Hi Babe!
Woke up at the crack of dawn this morning, which is what happens when I get to bed at a decent hour! I would have read in bed for awhile except I looked out the window and saw Flash laying down, and he was completely motionless. I kept looking for some movement, but he wasn’t even flicking his tail, so I was worried, and got up to check on him. Turns out he was fine, he got up as soon as I came out, but he’s still not putting any weight on one of his back feet, so I’m going to let him rest some more to see if it straightens itself out. I went ahead and fed them, and got my day started. Had breakfast, read for a bit, then started saddling up Apollo for our first ride here. I was all mounted and ready to go, then Lola rolled so hard the velcro on her vest tore off, so I had to dismount, get out my sewing kit, sew up the velcro, then finally hit the trail about 11:15. I had printed a map, but understand there have been a lot of additional trails made that aren’t on the map, so I was hoping I don’t get lost. I had been told by a neighbor here that it’s not too rocky here, so I didn’t put Apollo’s boots on, but I did take them with me. Turns out there was quite a bit of rocks along the White trail and I stopped once to put the boots on, but the new (used) boots that I had bought from E-bay were almost new, and nowhere near stretched out (which made me realize just how much my old boots HAD stretched out!), and there was no way I could get them to fit. Fortunately the trails improved, so we managed okay. We took the white trail to the blue trail, did that loop, discovered that the yellow trail had evidently been extended to meet the blue trail (which was not on the map), but passed it for now, got back to the white trail, then picked up the yellow trail. I was really pleased with the way the trails are marked here, plenty of signage and paint on the trees, and a clever idea I hadn’t seen before, where they had put wood squares painted the color of the trail with numbers on them, increasing about every quarter mile, with the smallest numbers closest to camp, so that you could tell right away if you were going in the right direction. They also had a lot of arrows with “camp” written on them, so there wasn’t much chance on not finding your way back. I did have questions at one spot, though, when the yellow trail made a sudden right turn, which would have been away from camp, and I figured that must have been that new trail that led to the blue trail, so I turned left instead. Though there was a lot of horse sign and hoof prints, and was heading in the right direction, there were no markers at all for quite a ways, and just as I was thinking I was on the wrong track, I finally came upon a marker that indicated I was almost back to camp, yay! The trails are interesting, inasmuch as the lake is in a basin, so most of the trails are on the hillsides, but many are fairly easygoing switchbacks, which keeps it from being too steep. But they are mostly linear with small loops, so it won’t take too long to finish off what trails I didn’t take today, which is probably good, since I’m not loving living on this slope. When I got back into camp, I discovered a number of trailers had come in, including one with Bubba, the guide I met at Loretta Lynn’s back in June, along with several other folks who were there, including the older fella that was dumped in the creek on one ride, the one who I helped get back up when he had trouble standing. When he realized that it was me, he thanked me profusely for “saving his life.” I wouldn’t go that far, but I was happy Flash moved where I wanted him and stood still when I asked him, well enough for him to hang on to his lead line till he got himself back on his feet. Anyway, Bubba made a skillet of dinner and invited me over for some, and a few other folks joined us for a bit of chit-chat until it was mostly dark, then I came back and fed Lola, then settled down for the evening. I’m watching the final Presidential debate as I’m writing this, I haven’t watched the others, and I’m pretty much wondering why I’m watching this one, it’s so absurd. Don’t think I’m going to stay with it for long. Anyway, I still have to shower and I want to get to bed early, to keep my new habit going of early to bed, early to rise, so off I go! Good night, darlin’! Love you!
Speak Your Mind