Recovery ride

After three weeks off, Lynn was raring to go riding. (Well, all of us were!) We braved the smoke and found that it was one of our better days. The sky was almost completely clear of smoke (both days) and although we could feel the heat was coming, it was a cool couple of mornings.

Saturday, we rode up to the Hennessey and down to the right and through the hoop-de-doos to the creek and bottom trail. We turned down the steep gully washer trail that leads to the granola meadow (ha-ha, like those descriptions? are you with me?). When we made the sharp turn before the tree that runs in front of the trail (the one little Ziggy thinks he can go under), there was a small dead cedar that now leaned into the trail. Jupes was powering through and I tried to slow him and grab the cedar to push it away from us. But no, he was going through it. Of course it didn't move much and we were showered with dead cedar leaves--and I mean showered. They were everywhere--including some broken branches stuck under my leg and armpit and across the saddle. I looked back up at it when we were on the other side of the down/parallel tree and there were absolutely zero leaves left on it!

Lynn and Ziggy were next and then Shirley and Star. We were waiting to warn them and hadn't moved from below the tree. Lynn easily grabbed and moved it as she went by; then Shirley reached up for it and suddenly she yelled, "Girls! Girls! I'm caught! Wait!" Her glove, an Isotoner driving glove with built-in holes in it, had caught on a little stob. After struggling to free herself, it finally let go and we moved on. Thankfully, it gave me some time to get some of the cedars out of my bra and branches from under my leg.

We didn't ride long because Lynn had a huge list of things to do. When we got back, we could see how tired and sore Star was. He is showing his age. :(

Sunday we headed out again--this time Buster got to go! He has not gone with us since he blew up on Underwood "right off the git." Was that two summers ago? We were all a little nervous about how it was going to go. He was awesome! However, coming downhill on the way back, it did seem like something was bothering him. We all got off and walked through the new trail, where it is steep. We took a different path that we have been looking at as an alternative and Lynn did some light logging.

The big news though, I saved for last: our ride was a very short one! As we crested the trail that ends on the road where we ride to the top of Hennessey, we heard a vehicle coming down. We all got off to the side and Lynn flagged him down so he could see us. He stopped and told her we probably shouldn't go up to the top. I could see on her face that she was concerned about whatever he was saying. After he proceeded on down the road, she came over and told us that he had just seen a HUGE MOUNTAIN LION! It was on the flat top of the hill. AND unafraid of him and his vehicle. CRAP.

Needless to say, we gathered our pups and headed our horses for home, keeping one eye on our backsides. Scaaaaarry.