on any count. We switch-backed dramatically down the gravel road, dropping 700 feet in about a quarter mile, ending up on the beach immediately. We then headed east (away from the direction of the barn), and went across the mud flats at low tide. We walked, and walked, and walked for about 3 miles or so, before coming to a river crossing, but because of all the rain they'd been having during the last week or so, the river was too high to cross, so we stopped for lunch (we had to bring our own). A half hour later, we mounted up, crossed over to above the high tide line, where, on the edge of some foliage, we headed back the same three plus miles. For the entire time, our wrangler, Mark, never stopped talking. Some people have done reviews where they praise him for being such a character, but I found his constant chatter pretty annoying after the first 90 minutes or so (sooner, actually : -). When I tried to move to the other end of the line to get away from it, I ended up next to another customer, also named Mark, who had the same affliction. I tried to drop behind the line to get away from it, but the helper insisted on being last, (though that wasn't the case coming out, just going back), so I never once got to enjoy a moment of Alaskan peace on the ride. I realize some people treat a ride as a social event, but I'm not one of them. I like to commune with nature, to get a sense of the history of the place, not to mention the beauty of the glaciers across the inlet, but all of that was overshadowed by the constant yammering of the two Marks (sigh). Oh, well, at least I still got to ride in Alaska! The first of at least two, and hopefully more rides over the next three weeks. I managed to force a couple of trots in, just to "catch up" and move around the others, but despite several inquiries about cantering, it was never in the cards. From the descriptions of all the rides I've read about in Alaska, this one seemed the most likely to have some canters, and the mud flats certainly lent themselves to it (wide open and flat), but no dice. Better luck next time. Finally, we got back to the road, climbed up the side of the hill, and said our goodbyes. I hitched a ride with customer Mark back to the barn, since we were already more than an hour behind schedule, knowing Hubby had been expecting me at 2:00 and it was now past 3:00, nearly 3:30 by the time we got through the construction and back to the barn. We got started almost immediately, as we had a four hour drive to Seward. In my original plan, we were going to drive to Seward tomorrow, and just to the 1.5 hour Dog Sled tour, but Hubby decided he wanted to do the All Alaska Tour, which starts at 11:00 and includes lunch, a trip to the Exit glacier, and several other activities, which meant we needed to get most, if not all, of the trip done tonight. We headed out immediately, made a stop at Sodoltna for gas and a couple of groceries, and kept going. As always, the trip back seemed shorter than the trip out, particularly along the section of road where we had already been, then turned south to Seward at the crossroad. The closer we got to Seward, the darker the clouds and the more the rain. We had escaped it during the ride (though I was fully prepared, wearing my long riding slicker), but now it was starting to come down in spades. When we were about 15 miles out of town, we started looking for someplace to spend the night, again trying to find someplace not directly on the road. We found the perfect spot, a trailhead for river fishing access that had an entrance that was all but blocked from the road by a row of trees. We settled in, again not bothering to put the slides out, had some dinner and snacks, watched a movie (I finally found the culprit that was making my DVD player not work, a bad cord! Fortunately, I had an extra.) and settled in for the night.

Having mapped out the smallest loop I could find, just over 6 miles, we got the horses saddled up and out of camp by about 10:30, heading north around the Blackhawk loop. The trail was mostly dirt with some rocks, and with all the rain over the last two days, some parts were pretty slippery, but was quickly drying as the day went on. It was a very nice trail, not too rough or steep, but enough to make it interesting. The views are just spectacular! It's fabulous to turn a corner and just be surrounded by gorgeous mountains, with some still sporting a bit of snow on top! Just gorgeous. Though the trails were fairly plain to see, the intersections weren't very well marked, and we had to depend on the GPS a lot. At one point, near the end of the loop, we came to a gate with no real marking, and we weren't sure whether we should go through it or not. We decided not, but to follow the fence, which almost immediately started taking us downhill. By the time we figured out we were going off track, we didn't want to climb back up, so we kept going, knowing eventually we'd find our way back. We soon realized we were following a pipeline that we had crossed earlier, so when we reached the original trail, we just headed back that way. It added a little bit to the trip, but at least we knew where we were, and besides, it left us that other trail for another day, meaning we wouldn't have to repeat any trails. Arrived back in camp after about 2.5 hours, having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. And the horses seemed to have a good time, too! Ran down to a place up the road to get my email, finding one that presented me with considerable work to do tomorrow, so relaxed for the evening, as usual.

Woke up to another beautiful day, though there is a forecast for possible showers this afternoon, so we saddled up and headed out around 11:00. Headed west out of the back of the campground from Site 3, going down a beautiful trail that led us to Chicken Creek Trail. Though we put boots on the horses, most of the trails were dirt with only a few, occasional spots with rocks. At the bottom of the hill we made a left to continue following Chicken Creek Trail south where we followed the creek and even crossed it a couple of times, weaving our way through a gorgeous aspen and spruce forest. When we reached the first intersection, we turned north again on the Rim trail, because we just wanted a short exploratory ride today. As we climbed gradually up the hill, we passed some beautiful bushes of wild roses, with the kind of wonderful aroma that you just don't get in store-bought roses anymore. When we reached the top, the trail opened up into some beautiful open meadows, and we got in some FABULOUS canters for quite a ways. Finally we crossed a creek and ended up on the road, where the trail crosses. Unfortunately, in a freak accident, Apollo got his foot caught in a cattle guard, and we spent the next ten heart-stopping minutes trying to keep him calm and get his boot off and his foot out, which we finally accomplished, though not without some minor injuries. His foot was scraped and was starting to swell at the hairline at the top of his hoof, Hubby got a cut over his eye which I sealed with a butterfly tape, his chest was bruised where Apollo put his foot on it, and his calf was banged up. I was flung onto the grate and started to get a bruise on my hip that was 8 inches long by the end of the day, and my hand was sprained so that it could hardly move. After walking a bit to see if we could walk it out, it became obvious that Apollo's foot couldn't take too much weight, so I ended up leading him the half mile back to the camp. Though he wasn't limping badly, he wasn't picking his foot up as well as he needed to, dragging the toe slightly, so I don't think it's too bad, thank goodness. Once there I treated his foot with Vetericyn and wrapped it up in an ice pack for a while, and doing the same for my hip. We were concerned, but there wasn't much we could do except let it rest. When I took off the ice pack, I rubbed in down with Absorbine as well, figuring better circulation is always a good thing. Hubby and I both felt like we'd been in a car wreck, with bruises and aches and pains we couldn't even identify, they were just there. We rested the rest of the day, checking on Apollo throughout the evening to make sure he didn't worsen. A great ride until the incident, which could have been a disaster, which we narrowly averted. Whew! Meanwhile, the local dude ranch had indeed brought some horses up for a ride tomorrow, and had filled the water tank, so that was one less worry for us. We had a few rain showers just after we arrived, but nothing of any consequence. Shortly afterward, an RV came along with a family and four more horses, and eventually the dude ranch had to move some of their horses together to make room for them. Hubby spoke with the young cowboy tasked with keeping an eye on things overnight for a few minutes before we retired for the night.

Mountain Time has been good for us, we've been getting up earlier than usual, and having some pretty good night's sleeps as well! Managed to get out on the trail again by 11:00, this time heading to a place called Cave Creek. Where to get to the trail head was a mystery to me, despite having gotten several opinions from our neighbors, but we managed to just finish saddling up when another group from the campground left, so we tagged behind them, just close enough to keep an eye on which way they were going. Almost lost them once, but managed to figure it out. Down the hill to the northwest, across the road, parallel the road for a while, then down to the road again, make a right and stay on the road for about 80 yards, then the trail appears on the left. Take that to the campground, cross the creek and up the bank on the left to the road, make a right, take the left fork up the road (there's a small sign indicating a horse trail, up around the bend to the left, and the trail is on the right. Up the bank, and there's an intersection with several choices, one of which was, thankfully, Cave Creek. In about a quarter mile there was a fork with no sign, one going up to the left, the other down to the right. As we pondered which way to go, Hubby caught a glimpse of our lead party across in a field to the right, so we headed down to the right, crossed a creek, and were able to easily follow the well-marked trail from that point. What a busy trail! Granted, it was Sunday and there was a lot of day traffic, but joggers and hikers galore! No other horses than ours and the lead group. We haven't seen this much foot traffic since the Grand Canyon! Though we don't usually ride on Sundays, that's true. In any event, it was a great trail! Much less rocky than the previous two trails, though there were still a few spots that had some problems. Really nice, though. Apollo has settled down nicely, he was perfect today, no anxiety, no muss, no fuss, a very enjoyable day. We thought we found where the caves were, near a sign that said "No camping within 50 ft. Of stream", and we had been told it wasn't easy to find, but that turned out not to be the case. Just a bit further along, however, we found our other horse party, and they were hanging out there. The first one was essentially a hole in the wall of rock where the stream diverted into, leaving a dry river bed until it came back out of the wall downstream. About 50 or 75 yards further along was the more interesting feature, though, with three large cave entrances, large enough to easily walk into (and a lot of people were, as it was much cooler inside), with one of the holes being where the creek, once again, dropped into a hole in the ground. A great destination, and stayed there for a while and kept cool. Eventually the other horse party left, as did the several groups of hikers that came and went, until we were ready to head back. With two creek crossings, the horses were well watered along the way, the first time on the trail since we've been here. It was a beautiful and enjoyable day, perfectly blue sky, light breeze to keep it from getting too hot, the babbling brook that paralleled the trail, the forest with well-marked trails, what else could anyone ask for? A perfect day, the best day yet, and we've only been on the road a week! Speaking of, when we got back, we spent some time packing up and getting ready to leave bright and early. Since we filled our tank and yet only stayed four nights, we both got to luxuriate in a nice long shower after the work was done, the perfect ending to a glorious day!

Another early morning for us, our time clocks are really working well in this Rocky Mountain Time. I was up by 7:00, having gone to bed about 9:30, and reading till a little after 10:00. Best night sleep so far, fell right back to sleep after I woke up a couple of times, fewer times than most nights. Getting back to normal! Rasped Apollo's feet again, just to make sure the boots would go easily, though I still had to do a bit more on one, but finally they slid right on. Clio was another matter, got them on but had to force the back of them up over her heels. Out on the trail before 11:00, though, this time going to check out Round Mountain, which is a long, supposedly gradual climb. Well, I guess relatively speaking it was gradual, but it went on and on and on! More than 2.5 miles before we finally hit our high point at 10, 157 feet where we found ourselves in a beautiful field with at 360 degree absolutely gorgeous panoramic view! Stunning! We rested the horses and lay down on the grass for a while, luxuriating in the simple pleasures. The feel of the ground, the sound of the wind whistling through the nearby pines, the munching of the horses on the tufts of grass where we lay, the crystal blue sky, white fluffs of some kind of pollen racing past us on the wind by the millions. Heaven on earth! We lay there for quite a while, then a riding party of some of our camp neighbors went by, breaking the spell of being the only two people on earth. We waited a few more minutes before re-mounting and heading back down the mountain. We passed several hikers, caught up to the riding party that had stopped for some reason, and we continued past them, with Apollo straining to go faster and faster down the hill. It was all I could do to hold him back, I thought he'd be worn out after all that climbing, but he was still raring to go when we reached the campground, even cantering along the road to the campsite! He continued pawing all the way through his unsaddling and unbooting, I figured he must be thirsty so I got him into the corral right away, but he bypassed the water to flop down on the ground and roll! Then he stood up, shook himself, dropped himself down on his other side and rolled again! Then he got up and did the same thing again, over and over and over, at least half a dozen times on both sides. I've never seen him do that before, and I hope it isn't something symptomatic of colic. We've been trying to gradually move them over to a mix of their old coastal hay to this new mix of alfalfa, and I've been so afraid that too much alfalfa will cause it, but we've been really careful. Nevertheless, I'm thinking of dropping back to just one flake a day of the alfalfa mix, just in case. He's been acting so hyper, and I'm not sure if it was because of the month-long layoff, or if he's just really excited about being back on challenging trails every day, or if the alfalfa is just going to his head. Sure wish horses could talk! Anyway, once he was finished, he finally settled down, got a drink and took a nap, along with Mama, who was already sound asleep. In any event, it was a beautiful day, a fabulous ride, particularly grand because I know the folks down in the valley are sweltering and we're up here in perfect 80 degree weather, with the occasional cool wind coming down off the mountains. And yes, that's SNOW at the top of the mountains in a few of the pictures! Can't say enough about how gorgeous it is here. Only con is that there are a lot of stones and rocks on the trails, chipping their hooves in the back pretty badly, but it doesn't seem to have affected their performance. Tomorrow, we head west to someplace called Caves Creek or something like that. Again, we have to make it linear to keep it under 7 or 8 miles, but for those that like really LONG rides, and who are acclimated to the high altitude, most of the loops here (of which there are MANY) are at least 12-15 miles long, and all cover lots of terrain, mostly pretty steep up and down, so pretty challenging. Better have fit animals when you come here!

Had a pretty good night's sleep, pretty quiet here, though there were a few early risers we heard talking a bit before we got up. Kind of surprising that it wasn't the mules in the corral next door, actually, I expected them to be our rooster while we were here, but they were quiet, too. Morning temps in the upper 40's so heat was certainly not a factor in the night! Had a good breakfast, then got the horses ready to go. Even though I had rasped Apollo's feet a little yesterday, I still had a little trouble putting his boots on, so I had to rasp him and Clio again. We didn't need boots at the last place, but this one apparently has rocky trails (typical in the mountains), so we saddled and booted and were on our way by about 10:30. We decided to take a trail that would lead us to the Iron Gate campground, which I had figured on Google Earth to be about 2.75 miles away, then return on the same trail. Tammy asked us to check in on a camper that was along the way as well. Headed out on a trail to the south, thinking there was only one trail out, but no sooner did we get out of the campground than it split in about 5 different directions, so we took a chance on the one that seemed to head downhill, which, according to my Google Earth-made map was the right one. The idea was to have an easy day in order to acclimatize everyone to the altitude, so down was better at first. The trail was rather rocky in some places, but a lot of just dirt, too. We did go gradually downhill, then uphill a bit, until we finally reached the bridge. At other intersections there had been signs to keep us on track for Iron Creek, but at the bride, the trail went straight up the creek or across the bridge with no indication which way to go. We went over the bridge, then carried on for just a few hundred yards before my GPS compass was saying we were going south, which wasn't right, and off the track as well, so we turned around (though later I was told it was the right way to Iron Creek, I'm still not convinced!) Anyway, we backtracked, then continued on the other trail just to find the campers, which we did, checked in on them, then headed back. We had already gone two miles, and we didn't want to make it a long day, so that was enough. The only challenge was that Apollo was incredibly frisky this morning. He was so excited to be back on engaging trails that Clio was having to trot just to keep up with his walk, so I was having to slow him down. Once we left the bridge and headed back he started to get so antsy I had to get down and run him around in circles for a few minutes, just to calm him down a bit. Once he settled down we continue on our way, and at the first opportunity on an uphill slope, I gave him permission to run, and run he did! He galloped for a dozen strides before the terrain forced him to slow down, but he went like a maniac up that hill! I was hanging on tight, and Clio and Hubby were the same, riding like we stole 'em! Apollo was a little better after that, and by the time we got back to camp, having taken an alternate route back up the hill, he was actually willing to stand still for a couple of minutes while we chatted with Tammy, the first time he had stood still all day. Well, as Hubby said, "Wouldn't you rather have a frisky horse than a dull one?" Yes, as long as he doesn't go crazy on me : -). I told Apollo I was looking forward to seeing how he behaves on Day Three. Anyway, we spent the rest of the day relaxing, reading, watching TV, while our bodies continued to acclimatize. Looking forward to another ride tomorrow!

Such a great night sleep! Other than waking up once and having a hard time getting back to sleep, we both slept very well, and it cooled down so much, at one point I was tempted to reach for another blanket! Perfect! Let ourselves sleep in to help with adjusting to the time change, had breakfast, and were out saddling the horses by 10:30, though it seemed later. It had been very cloudy earlier, and we actually had some rain overnight (I had to get up and close the vents and a couple of side windows), but by the time we got on the trail, it was just starting to clear up. We headed out west of the ranger station and around the workshop area, quickly coming to the park boundary, and headed cross country to the "sand dunes" promised on the map. We had been warned twice about the snakes out here (diamondbacks and sidewinders), and sure enough, just after climbing the first ridge, I heard a small squeal, and saw a snake had just wrapped itself around some kind of small mammal. Not sure what it was, it was wrapped so tight, but I guess I'll say it was lunch for the snake. In any event, as it was obviously occupied, we bypassed it and continued on. Very shortly afterward, we came across another dune, though an actual trail was a bit more challenging. We finally found something that looked like it would pass as a trail and followed it up over another ridge. From there we saw the campground just on the other side! Already? I checked my map again, and sure enough, we had already crossed "the dunes!" I knew this place was small, but I didn't realize it was a postage stamp! We followed the road around, passing several work areas, including an out of order dump, and a crew that was putting up cement block walls to create a small pavilion at every site along that loop, as well as putting cement pads in on top of perfectly useful gravel pads. What a waste of taxpayer money! This tiny little park, and they're spending tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to upgrade it beyond what it needed. Crazy! We kept following the road until we came to the "lake." More like a fishing pond, it had been stocked and several families were dipping poles around the perimeter. It was also surrounded by a cement break wall, and was smaller than some holding ponds I've seen in developments in Florida. Managed to find the trail that circled the pond, stopping by a bench for a pic, then headed back around, trying to find any additional trails to follow. Tried one that actually had a sign at the trailhead, but all the trees were very low, requiring us to duck under limbs, and only served as a "sidewalk" of sorts between the bathhouse and the regular campground loop. Not exactly inspiring trail riding. In all, we managed to clock up nearly 2.2 whole miles! Well, at least it got us back in the saddle again, after nearly a month, and the horses got to stretch their legs a little bit. Apollo was a bit antsy with all the rest and the activity going on in the park, but he behaved himself. I took a rasp to his feet when we got back, just to keep his feet in shape. Last month I had a guy come out and do them professionally, he did a real nice job and explained a few things to me (always something new to learn!), so I want to keep them in as good a shape as I can, by rasping early and often. Spend the afternoon catching up on my blog and confirming a hay pickup, ready for a relaxing evening and another early morning tomorrow! A bit lengthier drive, plus with a couple of stops, plus another climb of 4000+ feet in altitude, it promises to be a long and tiring day!

Yesterday, we drove all the way out to McKinney Roughs for a ride, only to learn the trails were closed because they had 3 inches of rain a few days ago. Note to self: Call Ahead! Since we had had two dry days after the rain, it never occurred to us the trails might be closed. Anyway, I had called Reimers yesterday and they said their trails were open, so I knew they would be today. We've only been here once before, and it was nice but not too challenging (i.e. Boring), but it's close, and we wanted to do the same trail in reverse. We arrived to find that two rangers were working on the parking area, with new wood chip surface, and building a railing around the entire parking lot, will make it look a lot nicer when it's finished. One other trailer was there, and we met the owners a bit later, an English woman and her American husband, when they returned from their ride. We were delayed quite a bit because I had to trim the horses' feet, as they were way out of whack, and none of the boots fits. That took nearly 1 ½ hours, so much needed to be done. Plus chatting with the couple was a small but interesting distraction. Finally got on the trail about 1:30, heading north so as to take the loop clockwise. Lots of opportunities to canter and the horses behaved beautifully, having as much fun as we did. Only twice did Apollo try to add an extra leap in his transition, but I managed to stop one and ride out the other until he settled down. At one point about halfway around, Clio brushed Hubby up against an unforgiving limb, which caught his stampede strap and broke it, so that his hat came off. Once retrieved we carried on for a bit, before he realized he had lost a hearing aid. Knowing it had to have happened during the branch incident, we headed back to that tree limb, and, miraculously, after about 5-10 minutes of looking actually FOUND the tiny little bugger! Yeah! Once plugged back into his ear, we continued on our way, getting a few more lovely canters in before getting back to the parking lot by about 3:30. From there, we met with my brother and his friend Dely for a birthday get-together (he celebrated his 89th yesterday) at a nice little place called J-5 Steakhouse on Hwy. 71. Got home around 8:00, bedded everyone down, and had a relaxing evening, after a very nice day.

After a week of recovery and catching up, it was time to get the horses back on the trail, but since we had so much going on, we elected to just go to nearby Pace Bend Park. In search of new trails to ride, we headed north from the Day Use area along the edge of the beach. We passed through a few fields of beautiful blue bonnets and other spring wildflowers, a beautiful sight to see! As we reached the beach, the sand was firm for a short while, but then Apollo balked when the strip narrowed between the edge of the water and the base of the cliff, so Clio took the lead momentarily, but the sand was so soft, she sank in so deep her knees buckled and she essentially laid down, her belly resting on the sand. She didn't struggle, she just sat there waiting for help, so Hubby stepped off her, and she popped right up again. After re-mounting, we headed back up to the top of hill and followed it along the edge for a while. Eventually it curved around until we hit the perimeter fence, then we followed it down through some very nice fields on a narrow trail, with more wildflowers and a few cantering stretches along the way. Not a long ride, but a very nice one, it was good just to get out again. After so much riding last week, we don't want the horses' fitness level to drop any more than necessary!