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!

Got up around 9:00 today, had breakfast and hit the trail before 11:00, for our last ride here at Hill Country, at least for this trip. The only trail long loop left for us was trail #8, which looked very easy, a simple loop by the primitive campground and the group camp, and partially along a utility line, but was pretty rocky so it wasn't quite as much fun as we thought it would be. Couldn't get much trotting or cantering in because of the rocks, and frankly, the horses were quite a bit more lethargic today than on previous days, not used to getting ridden every day. Generally they would get a day off in between long rides, or at least no more than two ride days in a row, so I think by the third day in a row, they had had enough. Nevertheless, they were troopers, and we only went about six miles, mostly walking, so it was still a good ride. Saw some spectacular cactus blossoms coming out, saw some pig sign and then one black pig crossed our trail in front of us, getting just a little reaction from the horses, though their noses were up in the air, heard gobbling of wild turkeys as well, as quite a few birds were out today, too. It was pleasant, with only the amount of rocks being the only detraction. Got back before 2:00, got the horses settled in , had lunch, then went into town for a conference call regarding our meeting next week. Overall, it's been a great week, much needed for us to get away, and for the horses to face new trails for a change. Thoroughly enjoyed it, and will likely come back again, just to finish off the few minor trails we didn't get a chance to do. Glad we came!

Slept later today, another sunny day, just a bit more wind from the south, warming things up a bit, though the overnight was quite cool. The gas furnace went off multiple times during the night, and it was only set at 63 degrees! After a late breakfast and a bit of computer work, we hit the trail about 12:30. Since we went 9 miles yesterday, with lots of tough climbing up and down on pretty rocky grades, we decided to take a nice easy ride today, mostly along the bottom land area. We covered a good portion of the northeastern side of the park, which was a lot of open fields and just a little climbing now and then, skirting along the side of some of the hills, which again offered some really nice views, digressed a few times as we elected to take some wider loops, getting in a lot of cantering, which the horses seemed quite up for, despite their long day yesterday. We started out with a plan of going about 5.5 miles, but ended up doing more than 8 once we took those wider loops. Great ride, though, but there were some pretty rocky sections again in the middle, pretty much par for the course here on the majority of trails, I'm afraid. Glad we have rubber boots for the horses, good traction! Got back by 3:30, took a quick run down to the Ranger station where they were kind enough to let me use the phone to return a call from our local client's staff as we prepare for a meeting next Monday, then settled down for a quiet evening.

What a gorgeous day!! It got quite cold overnight, into the mid 30's, so we weren't in any hurry to get out of bed, slept in until nearly 10 (after I turned the furnace on and warmed it up, that is!), then had breakfast, and were out, saddle up, and hitting the trail by about 12:30 or so. Today, at the suggestion of the nice Ranger we met on Sunday, we decided to do both the 4A and 4B loops, as they both were supposed to have spectacular views, and they did not disappoint! From the camp we crossed the road and crossed a nice field, which will be a perfect place to canter on the way back, but the horses were so rested after having a day off yesterday, they were walking fast and frisky for the first few miles of flatlands. We soon reached the group camp where they have stalls and an arena, and started climbing no long after that. While the bottom land was mostly dirt trails, the climbs were rocky, but our guys went up with no problem, their rubber bottomed Cavallo boots providing them with great traction. We saw a lot of marking from horseshoes, that looked like a lot of slipping. We like boots better, more protection and as I said, better traction. We climbed with no problems and were rewarded with gorgeous view after gorgeous view! We followed the trails faithfully, which were marked pretty well for the most part, except one section that I had traced on Google Earth using their trail map as an overlay indicated a turn to the south MUCH earlier than what the actual trail was. If you only had the map you'd be okay, but looking at my GPS and seeing us get so off-track was a bit nerve-racking, at least for a little while. But frankly, there was only one trail, and we never saw any turn-offs, so we get moving forward, and suddenly the trail turned southward, and I could breathe a sigh of relief. It turned out to be at almost a third of a mile farther north than marked on their map. I'm planning on mentioning to the Ranger, just to let her know. Anyway, we did the loops counter-clockwise, and there were several benches along the way. We stopped at one for a quick break and apples all around, then went a bit farther and came across another one with an even more spectacular view. There was one hill so far away, I swear we were looking at Mexico! Beautiful! Apollo seemed to be right in his element, no hesitation, completely engaged with the trail. Once again I had him in his hackamore, though at one point I put on some gloves because he was pulling so hard it was giving me rope burns. We finally reached the bottom of the valley again, and just before we reached the road, a great big black bird flew up right in front of Apollo, and in a split second his nose was where his tail had just been, and I didn't have a horse under me any more, and I ended up on the ground. Fortunately, it was dirt and not rocks, and I missed a dead tree limb by a couple of feet, so no damage done. Apollo just went over to Mama for protection, and stopped there. As always, I just dusted myself off and climbed back up again, and we were on our way. We crossed the road and picked up the trail that paralleled it, which took us to that open field again, and as soon as the horses saw it, they started racing across it! We were amazed they had that much energy after all those climbs, but I guess all that careful and cautious walking made them really want to stretch their legs, so off we went! It is so exhilarating to do that! It was one of the longest canters we've ever done, and the horses just seemed to want to do more. I am so looking forward to the rest of the trails here! We've gotten most of the hardest ones done, the rest will probably be a piece of cake compared to this one. What a great day! We got back to camp around 3:45, after doing almost exactly 9 miles in about 3 hours. Got the horses settled in, then got ourselves settled in for the rest of the evening. Exactly the kind of days we LIVE for, especially after having been in one place, without trails, for so long. Wonderful!

Woke up to an early alarm again, expecting hot weather and possibly rain later in the day, so after breakfast, we saddled up and headed out. Our plan was to tackle the big loop on Trail #4, but after making a long arduous climb up some quick rocky washes, we missed the intersection to take us there, and ended up on a challenging Trail #5. Very rocky, with lots of grades, which kept Apollo very engaged. I had forgone the bridle today, using my rope hackamore instead, since he's been very well behaved lately, and I think he really appreciated it, especially because it prevented any accidental pulls on his mouth going up these very steep and twisty terrains. Once I realized that we were on the wrong trail, I consulted my GPS and map and realized that #5 would take us directly back to the southern end of easy Trail #1, so the second half of the journey would be very easy, and the ride pretty short, but the fact that the first half was so challenging, and that we were planning on staying through Friday and riding every day, we decided to keep it short to keep the horses enthused about the week. It was a fantastic, albeit shorter than usual ride, and there were some great views. We were back by 12:30, so we decided to do our shopping today, and to have lunch in town, so we drove the short 10 miles into the cute little town of Bandera, known as the Cowboy Capital of the World, got gas for the generator, had lunch a delightful little restaurant call the Brick Cafe, and went shopping for groceries at the Market, and headed back to camp. We stopped at the Ranger station and extended our stay until Friday, having a conversation with a woman who, too, is from England (like Hubby), and was also a horsewoman, so we had a very fruitful conversation with her, discussing trail options. Back to camp by around 4:30, and settled down for the rest of the day.

Set the alarm to get up early, so we could be back from our ride before the heat of the day, as it was forecast to be near 90. Fortunately, it was cloudy, which helped a lot, and after a nice breakfast, we got the horses out, trimmed their feet a little bit, put on their boots and saddled up, and were out on the trail by 10:40. I had planned a short, easy ride, just over 4.5 miles. It began on trail #1, which was a two track dirt and sometimes gravel road, and was just what we needed to get ourselves stretched back into shape. Somewhere along the line I missed a turn (the print on the map was so small I couldn't make out my plan), and we stayed on #1 instead of turning onto #6, which added about another 1.5 miles by the time we were through, but it worked out okay. We got back onto #6 when we reached the middle of our figure 8 loop, and though it was a bit more difficult, it was nothing for our guys! What a great ride, though! The horses were brilliant, no rodeo-ing from Apollo, and several great opportunities for trotting and cantering. A lot of the trails were just dirt, which was a relief, though a few sections were quite rocky. The ranger had informed me that there were many caverns around here, and that when you could hear a hollow sound under the horses' feet, that meant we were over a cavern. We did, in fact, have that happen several times, which was pretty cool. Hubby faired well, and was only starting to feel a little twinge just before we got back to camp, even though the last stretch was probably the hardest, so no damage done. As soon as the horses were put away, we put another ice pack on it, and he went to bed and took a nap. I did some computer work, then decided to put up the 10X10 canopy we had over the horse corrals, to provide some shade. Despite instructions that said you need 3 people to get the canopy up, I managed to do it on my own, and the horses didn't seem bothered by it at all, just a short moment of concern from Clio, but she settled down at once. After Hubby's nap, he did a few more chores, and I did a repair on one of Clio's boots (the leather strap had worn, and only the velcro was holding it on), before we settled down for a relaxing evening, hoping that Hubby's back will be good tomorrow for another ride. We've already decided to stay past Monday, as my computer work revealed it would take at least 6 rides to accomplish most of the trails here, which are abundant. Might as well get 'em done while we're here, who knows when we'll be back!

Got up with the alarm in order to start our busy day early. First stop was out by Elgin, TX where we picked up a full load of coastal hay for $7/bale, the best price we've found in months! Not too bad, either, bales aren't too heavy, which is easier for us, though it still was strung with wire, though our last bunch had string. Decided to park at the north trailhead off Pope Bend road this time, since access from the southern end has a bit of a rocky start. Arrived with two other trailers already on site, got saddled up with a quick hoof trim using a new rasp I just received (which made it much easier) and was out on the trail by 2:00. A fabulous ride! We love this place. Lots of nice loops, a good variation of grade and terrain, love the riverside, and all around Pecan Bottom, including a new trail up to a scenic view we hadn't taken before. About 4.5 miles, with some nice cantering and trotting, out a bit less than 2 hours. Lots of trees with new leaves popping out, making it a really nice spring day. A little windy on the ridge, but almost no breeze once we came down from there, just enough to keep the sun from getting too hot. Packed up and headed out around 4:00 (the other trailers were already gone), then battled traffic back a long ways, stopping for fuel before landing at Trudy's where we had a couple of beers and nachos before heading home right at dusk. Everyone put away, and a nice relaxing evening.