Stoneface

Sally had the day off work today. The weather was good and she decided to go riding for her birthday. My truck is in the shop.... as usual... so we used her truck to pull my trailer and we trailered over to the Hitching Post Trailhead and rode to Stoneface.  I've never ridden to Stoneface so it would be a fun new adventure for me.

The ride out we were on old roads for the most part. It was very pretty but a popular spot for Jeeps and ATV's and the roads were torn up really bad in spots. We didn't have any trouble getting through but what a mess. It took us about 2 hrs. to get to Stoneface overlook. We couldn't go to the actual Stoneface formation as horses aren't allowed down the trail it's on. We tied up and had lunch at the overlook and it was beautiful. You get a really fantastic view from there that the phone camera doesn't do any justice to.

We headed back along a single track trail that was steep in some spots. It was also beautiful. We explored some trails just to see where they went and came out on the Somerset Rd. We didn't want to cross that so headed back into the woods and followed the Stony Creek Trail back to the forest roads.
We looped a few other of the forest roads to change up the way back. We rode 15.23 miles and it was a great ride.

Changing Plans

Loretta and I knew we wanted to ride today but decided to stay close to home. I rode down to Double M to meet Loretta there. We didn't really have any big plan on where we wanted to ride so started out heading towards the Pounds Hollow spillway. Then thought maybe we'd check for mushrooms along trail 183 were we'd both found a few previously so changed directions. We didn't find any mushrooms but were now heading towards High Knob. We decided to check for mushrooms in a spot we knew of over that way. So, we crossed Black Ridge Rd. and rode into Initial. We stopped there to have lunch.

A few other riders rode in while we were having lunch. One man that had been riding alone out of Double M Camp joined us when we headed out. We abandoned our search for mushrooms and just wandered as we wanted going by one of my favorite spots on trail 185, passed the Memorial and up to NoNo Rock. When we rode into NoNo, there was a woman with a mule and she commented on what a pretty white ...... horse...... I had. Sigh. I split off from Loretta and David in Thacker Hollow to ride home. It was a great ride. We rode 14.2 miles.

NoNo Rock

Ride from Golden Circle

It was a really nice day for riding today. Cool and comfortable for the mules still stubbornly clinging to some winter hair. Loretta and I decided to trailer out but not go too far. So, we went over and parked at the Golden Circle Trailhead. We rode nearly 18 miles stopping for lunch at Buzzard's Roost.

 Little cave in bluff along the Golden Circle Road. 

 Loretta on Pepper with Ginger and Lucky at the Big Tee Pee

 Loretta on Pepper at Mushroom Rock

 Cindy on Lily at Buzzards Roost

Lunch Time!!

Loretta on Pepper with Ginger at Twin Towers

 Buck's skull we spotted along the Silvermine Trail

 Lily was very intrigued with the skull

Riding through Rice Hollow

Whiskey Cave

 Heart in rock in bluffs

Loretta on Pepper at Rhombus Rock

Rocky Branch Hollow

Today Loretta and I ventured over to Rocky Branch Hollow in the Garden of the Gods wilderness. Today Lily got sneaky with me. She is not hard to catch and most often comes when I call her. This morning however, she snuck out of her stall after she finished eating in complete stealth mode. I usually hear her pushing her feed pan around when she's almost done eating. Not today. I was doing a few chores around the barn and when I looked up, she was half way to the pasture gate so too late for me to stop her. I grabbed her lead rope and halter and went in pursuit. She made me walk all the way out and to the top of the hill in the pasture. There she proceeded to run around bucking and carrying on like a crazy thing. I just stood watching as there was nothing else I could do. When she got done, she then came right over to me and stuck her head in the halter. Brat!

I saddle Lily up and then walked her to Double M Camp. Now that she has shoes on, I don't dare ride her along the road. Her shoes make her slip on the pavement. One fall this year with her is enough for me. And she is not all that likely to fall without me on her back anyway. Better for both of us if I walk and for sure I can use the exercise.

Loretta rode Pepper today and she trailered us over to the Golden Circle Trailhead. We headed out from there to Rocky Branch Hollow in the Garden of the Gods Wilderness. It is such a beautiful ride. A lot of bluffs and a few very technical trails. We got to a spot where the trail was block off by a downed tree. We stopped to clean it up and decided to have lunch there when we spotted a little cave up in the bluffs that looked worth exploring. We approached it carefully watching for an snakes. The cave was empty and we enjoyed lunch there with a great view.

From there we went to H Rock and back around near Garden of the Gods, and by Cathedral Rock. At one spot where we stopped to enjoy the view at the top of a bluff, just for fun I asked Lily to step her two front feet up onto a rock to pose..... that was a mistake. Lily was having no part of that. She decided it was a completely stupid thing to do. I think I spent 20 minutes or so convincing her that it would be easier for her to just comply with this simple request and eventually she did agreed. I think Loretta was getting ready to ride off without us. When we got back to the trailer, we decided we wanted to ride a bit longer so we rode down Golden Circle road to the end and down into Colbert Hollow and back.  I'm finally getting used to riding holding the reins with my left hand. I still can't keep my right arm extended forward for very long from my shoulder injury. And it still gets achy at the end of the day. Riding doesn't bother my shoulder in particular as long as I stay to a walk and I'm holding my reins in my left hand. Any activity I do where my arm is not supported for long periods of time makes it achy. Hiking, riding or just anything where I'm not sitting with my arm resting on something.  At physical therapy the past few weeks they have been taping my shoulder to support it and that does help. We have talked about getting a shoulder brace for when I return to work.  Anyway, we rode 15 miles today. It was a beautiful day and we had a great ride.