Summer to Fall in a matter of hours

Although as I drive between my house and Lynn's, or my house and school, or geez--my house and anywhere, I compose blog posts in my head about our rides. Unfortunately, I don't seem to sit here and actually write them down!! I am not sure why I don't seem to have any time--I don't know what I am doing with my time--but I haven't used it to write.

For the second year in a row, we went to Quincy over Labor Day weekend. This year we had great rides along Buck's Lake with Alisa, Suzy, and all our dogs. It was a beautiful day and other than "adding a mare to the mix," the ride was uneventful and even the bees didn't interfere with our overall happiness at being ahorseback. :)

The second day we rode into Meadow Valley (is that the right name?), a relatively flat, open forest area. It was really pretty and allowed us to create our own trails. Being away from home felt like a mini vacation and no vacation is better than being with friends, the horses, and our Poodles!

Lynn and I had a weekend of Plan A, Plan B, and then Plan C. It worked out, but it was a bit of a mess. We just had to laugh. Plan A was starting out for the High Road. It was our BIG plan. We were going to make a loop and had all our tools with us. We left the dogs behind because Haley had a pulled muscle and we were going to be out there for awhile. Well, as we were pulling out of the driveway, a car pulled up to us and said there was a fire. I had seen the same smoke and Lynn and I had talked about it, but we didn't really take it into consideration. So based on the info from tourists, Lynn called it in. Then she said she wanted to see it; so we drove toward Salyer. Yep. There was the smoke, just like it was reported, BUT Lynn realized it was near Ziegler Point which is right where we were headed. So we reluctantly scratched Plan A.

Plan B: we headed to Hennessey to ride up and around Gray's Falls, down to the rolling hills above Heidi's, and up Lynn;s favorite trail. We know how to make lemonade from lemons! We had a new fun plan. That is until we were on the trail. Jupes didn't feel right to me. So before we had gone very far, I said I need to check his feet for rocks. I picked up one hoof, no rock. I picked up two more, no rocks. I picked up the last one and I'm rubbing his foot thinking, "Sheesh. I need a hoof pick to even see if there's a rock." Then I realized I was rubbing his foot and there was something missing--a shoe! Dang it. I walked him back--no boots in the trailer. So scratch Plan B.

Plan C: Cowgirl chores--not as fun as riding, but still fun!

So. . . hay is in and covered; fences walked and horses moved to the hill; dogs shaved up and beautiful (as usual); and we loaded one trailer full of wood and have one left to do (for my woodstove). I have yet to come up to feed at night, as somehow, I have less time in the day than I used to! Weird, but I think my daylight hours shrunk!

Every day is a good day when you are with your beloved friends--two-legged and four-legged. I am blessed to have both!

Split Rock revisited

** I logged on to do a quick update on our adventures and found that this had not been published, so here it is--long after the actual day of riding.

After a couple, "Is that the trail?" and peering down the mountain, we found the trail to Split Rock. We had no problem--it was clear sailing. We tied up the horses and lay on our bellies and looked at the bottom. :) It is truly something. Climbers had attached hooks in the rock for rappelling, but someone else sawed them off (hope they weren't on the other end at the time!!). Guess they didn't want the natural beauty marred by climbers' equipment. There is still a couple over the side of the rock with carabiners in place, but they would be pretty tough to get to.

After we headed back to the grassy spot and back down our regular trail, we decided to do more bushwacking and looked for another way down off the mountain. Found it! It cut some of the road riding off. More fun.

We did not see any bears, but Jupes was so certain something was out there, he took a detour (I thought he had to pee, but no) and cut off Ziggy so he would be in front and would not be in the back and get eaten first. :) Too funny. He was pretty jumpy and shied at one of the dogs again.

It was another fun day of exploring and adventure and wet blankets.