A Different Kind of Riding

Saturday was scheduled to be full of thunder & lightning and more showers; no one wants to be on horseback in that kind of weather--especially in an unfamiliar place!The forecast for snow (in May!!)was a threat for coming out of Quincy and concern for Odie's trailer saftey was also important; so our riding plans were cancelled for Swasey Trail. A total BUMMER.

Never one to be in bummer mode long, Lynn decided Shirley needed to get away and have some shopping time in Redding instead. Never one to be left out, I decided I needed to go, too. After breakfast in Weaverville, we followed the directions to a different riding place off Swasey. It was fun--we saw lots of cool houses and open ranch areas full of "Paintos," Lynn's new word for Paints and Pintos.

We easily found the trailhead, picked up some maps, and then talked with a woman who was setting out to ride. She gave us even more ideas of areas to explore ahorseback. Then we headed out to shop. We came to a crossroad. The north-south road was definitely looking more traveled and more like a real road. The east-west, which was what we were on, not so much. We wanted to see if Alisa could skip driving through town and just come up 273 to a nearby junction and hit this road. As the driver, I asked Lynn, who had the map, which way we should go. She confidently said, "Right."

It was a gorgeous day, sunny and clear; although all around us were huge clouds, some of which were dark and ominious. Anyway, off we set going south. After a bit we saw a small sign that read, "Cottonwood, Hwy 273." I slowed down and said something about probably that was our turn. But no. We did not turn; we kept going toward Platina.

As we drove over the mountains and through the woods, it was as if we were on top of the world--we could see forever. And forever was simply fields and mountains and lakes and ponds and waterfalls and absolutely no civilization! There were signs that said "no trepassing" and "survelliance cameras on duty," but no people, no houses, no anything. We were in the middle of nowhere.

Long story short: we drove 30 miles (which I think took about an hour) and we finally ended on Hwy 36. The signs read to the right: Wildwood 9, Platina 45, Alton 102 (which is close to Fortuna and home) and to the left: Red Bluff 45. We laughed and laughed. We were way off course. Somewhere back on the road Lynn looked at the map and said very quietly, "Oh." We asked her to elaborate and she admitted she had looked at the map upside down and we really should have turned to her other right. We were way off the map and we laughed all the way thinking we were going to end up in Hayfork--which turned out to be pretty close. So the bottom line is this: Alisa don't come this way. (:

All joking aside, it was a nice drive. We saw country none of us had seen before. We turned off 36 before we got to Red Bluff and ended up in Cottonwood. From there we went shopping. I think everyone had a good time and there was lots of laughing and spending money. So although we did not ride like we originally planned, we had a different kind of fun ride. Good company makes for good times.