When I went out to feed Lily this morning, there was solid ice on her water bucket that I had to knock out. I fed and cleaned her then lugged my saddle from JoJo's trailer and put it by her pen as I have been doing every morning. I've got the routine down pretty well now. Lily has been so good about this whole camping things. Sure makes this trip relaxing and enjoyable knowing my mule is content. Amy and I were alone at our table this morning. Guess it was the super nerd table. I dressed warm this morning. Silk long johns, doubled the socks with my tall insulated boots, and layered on top with turtle neck shirt, vest, pullover fleece and then my coat. And put on my ear muffs that fit under my helmet. I was ready! A bit of chilly weather was not going to stop me from having a good time. I got Lily tacked up and we met as usual at 9:30 in front of the dining hall where the guides would call out where they were riding too and we'd pick what group to go with. We chose to ride to the famed "sidewalk" with Lynn. Anthony was in our group today also. Amy was riding Mattie Ross. It was not a big group today, only 7 riders. Two were on horses.
Some of the trail we rode at the start of today's ride was trail we rode yesterday coming back to camp. So, we were doing it in the opposite direction. There was one spot near the river that Amy and I had dubbed "Cougar Rock" (after the famous photo spot on the Tevis endurance ride) yesterday as you had to climb/jump up over a large rock. Then you were in a muddy trench that went up steeply between two high banks. Today we were going down it. Amy was in front of me. A horse in front of Amy decided it didn't like the look of that muddy trench and after stepping into it, jumped up on the bank on the right. Kind of a scary spot to do this. When the rider asked the horse to jump back down into the trench, the horse leaped over the entire thing to the bank on the left. An impressive feat and very scary as now the mule behind the horse had hopped up onto the right bank. Horse and mule stopped moving for a moment so Amy quickly asked her mule to go down through the trench and out of the way and I immediately followed her just wanting to get out of the way also before there was a wreck. I was so busy watching the mule and horse as we slid by that I didn't realize we were at "cougar rock" until it was right there and we were suddenly leaping down over it. Yeehaaaa! Lily handled it all like a pro. She has been so good about doing everything I've asked of her so far on this ride and she seems to be loving it. Lily has never been much of an "ear flopper" when trail riding but there has been some going on in the last few days. The trail we were on today was pretty rugged in spots. We rode around a rim with a lovely view.
We dropped down a steep trail off the rim that brought us to a really neat large but shallow cave. We stopped for a few minutes to rest the mules and take pictures. We headed out again with Anthony in the lead and me right behind him. We came to some more rock ledge and suddenly we were at the famed "sidewalk"! I didn't even let myself think about it and followed Anthony right onto it. Lily didn't hesitate for a second. The trail onto the walk is the toughest part. It is VERY narrow and right up against the ledge. It's a few feet of one foot in front of the other type of wide. Once onto the ledge, it's not bad. When we were up and on, I looked back and there was no one behind us. Amy had been behind me and Mattie Ross had said, "Oh heck no!" to that narrow section. Getting off the walk is also a bit tricky. The ledge here gets very narrow again putting you right against the rock wall and you have to jump down off into some rocky ground. Lily made me proud by following Anthony all the way around and jumped down nice and neat. I did bang my shoulder against the rock wall but it was no big deal. When we got down, two more riders came along the sidewalk. Anthony and the two riders rode back along the sidewalk. I rode down along the bottom of it. We tied up the mules and horses and stopped for a while to have lunch.
The sun peeked out for a moment as we were sitting on that ledge eating and it felt glorious!When we headed out after lunch, I rode the sidewalk again. Amy was pretty determined to get Mattie Ross to go and Anthony was even more determined. Mattie again refused. Anthony rode ahead thinking Mattie might follow but she was still saying, "heck NO!". So, I scooted by her and rode Lily up into the walk. Mattie didn't care if a whole herd of mules rode it, she wanted no part of it. Anthony jumped off his mule and threw me his reins and walked by me to go help Amy get Mattie on the walk. So, now I'm on a narrow ledge, sitting on a mule that I know is not that patient with standing still in the presence of no foliage to munch on, holding a mule I don't know that is standing in front of me, facing me. Lily turned a little and started looking at Anthony's mule Harley straight in the eye. Apparently Harley found that intimidating as he started to back up. I'm trying to stop him and turn Lily just enough so she's not staring right at him. It was a tense moment. I heard a bunch of scrambling behind me but didn't dare look to see what was going on. It got quiet and Anthony squeezed by me to get him mule and get back on. I then looked behind me and there was Amy and Mattie, shaking like a leaf, behind me on the walk. We rode it without incident.
The "sidewalk" had been hyped up as THE thing to do at Caney Mountain. And it was very cool. But, it turned out it was not the most butt puckery part of today's ride. We went down the "Mule Slide". That is one long and very steep descent off one of the rims. And just.... wow! At one point Lily was sliding on her back feet and stepping quickly with her front feet. My head felt like it was on her tail. Suddenly she yanked her front feet off the ground in a shallow rear and throws them out in front of her and plants them to slow down her slide. Kind of surprised me but she stayed on her feet and I stayed in the saddle so all was good. Then we came to a spot where we dropped steeply down through a crack in a rock that had a change of direction in the crack. That was a heart stopping moment but Lily negotiated it like a pro with no hesitation. The last rider to come through came very close to falling off. He was leaning too far forward when his mule dropped down through the crack. We all held our breath for a moment but the man managed to stay in the saddle.
When we got back from our ride, I let Lily roll again. It was the least I could do for her after keeping me safe on this ride and being such a brave girl. I gave her some loose hay and filled her two hay bags to be ready for the evening feeding. Then I took a quick shower. There is a nice LQ stock combo trailer on display near Anthony's camp. So, Amy and I walked up to take a look at it. It was real nice but way bigger than I'd want to haul. Cathy M came by and invited us to see her trailer. It's very nice! We stayed and visited with her for quite a while. Supper tonight was fried chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli, biscuits, salad and more. As well as the usual multiple home made deserts. People joined us at the nerd table tonight and we had a nice time. Amy went out with me to help with feeding Lily and getting her blanket on. It was dark I needed someone to hold the flashlight. Lily was eating as we were putting her blanket on. She was not pleased by this disruption to her meal. BUT, it was also a testament to how far she's come with her food aggression issues. I've been working hard to teach her to be ok with me around her when she's eating. And tonight she tolerated two people. We were getting some sour looks but no threats. After taking care of Lily, we hustled up to our warm room and beds.
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