Though my hearing is still not great, we felt good enough to take a ride today. After a leisurely breakfast, we saddled up and got out around 1:00 or so, following the East side trail map, though it turned out to almost not be necessary. The trails were very well-marked, with “You Are Here” placards at most intersections. The map was useful inasmuch it had a legend of trails that were not recommended or forbidden for horses, and that was helpful. We wanted to keep it simple anyway, so we stuck to the snowmobile trails, which were the widest and best marked. The footing was a bit rocky, but we had put their boots on, so the horses were fine with that. Clio was still limping a bit at the trot, but since the trail was so rocky, we stayed at a walk most of the time anyway. We stayed on the snowmobile trail until we reached the park boundary, then decided to try the Ginn trail, which was listed as not recommended for horses, but we were curious as to what that meant, so we dared it anyway. It was a bit narrower, which we liked, but we soon came to an “obstacle”, a boggy area that had a narrow plank boardwalk not suitable for horses, so we had to walk alongside it, which meant the horses were sinking in the mud a bit. Not quite impassible, but I wouldn’t want to try that on a day after a rain. There were two spots like that, and once we got around them the trail soon opened up to a snowmobile wide track again, and we continued around the perimeter until we returned to the campground. A very nice ride, just under 5 miles, just long enough to build up a little from our last ride, and to start getting the horses (and us!) back into shape.
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