War Bluff

It was quite chilly this morning. We are having what is called here as "Dogwood" winter. I'm told that it is very typical to get a week of cold weather at the time the Dogwood trees bloomed. And, the Dogwoods have just bloomed. I am enjoying it actually. It's been great riding weather for our still quite hairy mules and horses.

Today Loretta and I decided to ride to War Bluff. I've never been there before. Once again I found Lily napping when I went out to get her. I saddled her up, thankful she stands so nicely for me to climb up on the mounting block to get the saddle on (thanks to my shoulder injury) We started out walking down to Double M Camp to meet Loretta. Part way there I realized I'd forgotten my helmet. By the time I walked back to get it I decided it would just be easier to hook up the horse trailer and haul Lily to camp. I could then pick up Loretta and her mule and haul them. Just as I was pulling into Double M, I could see Loretta getting ready to load her mule into her trailer. I was able to get her attention before Pepper loaded. Loretta seemed happy to get a break from having to do the hauling.

We parked at Benham Hill Trailhead. The trails over by War Bluff have changed a bit and Loretta has only ridden there once last year exploring. She had ridden there years ago so had a pretty good idea how to get around And she always finds what she's looking for so I wasn't worried.

We came across this Redbud tree with the buds growing all along the trunk and branches. I've never see that before and it was beautiful. 

The entrance to my farrier, Hillbilly's place. He is very close to War Bluff . In the parking area right there by the War Bluff trail we spotted Hiking With Shawn's truck.

We climbed up to War Bluff and stopped there to have lunch.  After lunch, I mounted up and while waiting for Loretta to get mounted, I spotted a treasure!!! A large Morel mushroom! I quickly dismounted, tied Lily back up and the hunt was on. While we didn't discover the mother lode, we did find about 20 large beautiful mushrooms. Woohoo! Once done mushroom hunting, we rode the War Bluff loop trail 446.

This is what your GPS track looks like when you find a mushroom!! We rode back down the hill on a different trail and rode by the "Indecent Indian" Then rode part of the way back on the same trail we rode in on, but then explored some other trails to see where they went. It was a fun day and we rode 20 miles.