Friday, Oct. 14, 2016 – Another Fabulous Ride Day at Skymont!

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After a busy couple of days, we set aside today to map out yet another section of the Skymont Trails, and learned from Ranger Dave's wife Ellen that Ike and Rebecca, the organizers of the SERA endurance race for which I had volunteered a few weeks ago were actually camping in the back, so I was looking forward to introducing Hubby to them when we passed by. After getting saddled up and riding through their camp, it became obvious they were all out on a trail ride, naturally, as it was a beautiful day. We headed out over the dam, this time heading north to mostly follow part of the orange trail. I had mapped out about 6.75 miles of riding, but got a little turned around, as most of the flags near where the buildings and other scout facilities were had been removed, and since they had the most roads and options because it was the most used and populated area, it made it a bit more confusing. Following my GPS, though, we managed to get on track after awhile. Once again it was a gorgeous ride. The leaves are starting to change color, adding to an already gorgeous experience. After about 4 miles, however, after cantering up a hill, we looked back and realized that our little dog Billy was missing! I asked Hubby when was the last time he had seen him, and he couldn't really remember, because he had been running lines of a one-man show he's getting ready to perform next month. So we turned around and headed back to see if we could find him, and after about half a mile and lots of yelling, Billy finally came bounding up the trail towards us. We figured he must have gotten distracted or tired somewhere, and because he's getting a little deaf in his old age, he couldn't hear us well enough to track us down again. Once he caught back up with us, though, we headed back on up the trail, as it was longer to go back than to continue forward, even with the extra mile of backtracking. My horse Apollo wasn't exactly thrilled at going back and forth (he tends to get bored easily, and retracing his steps is boring for him, he always wants a new trail!), so he got a little ornery for a few minutes, but settled down again once we got going. We were afraid Billy would have trouble keeping up (he is over 12 years old, and has tiny little dachshund size legs, after all!), so we slowed down and waited for him more often, which made what should have been a 2.5 hour ride into more of a 4 hour ride. But, of course, any time on the back of my horse is a good time! We finally reached camp, and by then, the other campers were back, and we stopped and chatted with them for a while, comparing notes. We knew from the fresh manure on the trail that they had been on many of the same trails as us, so we talked mostly about the orange trail What a great ride, though! Perfect weather, a gorgeous day! Got back and got everyone put away, gave Billy a baby aspirin because I knew he was going to need it, and settled down for the evening. Wonderful!

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