With plans to leave tomorrow, and after having such a short ride yesterday, I was looking forward to a longer ride with Apollo today. He seemed much more willing, so evidently he had rested well, so after our usual Sunday blueberry pancake breakfast, I saddled up and headed out of camp. I decided to do the ride I had planned yesterday, now that I knew where the correct trailhead was. I kept Lola on a leash until we crossed the road our of the pasture area, and our first sight was a fairly long and rocky climb. Not too thrilled at that auspicious beginning, I was hoping things would improve, and thankfully, they did. In fact, today was the best ride here yet. Now that it had been dry a couple of days, many of the mud patches were greatly improved, so that footing was better. Trail #9 was my goal today, and it was overall much better than anything I had been on so far. There were still a few gravel spots, and a few mud spots, but there were also some wonderful fields where we could stretch out. Some areas were like a country lane, and some were more like a forest road, but there wasn’t anything like a single track trail, which is our preference. I managed to stay on track this time, there were actually a couple of extra confidence markers on this trail, so I was much more at ease. Apollo also seemed to enjoy himself a lot more today. He’s really been good this past month, he’s gotten so calm and mature, I haven’t had to worry about a thing! That’s always a good thing :-). I put him on his anchor yesterday, and he was surrounded by horses on highlines in the campsite next to us (the place was packed by Saturday morning), and he didn’t even give them a second glance! Anyway, I met a couple at a rest area who had been out all day and weren’t sure where they were, so I showed them on the map where we were, and they were surprised they had gotten so turned around. At that point, I had originally planned to veer west to Trail #5, but it had already been two hours, and I figured that I was only halfway, so I decided just to stay on Trail #9, which would be a slightly shorter route back to camp. So off we went, down more forest roads and country lanes, until we arrived back at camp. As I was crossing the barn area, I once again met up with the folks from the rest area, they evidently made it in pretty good time! I understood they were going to come back on Trail #9 in reverse of what I did, so I guess I was just about halfway when I met them! By the time I got back to our campsite, it was about 4:30, and the entire loop was empty except for us. It really emptied out in a hurry! I put Apollo up and did some preliminary packing in preparation for our trip tomorrow, and Hubby and I relaxed for the rest of the evening.
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