Our original plan was to go back to Monterey Jacks for lunch today, using an alternate trail that’s not on the map but that Cherise and Carol had done (and therefore was on Cherise’s GPS), but because they’re calling for rain Monday and Tuesday, and we don’t want to run ourselves ragged before the job later this week, we decided to try to find the waterfall, which is another trail not on the map, but that all the locals know about. We got some basic directions from the neighbors last night (and still started out wrong because of a misunderstanding about which trail to leave the campground on), but we eventually found the right trail, which was confirmed when we passed our neighbors coming back on the same trail. They confirmed a couple of trail markers for us, and we went on our way. This was a great trail! Lots of straightaways so we got a bunch of canters in, one nice open field where the horses were able to grab some grass along the way, very interesting variety of terrain, and a side trail off the an old settlement cemetary, which the Boy Scouts and cleaned up a few years back, as well as making a list of everyone who had a headstone there. We spent a few minutes there, looking at the names of those brave pioneers from the 1800s, including sadly, many, many children. After paying our respects we moved on. Before long, we arrived at a lovely spot, with a picnic table and a hitching rail, and, of course, the waterfall. There was the remnants of a fire still burning from campers that had apparently been there earlier (Carol confirmed later it was like that when they were there), and someone had left the perfect hotdog/marshmallow toasting stick propped up again the picnic table. Wished I had brought some! We enjoyed a nice snack of trail mix and fruit bars while the horses munched on oats, though honestly, the ride wasn’t long enough to warrant it, but, hey, they can enjoy themselves by pigging out occasionally too! We headed back the way we came, except we corrected the error we made in the beginning. At the last intersection before home, Apollo wanted to go right and Hubby wanted to go left. We headed left, but after a minute I checked the GPS and saw we were heading in the wrong direction, so lo and behold, Apollo was the better navigator today (and many other days, too!). Got back much earlier than we expected, by 2:30, but our neighbors were back and packing up, so we chatted for a few more minutes, I gave Cherise another quick GPS lesson (while copying her map of the day to add to my collection), said our goodbyes, then relaxed the rest of the evening, Hubby watching a England v. Italy soccer game (Italy won, in double overtime 0-0 until the final penalty points round, when England messed up). Another great day. We really love Six Nations/Sugar Hill!!! And did I mention, it’s FREE? Thank you NY taxpayers!
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