High Knob to Double M

It was going to be a good weekend so I intended to get in some riding time. I got in touch with Antony Saturday morning to see if he was in camp and if so, what time he was riding out. He said he was taking a group out at 10:00 and the ride would be to Double M for lunch and back. So, I got hustling and got my trailer hooked up and went over to pick up Lily at the barn.

Lily was a bit of a snot about loading this morning. She even nipped my arm! That's a first and it had better be a last. But, I got her in we went over to High Knob Campground. Lily was quiet once I unloaded her and was a good girl when I tacked her up. The group changed their ride time to 10:30 so I had Lily ready ahead of time. I rode her around camp a bit and she was very good. We headed out with a group of 19 riders I think. Kathy was with us and there was a woman trying out her mule Lucy that was interested in buying her.

Lily was pretty quite at first but we were riding straight towards home and in a big group. It wasn't long before she started getting a little anxious. She wasn't horrible but she wasn't fun either. And we
made quite a spectacle of ourselves careening down one particular hill a bit out of control. Sigh..... Anthony put me in the lead as we got closer to Blacks Cabin and told me to lead the group in whatever way I like to go. I like to ride most of the way down Thacker Hollow and turn up the hill by the rock formation. That turn is not easy to see as not many people use that trail. I made the turn, watching to see if those directly behind me saw me and they did. We got to the top of the hill and I only had 5 or 6 riders with me. We waited and no one came up the hill behind us. The last one to come up said they'd seen the riders behind them right there at the rock formation and was sure they'd see them make the turn. We waited..... and waited... and waited. No one came up the hill. I started to wonder if they'd made a turn before the rock formation which would have put them ahead of us on the trail to Blacks Cabin. Anthony was back with that group so I knew they would be ok. I decided to lead my group to Blacks Cabin as I knew Anthony would get the rest of the group there. We made it to Black's Cabin without any serious incident so it was all good. We stopped there to take a break. And it wasn't long before Anthony rode in with the rest of the group. A couple riders had missed the turn and kept going straight down Thacker Hollow.

Considering Lily's behavior so far, I expected her to put up a real fuss about riding away from Blacks Cabin and the direction of home. But, much to my surprise and delight, she didn't even hesitate and she settled right down and was a wonderful girl for the rest of the ride. I rode with Kathy most of the way from Blacks Cabin to Double M. Kathy's mule Caroline was a little anxious about something on the way to Double M but didn't do anything really bad. We all got to Double M and tied our mounts to the hitching rail and lined up to order lunch.

We took our time and enjoyed our lunch. I sat outside and ate lunch on the restaurant porch enjoying the nice weather. We mounted up after lunch and headed back to High Knob by way of Pounds Hollow Lake and to Initial Tree by way of the Indian Paint Wall. 

 

 

From Initial Tree we rode back by way of Circle Rock and the back trail into camp. Lily was a very good girl the whole way back from Double M so it kind of made up for our rough start the first part of the ride. We got back to camp not long before sunset. It was a lovely day.