Late Day Bradbury Ride

I wanted to ride today but had originally planned to do some other things. I contacted Amy as she and Tracy had planned to go riding at the beach. Well, their plan changed as Amy didn't think she was going to have her truck today. But, it turned out she did have her truck to use. We sent texts messages back and forth multiple times, "do you want to ride", " Well, maybe". "Where could we go?" and so it went for a while. It was also a cold day (high temp was about 38 degrees) and mostly overcast so not a very inviting day for riding. After much hemming and hawing, we finally decided we would ride. At first we discussed riding at the Kennebec Highlands but neither of us know the trails there or how the footing would be with the bit of snow we've had. We finally agreed on riding at Bradbury Mt. in Pownal and that she would pick me and Marie up at Exit 43 truck stop in Richmond. By the time we got to Bradbury and ready to ride, it was just a little after 2:00 pm. I wanted to take a loop I'd done recently with Susie and Wanda but wasn't sure I'd remember the way and get us back before dark. Amy decided to trust me so off we went. Amy's daughter Sierra was riding their new Arab mule MissFire and Sierra's friend Brooke was riding Amy's mule Annabelle. 

We headed right up to the summit first. There were a lot of people on the trails today. Many hikers a few bikers and even one man on a unicycle.The trails are pretty rough. Not overly hard for a mountain bike but I can't imagine doing them on a unicycle. When riding within the park boundaries, if your horses poop on the trail, you have to kick the poop off the trail. Marie never pooped once in the park. MissFire and Annabelle each pooped once. Amy's Washburn pooped like 8 times. Amy got a good work out with dismounting doing the poop kicking dance and mounting again. Much to my relief I did remember the loop trail I wanted to do and got us back to the trailer just in time. I'll admit I was a little naggy throughout the ride whenever we stopped for anything worried we not make it back before dark but they all forgave me as they didn't want to be riding in the dark either. We had a really fun ride and I'm glad we went.

Walking Marie across checking to see if it was slippery with the snow on the bridge. 

There wasn't much snow in the woods except for this one section along the side of a hill.