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!