BRRRRISKY

It was a brisk 46 degrees as we parked the truck on the Hennessey. We bundled up, put on our chinks, gloves, and away we went. It has been a rainy few days, but as we crested the over the road off our first trail, it was blue skies.

The boys spent the night free ranging in the middle meadow, so they were a bit slow. They also were after every single poison leaf that swept by their noses. Seriously! The poison oak must be at "its peak of flavor" or something, because both Jupiter and Ziggy got into trouble for eating all morning. On the way home, Jupes and I both got a start when he stopped suddenly, on the steep downhill of course, to reach for a bite. He almost slammed me down on his neck, which brought up my boots to his flank and he got a surprise spur on both sides, causing him squirt down the little ravine and me to squeal as I was jarred back. When I reached back to touch his butt, he spooked again--tucking it under and twisting into the turn. Good grief.

Since most of our ride now is in the trees on trails, we did not notice that the cloud cover was getting pretty thick until we got to the top of the mountain, but we made to the truck without getting rained on. Notice I didn't say that we didn't get wet, because both of us at one time or another had branch across the face and shoulders and had our drippy moments. The breeze had definitely been cool the whole ride and both of us acknowledged that our toes were no longer cold because they were numb. Ziggy had lost a shoe somewhere at home, so he wore a boot all day. When Lynn took it off at the trailer, she poured out water and dumped mud and other detritus he had picked up along the way. No wonder he didn't like it much.

When we started the pickup to come home it was 43 degrees! Never mind that it is June 11.

It was another good ride--just the two of us. Shirley is still recuperating.