After several days of just resting, hanging out, trying to stay warm (nights were down in the upper 30's, days upper 50, low 60's), doing mundane chores and generally finally getting caught up on our sleep, it finally warmed up enough, almost 70, to take our first ride here. Unfortunately, there is really only one trail, so a linear ride is all we can do, and neither one of us wanted to go too long and wear ourselves out again, so after a very leisurely morning, we finally saddled up and got out about 2:00, without boots today because it looks like the trail is mostly just dirt. We headed out on the perimeter trail around camp, then missed a turn up the trail, instead going down to the trailhead road that was gravel, and led to another area with corrals which we didn't know about, but it looks more like a day use parking area rather than a camping area. Got back on the right trail when it crosses the gravel road about 100 feet up the road. Naturally, being named Summit Trail, the whole first part of the trip was climbing, first through old growth evergreen forest, then suddenly as we reached near the first plateau, the terrain changed completely! Only short stubby bush-like trees, the trail got very rocky until we reached the top of the plateau, and it suddenly felt like Texas, or some other fairly barren rocky place. Then, as we turned the corner toward the west, we got a sudden, impactful view of Mt. Shasta way off in the distance. Still covered with snow, it was certainly beautiful to see in the distance. Fortunately, once we reached the plateau the trail became mostly dirt again, with just a few stones, nothing to hurt the horses' feet. We carried on for a bit, but when the trail started to go down again, we both agreed that we didn't want to go down just to have to come up again, so we stopped there, tied up the horses and enjoyed the view for a bit. Before long we were heading back to camp, and in the end, we only did about 3.5 miles, probably our shortest ride ever, but it was enough for us, since we both had the goal of not wearing ourselves out. Probably good not to strain the horses too much too early as well, since it was a pretty good grade going up and down. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable ride, just what we wanted.
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