Out Early

 

This is the "Yellow Brick Road;" it's always golden through here.

The days are heating up again, so we were out and about not much after 6am. A local woman was supposed to meet us for a ride, but she overslept. Too bad! If you want to hang out with Lynn, you have to be an early bird. :) She sent Lynn pictures of her solo ride in the heat of the day--it looked like she ponies one and rides one and has two dogs. It turns out she's an endurance rider, so we would probably be too slow for her since other than running up a steep hill, we only trot in a few places. 

So off we went. We watched for that one lone bull that we've seen on trail since we found some fresh cow splats, but didn't see him or any of the others. Neither of the boys acted like something was out there, so, who knows. I think Jupes and I got into some bees--I never saw them, but he acted the way he does sometimes when we hit them. I finally got him to listen to me and we were able to move away from the site. Ziva was also rubbing at her face, so I checked her, but again no sign of bees. I even checked for snake bite on both of them. All was fine once we moved away from there. Of course it is the steep part just below the road where we join up below the top. There was a paper nest in a tree there last year, but we could skirt around it. We will carry some bee spray up there, but we'll have to ride the road around the corner to look for them instead of coming up the trail. Bummer. It was nice to cut off that road riding.

At the top, Lynn said she had an idea. Usually, that's a scary sentence that sometimes leads to a funny situation. Lol. This time it was just that, a good idea. We rode Cobweb Alley to Lynn's Trail, all the way to the Turtle Pond, and then out before it heated up too much. Cobweb Alley to Lynn's Trail

Along the way we ran into a guy and his dog out cutting wood and placing his game cameras up for deer season. He said he always gets a buck here. Hmm. We never see them, but he said he already saw one on his camera. It turns out he is Awok Skeeter's cousin. Seemed like a nice guy. He showed us a picture of his Rocky Mountain Gaited Horse. 

This week I have jury duty, so I don't know when I'll get to ride next. It's supposed to get really hot today and tomorrow and then cool off again. Fourth of July is Friday. Maybe next Saturday (or maybe I'll be dismissed from jury duty early!) we can go back up to Little Happy Camp and ride the other side.

This log used to be out in the pond; we used to see turtles jumping off into the water as we approached. now it is out of the water. The pond got really high this winter and the log moved, then the water receded. With all the grass, we can no longer see the pond water--only the black mud the dogs carry out with their feet! lol Sometimes we can see a bear wallow over on the south end.

There are still wildflowers blooming and the burrs and stickers are holding off a bit, so the dogs are happily tape free. We have to check for foxtails after each ride, but it hasn't felt like summer riding, yet. It's still spring on the mountain. :)

Pure Joy

Today we rode Little Happy Camp. On the way up, we saw our big bear again! This time we jumped out of the truck and watched him run down to Grove's Prairie Road, where he just sauntered along. He is huge and beautiful. Little Happy Camp 6/25/25

We also saw a big turkey hen with a bunch of babies and more deer than we could remember to count. lol Katie ran 20 miles to our almost seven. We saved the secondary loop back to the campground road for next time. Ziva does great, but she is turning 12 in a month and we don't want to overtire her. We're retired! We can come up again whenever we want! I just wish the road was better so one: it wouldn't take so long and two: it wouldn't be so stressful looking for dang pot holes. I am the official rock kicker, but I don't mind!

Unfortunately, we also saw the residue of the pot culture we are surrounded with. It makes me sick to my stomach! Lynn called the USFS, but since the WC office is permanently closed, will they drive out from Eureka and clean it up?

 

After we both grumbled and worried over it for a bit, thankfully we had lots of other things we could focus on: dogwoods still blooming, more lupine than I've seen in years, some kind of yellow flower we weren't sure of, bright orange columbine, the love of a good dog, and slobber of a good horse. :) I'm not sure life can get any better.

 

 
 

Juneuary, June Gloom, Just a June to Enjoy

Always on the hunt for wild flowers, but these might be my favorite. 

Well, I got behind! It's one month later and we have been pretty consistently riding every other day. What more could a girl ask for?! June's weather has been unpredictable, but we have stayed true to our summer hours of being on the road between 6:00 and 6:30, which gets us home around 10:00 before the heat hits. 

We've ridden up Underwood twice, once without the dogs and once we did the Pond's Loop and checked out all our old trails we haven't been on in awhile. I am happy to report that the wild duck houses are still up! On the day without the dogs, we saw a covey of baby quail. At first we thought it was a momma calling them and getting them to catch up with her, but I think it was too small for a momma--it must have been a teenaged babysitter because she seemed small. lol. They were so cute. We actually cut our ride a little short because not only was it cold, it was windy and neither of us like being out in the woods when the branches are creaking and pinecones are flying!  Underwood

June has been full of flowers; the show keeps on going. We have seen flowers we've never seen before and carpets of flowers that are usually pretty sparse. 

 Cool orchid/fungus flower! 

We rode Lynn's favorite trail backwards one day and on our way back down the hill, we scared up a grouse. He was pretty close to us and both horses were surprised and gave us some a pretty good shy action. That always makes me laugh. We rode Brushy Balls and there were lots of detours around down trees and the brush seemed even more thick than usual. We ended up on the skid road on the south side of the creek and had to make our way back across to the regular trail so the girls could get a drink. We did some much needed trimming on Cobweb Alley and we have ridden forwards and backwards. I have been bonked on the head with limb I did not see, adding to my neck pain; Jupes slipped and jarred my back in a way that was new and continues to be a little achy, but all worth it in the long run.

Next it was time to take the side by side out to Little Happy Camp to do some trimming and make sure the road was open. We wore our chinks to protect our legs from the spines on that awful tree. It was cold, so we had coats on as well. Crazy that it's the day after the Summer Solstice. :) 

I had my camera in my hands ready to catch a bear and we did! My pics aren't great, but I was snapping as fast as I could. He was beautiful and shiny and a big guy--probably 400 lbs. 

Look for the dark spec.

That's his big hinny going up the bank on the left.

I wish I would've got him running up the road. He was gorgeous.

We also saw a huge grouse--up close and personal. So fun.

It was a good day!