After a not-so-great night sleep, Hubby and I were raring to go riding again this morning. After a quick blueberry pancake breakfast, the horses leaped into the trailer and off we went. Miraculously, we only hit two red lights on the entire 50-minute trip, which has to be a new record! Arrived at the 71 trailhead, which already have half a dozen vehicles in the parking area, with at least 3 or 4 other horse trailers, with riders saddling up, round-penning, then heading out. We quickly got the horses ready and followed suit. Our goal was to try to finish off as many of the trails that we had missed on our previous ride as possible. I had programmed a route in my GPS that would pretty much do the trick, so we got started, out White Tail, right on Bobcat Ridge, right on Riverside for a short jaunt to Bluestem, north to Coyote Road, then a couple of loops round Deep Sandy and Pecan Bottom (which took us past a huge 200 year old pecan tree, as well as past the Hyatt Lost Pines golf course), then a fairly steep climb us Buckeye. We were actually cantering up the hill (horses' choice) when we ran into our first riders of the day, naturally, on a narrow stretch of trail with a steep drop on one side. We didn't seem them coming, so we almost ran into them on a corner, but after one of the guy's mule kicked back at Apollo (he missed), they found a spot to pull over and we passed them by. Finally reached the top of the long hill, and rested for a few minutes admiring a pretty nice view by a picnic table that was on a short spur off the main trail. Buckeye ran into Road Runner, which we then took south back to the section of Coyote Road which we had been on yet, and that took us back to the other end of Bobcat Ridge and back onto White Tail to the trailhead. What a great ride! About 8.25 miles in all, took us a little over three hours including several stops along the way. There was a beautiful overlook along Bluestem where we tied up the horses on the fence and walked up, to see a great view of the Lower Colorado River. Just after we moved on from there, we discovered a picnic table and hitching post just north, which would've been a good place to stop had we gone just a bit further. The loops near the Hyatt Lost Pines were gorgeous, with most of the trails being dirt, and looking like they had a lot of traffic, so I suspect there is an equestrian concessionaire at or near the Hyatt. Lots of grass in that area as well, which looked gorgeous. This day had so much variety, from down by the river to up in the hills, dirt trails to rocky roads, quiet places to others loud with traffic. Highly recommended, though as I mentioned before, $12 per person/horse, so $24 for the day, a lot when you're not even camping, but that's the way Texas does things. Lower taxes overall, but higher user fees for those that partake, which seems fair enough. While I appreciate free horse camping in New York State, I wouldn't want to be a taxpayer there! In any event, it was a great day! Stopped at Walmart on the way back, arrived home just at the far end of dusk, got the horses fed and put away before total darkness, and we settled down for the night, exhausted but delighted with the day!
