After a week of the usual chores, writing, laundry, vehicle washing and various mundane activities, and determining that this may be our last ride here at Bumble Bee, we decided to make today's ride a long one, and the one place we had heard about but hadn't been to yet that fit the bill was a spot called Hidden Treasure. I drew a map on Google Earth and downloaded it into my GPS just to make sure we didn't get lost, since the last thing we needed on a 12 mile ride is to get lost. We headed south along the east side of the ranch, on a lovely trail I wish we had known about before, it was very nice. Apollo was full of beans this morning, and shied at every piece of rusted metal, downed saguaro cactus and other extraneous junk that we passed by. Eventually, he settled down and was his usual sane self. The trail took us down to a gate that, unfortunately, only had a key lock on it, so I guess I missed the instructions, but we followed the fence a little east and found a break in the fence by the wash that is near the pipeline and managed to get through there. We then followed the pipeline for a few miles looking for where the Black Canyon Trail crossed it. We thought we saw a shortcut ATV road a little before my GPS told us to turn left, and that ended up taking us in the wrong directions, so we cut back to the pipeline and stayed on it until we finally did reach the BCT. West from there, and before we knew it, we were at Hidden Treasure, an oasis of sorts. Evidently there is an underground river that pops up along the wash occasionally, including one down on the ranch, and here there is a very small pond several inches deep, filled with bulrushes and cattails, surrounded by cottonwoods and even some grass, a very rare occurrence here in the near desert. Cattle pens have also been built here, with a ramp for loading onto trucks. We stopped and shared a couple of apples with the horses, and an ATV with a couple of guys came by, asking us if we had seen any quail, as they were out hunting. Hadn't noticed any, and told them so, so they moved on. After a little rest, we rejoined BCT and started heading south back to the ranch. This was truly a beautiful section of trail, though a bit challenging in a few places. Lots of cutbacks in order to cross arroyos, mostly a sand trail which made it particularly nice, until we finally joined the road that went straight down to Bumble Bee. We debated whether to stay on the BCT, but that would have added additional mileage, and the sun was already getting low, and we figure the most direct route would just get us back in time, so we took the road. It was a great ride, and surprisingly, neither of us felt overly tired. We've been walking fairly regularly, and I think that's been helping a lot, getting us back in shape now that Hubby's fully recovered from his broken bones. Got the horses put away, and had a lovely evening!
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