Hi Babe!
Another exciting day on the trail! I decided to leave with the early group, and that ended up not being the best idea. The folks in front had no concept that those of us further back were in such dust it was like driving in a sandstorm! Wheeling down gravel roads at 30 mph in 20 yards of visibility was NOT my idea of safe, so next time, I’m going at the end of the pack and waiting a few minutes for the dust to down and drive at a more sensible speed. Everything came off every table, there was stuff everywhere on the floor, and I can’t even find the time magnet that was on the fridge! Finally got back to Flash, got him saddled up, then had a hard time finding the right trailhead out of camp. Everyone kept pointing in one direction, but most of the horses seem to be going in the other direction, but I discovered they were taking “shortcuts,” which a lot of the return riders seem to do. Being a Newby, I want to take every mile of trail I can. Today started out nice in the woods on a mostly sand and dirt road, but there was a lot of road riding today, so I started off with his boots on. The weather was perfect, low 70’s and sunny, but we added a couple of miles because of detour at a culvert repair, so instead of being a nice short 16.9 miles, it ended up being over 20. I put Flash back in conditioning mode, doing a mile slow, then a mile fast, pretty much all of the way. I probably wouldn’t have done that if I had looked ahead and saw that tomorrow is 28 miles, but hey, I’m living day to day on this event! We passed through an active lumber operation, I saw some fantastic machinery that was cutting pine trees about a third of the way up, gathering them in bunches like someone picking flowers, then moving them over to another place to get picked up. Flash was brilliant, didn’t faze him in the least, not even when I had to pull off to one side to let a big track piece of equipment go by. Managed to get back to camp by 2:00 or so, with Flash once again speeding up during the last half mile, sensing that camp was close. Spent the afternoon visiting and trying to relax a bit, went to the riders meeting, then promptly showered and went to bed. It was still light outside! I feel like a kid again doing that! Anyway, a good day, I hope that Flash is up for the long day tomorrow! Not like he has much of a choice! Good night, my love!
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