Rock Stepping

Loretta was driving to camp from home this morning so we did not get a very early start. She rode Chance today so we decided to meet up at T-Lick on Black Ridge Rd. I told Loretta today that I was going to have to start with a 0 tolerance for letting Lily snack on stuff while going down the trail. Lily was taking advantage of this BAD. It was getting dangerous as she was not watching where her feet were and zig zagging around to grab stuff and not listening to me. And it was going to be an all or nothing thing as if Lily thinks she can do it at all, she will push the limits constantly. Loretta completely understood. So, the first part of our ride was a bit rough with me constantly correcting Lily every time she tried to grab something. But, as much as I had to get after her, she seemed to understand that she'd been pushing it as she understood what I was telling her and did not seem to hold any grudge or get upset in any way at being corrected. There was a spot on the trail where we were startled by some Turkey Vultures flying up out of a hollow. Lily had stopped and been sniffing the wind pretty hard before the vultures flew up. So, they didn't startle her as much as they did me. Later on we ran into Kathy Lawless and Hope on the trail. She asked if we'd passed a dead horse on the trail. We hadn't but I'm quite sure it was where Lily was sniffing and the vultures were. UGH! Kathy said a horse had been spooked when a dog had popped out on a ledge above the horses head. The horse spun and caught a leg and broke it. Anthony had to ride out and shot it. UGH again. When we looped around and got back to Black Ridge Rd, I crossed and rode a bit further with Loretta and we separated at the creek by the trail that leads to T-Lick. We parted ways there and I had an uneventful ride back to my house.

After a while, she finally stopped trying to grab every green thing we passed and I only had to make a few corrections. It was hugely more pleasant going down the trail in a straight line with her head steady in front of me and with her watching her feet instead of the greenery. When we got to NoNo Rock, there is a big rock there that I've previously asked Lily to step up on and she has never been willing to do so. I think the last time I tried, I was with Anthony and he eventually made her do it with the use of several ropes to make her put her feet on it.  I considered for a moment weather it would be worth asking her as I didn't want to get into a big battle. I decided to give it a try. I rode up to it, getting ready for the big fuss and much to my surprise, Lily didn't even hesitate. She hopped her front feet right up there and then eyeballed me out of the corner of her eye waiting for the praise and treats! And she sure did get them. Good mule!!! Since I've been working on this the past few rides, she now understands exactly what I want. She stepped up on a few other rocks today too without any hesitation.

Big Grand Pierre Creek

Today Loretta, after a bit of deliberation, decided to ride out from the Benham Hill Trailhead. We headed right up to Rocky Top. Then rode around some bluffs and rode down and half way around One Horse Gap Lake. We ran into David Borntreger who was riding a client mule and ponying one of his Mustangs. We stopped and chatted with him for a while. He and some friends are planning to ride the entire River to River trail next weekend. Loretta has done that several times so she gave him some tips and information. I was asking Lily to step up on rocks today. Choosing wide enough ones that she would not try to step over or around them until she figured out what I was asking of her. It didn't take long for her to start catching on. She didn't see the point in it but when she realized that it resulted in praise and treats she was willing enough.

There were quite a few geese at One Horse Gap Lake. We saw one with 3 babies. We rode from there over towards the Big Grand Pierre Creek. The old trail follows along the creek bank. A new trail has been put in that is cut into the middle of a steep slope. Loretta hadn't ridden it before so we had to check it out. I'm pretty sure we won't be rushing back to ride it again anytime soon. It was pretty. And we got to get a close up look at an Eagle perched in a tree. But the trail, though reasonably wide, was soft footing and so steep on each side of it. I got up ahead of Loretta at one point without realizing it as I was so busy watching the trail ahead of me. I rounded a slight corner and got out of sight and Loretta's horse Lady got quite upset. Not a good trail to be dealing with that. I waited for Loretta to catch up and when we found a spot wide enough for Loretta to pass me, she got in front and that made Lady much happier and Lily was fine either way. The trail was quite long and we'd been going along it quite a while when we came to a spot where a tree right on the edge of the downhill side of the trail had blown over and the roots had ripped a whole section of the trail out. It was so steep on either side of trail that we quickly discarded any thought of going around the spot. Nor did we really want to turn around and ride it all the way back. Loretta dismounted and dropped as many large rocks into the hole in the trail that she could find and then carefully led Lady across. It was a very narrow spot the equines had to put their feet that Loretta somehow managed to climb up on the uphill side of the trail to lead Lady through. I was pretty sure I was not nimble or coordinated enough to do that. So, I secured Lily's reins and just sent her across the spot ahead of me very sure she would not try to take off around Loretta and Lady due to how steep the sides of the trail were. Lily got across fine and Loretta was able to get her. We both mounted back up and continued on our way. We were pretty happy when the trail finally dropped down to the creek.

We followed the trail to the creek and crossed over where it looked like it went. There were some riders in that spot. We talked to them for a while and we were sure glad they were there. The trail did not cross the creek as it looked like it did. It kept going along the creek as we'd been going but we hadn't seen where it turned to keep going along the creek due to it being a little grown in with weeds. They asked where we were parked and when we told them Benham Hill Trailhead, they said we had a long ride back. We crossed back over the creek and quickly found the trail now we knew it was there.
We kept following the trail and eventually it headed up hill away from the creek. We followed it back down into a spot along a small creek where there were a lot of trees down. We worked our way around them and eventually lost the trail entirely. We kept moving in as much a straight line as we could and eventually came out on the One Horse Gap Lake road. It was starting to get later in the day. we knew how to get back to the trailer from the lake. We also knew that was not the fastest way back. But any trails heading in the right direction would be unknown and it was too late in the day to be exploring. So we headed to the lake, rode around the other 1/2 from what we'd done earlier and eventually came to the 9 Day camp. We rode though and got onto an old road bed that brought us to the River to River trail and back to the trailhead. We made it back before dark so we were happy and we had a great ride.

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