I had a great ride today with Nancy and Joanie. Nancy picked me, Luke and Marie up and we joined Joanie for a ride in Phippsburg. One of my favorite places to ride. It was a lovely day today. Warm but not too hot or humid with a nice breeze as well as clear and sunny. Perfect summer day in Maine. We parked on the Basin Rd. by Devil's Hwy. We followed the basin Rd. to Decker Hill Rd. and then to the Harrington Rd. and did the little loop on that road. The followed Decker Hill Rd. out to the four corner where Harris cemetery is and the little pond. The pond was very low and stagnant. The equines thought it tasted fine though. Yuck! We then rode Hedgehog Rd. to Dance Hall Rd. and Stonewall Rd. that looped us back to the four corner by Harris cemetery. At this point I suggested we ride up Fuller Mountain. I was pretty sure I could find the fun trail up to the summit. It is a steep but fun climb and neither Nancy or Joanie had been up this trail. So we went back along Decker Hill Rd. Back to the Basin Rd. and back to the turn onto Meadowbrook Rd. Down this road, right where the dirt road turns to pavement is the trail to the summit of Fuller Mountain. The first part is a short steep rocky climb. Just as I was nearing the top, I look ahead of me and there is a BIG spiderweb across the trail with a BIG spider sitting right in the middle of it I'm heading straight for the center if it and we are almost right on it!!!! AAAGGGGGHHHHHHH. I start wildly slashing at it with my fly whisk and mange to swipe it down before planting my face in it! Of course now there is a very large and very agitated spider on the end of my fly whisk! So I'm trying for all I'm worth to fling the large agitated spider off the end of the whisk so I'm slashing the air like a Samurai warrior. Though all this Luke is just chugging along up the trail as if nothing is going on on top of his back. There is something to be said for a good mule......... I did manage to fling the spider off the whisk and just prayed it wasn't onto Luke's back where the spider could crawl up and extract his revenge on me! After the first short climb, the trail levels out and follows a stream. This is a very pretty trail but not much used and so there is a lot of low branches to duck, especially when riding a 16.1H mule. Then the trail turns and goes up a very steep rocky assent up the mountain (mountain being a relative term as the summit is only 277') Some of those I ride with don't like this trail because of this steep rocky section. I think it's fun and I thought that both Nancy and Joanie would enjoy it. We all made it up with no problems and Joanie and Nancy both said they enjoyed the trail. There is a lovely view from the summit of Winnegance bay. We went back by way of Fuller Mountain Rd. I knew there was a way to go from Fuller Mountain Rd. to Devil's Hwy without going all the way out the the Meadowbrook Rd. and going down the pavement. So, we too the first road we came to which was Mountain Crossing Rd. We took one wrong turn onto Echo Lane which is a dead end. So, we turned around and got back on Mountain Crossing Road and sure enough it did bring us right onto Devil's Hwy. From there it was not far back to the trailers and we'd avoided riding down the paved road. It was such a nice ride. Luke just keeps getting fitter and is doing so well on the hills now. He and Frannie took turns leading with Marie making an occasional appearance at the front. Though when we got back Luke managed to give me another scare (as if the spider scare was not enough...) as soon as I turned him loose in the paddock he immideately dropped for a good roll and somewho managed to stick his whole back leg in an overturned plastic barrel. This spooked him and he got thrashing around. He managed to kick it off and jump up without hurting himself as I was having visions of broken legs......ACK!
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