The high road

Yahoo! What a day! Today Lynn and I headed toward Groves Prairie. We came to the fork in the road and there was a sign, but it was broken off. The bottom road looked less traveled and the entrance was kind of overgrown, so we stayed on the high road. After a few miles, we passed a left turn and by then both of us were pretty sure we were on the wrong road. We went a little farther and we crested the top of the mountain and could see the road was headed down the other side. We were pretty sure it would turn into the road where we shot our guns and would then eventually become the Denny road. Wrong road. Lynn successfully backed us probably half a mile to a spot where she could turn around. !! She's awesome.

We found a  wide spot and parked. Got the boys out and tacked up and rode to 6N24. Lo and behold--a campground with a bathroom. We rode through it and up a skid road and around two loops. It wasn't brushy a bit and the horses did great going over downed logs and water bars. The trails left by logs weren't too steep and everything connect back to each other. It was glorious. We had a great time. Talk about beautiful flowers everywhere and relatively easy climbs in elevation. It was super fun.

 We didn't see any wildlife (well, I take that back--Lynn saw a covey of grouse that I heard, but didn't see). However, she did spot a mountain lion track that seemed really fresh--like it was in front of us. Yikes. It all looked like prime bear country: lots of berries, water, and cool grass to lay in.

Jupes did one of his hardest spooks ever; Haley was coming up from getting a drink in the ditch. Scared him. Sheesh. We had a great laugh. I found a bell at the campground that I kept. And we trimmed brush all the way home so it would be a better passage next time.

According to my watch we rode six miles in almost three hours. There was much more exploring possibilities as well. It was a great day of riding and we were home by lunch. Sometimes a "mistake" turns out to be a fortuitous adventure! I am looking forward to doing it again.