Though we had hoped that Flash's fetlock would be fully healed by now, there's just enough trace of scabbing that we decided not to risk any setbacks, so I went out alone on my ride today, with the goal of riding all of the remaining nearby trails that were open. Trail 5, which goes off to the north, has been closed all summer because they've been working on it (which I hope doesn't include putting gravel down on it!), but all of the southern trails are open, so I designed a route to cover them all, all the way down to the other horse camp on 244. Well, I should say that it's more of an overnight stop than a horse camp, there's a big gravel parking lot there, one covered picnic table and two sets of 4 covered stalls. If you're only passing through and don't want to traverse the sometimes dubious gravel road all the way back into the Turnpike horse camp, this is a great alternative. Anyway, I headed out what turned out to be a long straight, wide trail which covered the eastern perimeter, then across the south side to the overnight horse stop, then I looped around on the remaining trails, only missing one trail marker (probably because I was busy looking at the map!), but it only led me about 100 feet out of my way. Again, it was a beautiful ride! Some of the trails were still sloppy, of course, but that's to be expected with the wet summer they've had all throughout this area, but less so on some of these more open trails, because it's been sunny the last few days and they've dried up a bit. There was hardly any grade on this section of trails, which will be perfect for Hubby next time we come here. Don't think we'll be able to ride again this week. Apollo enjoyed himself as well, though at one point he wanted to take a more direct route than me, so we had a moment of argument, but since his way had better footing, I changed my mind and did it his way. Two days in a row for him, that hasn't happened in a LONG time! Got back by mid-afternoon, then Hubby and I just sat around reading and relaxing the rest of the day. What a luxury! To just sit and do nothing extraneous! For a while there, I never thought I'd ever have a day like this, but now they're starting to come with more regularity. Wonderful! We finally went inside and had dinner and movie before heading to bed.
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