After a quiet breakfast and chores, the horses got saddled up and out by about noon, to finish off the final trail here at AH Stephens SP, the Orange trail. They have just about finished adding an extra mile to the Blue Trail that I rode yesterday, but I didn't want to risk getting lost, since it still didn't have markings, so I stayed on the main trail. The Orange trail requires you to go out the Red trail for a ways, but instead of going the long way to the right, I knew it joined at a closer intersection out to the left, so that's where we headed. It meant essentially going "backward" on the trail, so many of the markings were only on one side of the tree (opposite from the direction we were headed), but every intersection is well-marked, so it's kind of hard to get lost here. This was another pretty trail, but it did get closer to civilization, at one point paralleling the busy Hwy. 22, you could hear and occasionally see traffic through the trees, past a couple of park buildings, and you could hear lawn mowers on the move. It also had a couple of historical sites, including a baptismal pool from 1866 and a CCC outhouse from the 1930's, which they pointed out with signs. Nowhere near as pretty as the Blue trail, but still worth the ride. It was almost exactly 5 miles, so not a long ride, but pleasant, with perfect weather, just enough breeze to keep the real heat away, and, of course, the shade was excellent. Got back around 2:30, had lunch, then I took Lola out to the trail near the boat launch and she did some more swimming (again, we didn't take the dogs on the trail because I knew this one went near a road, and didn't know how close, so better safe than sorry!) After her exercise session, relaxed the rest of the afternoon, had dinner, took the dogs for a quick walk (I'm trying to get more exercise in order to lose some weight!) before settling in for the evening.
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