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!
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