Hey Darlin',
Well, the best laid plans don't always work out, do they? Since the regular trails here have been very difficult, I decided to try another tact. In addition to the regular single track horse trails, there is also a series of roads that show up on the map, open to horses. I figured if we were on a road, if it wasn't too rocky, we'd be able to make some better time, so I planned about a 13+ mile journey on the "red" trails, as they appear on the map. Well, it didn't take long for me to figure out what a mistake THAT was! Shortly after turning on to our first road off the trail, we started climbing, on a surface that was red clay. After all the rain in the last too days, it was almost as slick as an ice skating rink. We went very slowly and carefully up that, then when we turned a corner and got on a second road, that was completely and utterly rocky. I mean, almost no road service at all, just rocks. That climbed and climbed and climbed until we finally reached the top, and for some unknown reason, there were guardrails along some edges that made it impossible for us to get off the road onto higher ground with a better surface, so we were forced to stay on either rocks or slippery clay. It has to be about the slowest ride we've ever done, it took us nearly four hours to go nine miles! Well, after the first couple of miles, and at the first opportunity I had, I got off the road and back onto a horse trail, which was better for about ten minutes, then got super rocky and climbing again. It was not much fun today! The last couple of miles back to camp were the best, still a lot of grade but at least the footing was somewhat better. Funny thing is, the best trails I've found so far are the renegade trails, that aren't marked and not on the map. Figures. We started out with both boots (I even tried duct-taping the loose one), but that didn't work, we lost that one in the first half mile, so I left it off. The other one stayed on ( I left it on to protect the split in his hoof so as not to make it worse) until the exact same place on the trail where we lost the first one, but I managed to recover that from the sucking mud and left that off, since we were almost back to camp. What an exhausting ride! That's it, I'm done with riding out here. There are a few nice trails, but they are so few and far between, and you have to go through hell and back to get to them, so no thanks. I'm not wild about the trail "repairs" they've made here, either, with frames of rocks at creek crossings, and it seems whenever they wanted to shore something up, they found the biggest, chunkiest, sharpest rocks they could find to fill it in. I can say the trails are well-marked, though I have to take issue with them not putting the markers all on the same side of the trail, I was constantly having to look back and forth, and got confused on a number of intersections because the marker wasn't clear. Anyway, no more, Flash and I have had enough, and I don't even think I'll take Apollo out again, it's just too rough. Maybe I'm getting soft (or sensible!), but I'm not that desperate to ride that I'm going to force these kinds of trails on my guys. Definitely a workout and a half! Settled down for the evening to dinner and a good movie, and fully intend to get to bed early tonight, I'm not really liking this going to bed late and getting up late, but I'm in such shade here, it doesn't seem to get light here until after 9:00! That's my plan, I hope I can stick to it! Good night, baby! Love you!
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