Salome Back Hills Wednesday's Ride (12-16)

12-16-09

 

   Genevieve (a new AZBCR member) and her boyfriend Ray trailered out from Aguila and Lori (another AZBCR member) trailered from Tonopah. They all arrived early so we were on the trail by 9:45!

    The weather was beautiful , it was perfect in the low 70's!  Couldn't have asked for a nicer day. And once we got in the mountains the view was great. I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story...


  We started out following the yellow highlighted trail and took the orange highlighted loop back.
I am glad I  printed the map because there were several roads off of the one we were following and without the map I wouldn't have been able to guess which roads we needed to take just by memory.

 

    We want to go out there again now that we have an idea of the time it takes. There were several washes and other loops we want to explore. The one highlighted in green is a steep climb but I'll bet there are some pretty views up there. And with the GPS we can do a little wandering off the trail without having to worry about getting lost.

 

 

  This is Genevieve and Buddy. Buddy is a rescue horse that a friend of mine had given to her after rehabilitating him for almost 2 years. The market is so bad now it is difficult to sell even a broke registered horse just because it's a little up in age. Can you tell how happy he has made her?

  

 This is Ray and _____. This is another rescue they purchased for a very good price about 3 months ago. This horse was kept in small quarters for 2 years . The original  owners didn't know how to train her so she was neglected. Finally they sold her because they couldn't handle her. She was a little ornery at times but otherwise did very well considering her past.

  

  

  

  

  

 

 

  

  

 This is my friend Lori (on her mare JJ).  Lori had invited me to a trail ride back in February of this year. That was my very first group trail ride with Mocha.

  

We covered about 7 miles. Got back to the trailers by 2:00. We could have ridden another two hours but the horses aren't conditioned enough yet to push them much farther especially with all the hill climbing.

Too Wet to Ride...

  Brought the Horses to the house Saturday hoping to at least

ride a little bit close to home but it was cold and wet.

Early afternoon Sunday decided to 

get them back to the ranch before it got any colder towards evening...

 

 And of course the first thing they do is roll in the mud..
 

  The "Mule Look" must be "IN" this year...

 

It must be some kind of contest because Aladdin had to 

show Mocha that he could do one better...
 

 I'm not going to give you any sympathy Mocha ...

 I said NO Mocha!

and don't wipe your tears off on me you're FILTHY!

 They aren't going to feel sorry for you either...

Now that's just plain RUDE!

 *Sigh , I give up...

Salome Desert Ride

My friend Lori and I went for a short trail ride in the desert in spite of the *34 "chilly" morning.

 

     I wore layers so once we got moving I wasn't cold at all.

     Mocha was a bit of a pill at first but settled down within the first mile. We started from my house so we didn't drive the first 2 miles to the end of the road to the edge of the desert even tho it would have given us more trail time. Next week we will meet at the end of the road and spend more time riding in the desert.
   I have been wanting to ride out there for  3 YEARS but I won't go alone so I am happy that there is finally someone who will come out  to join me. 

I didn't take my camera out until after lunch but Lori took some pictures on the way there.

   There is a long flat road for almost 2 miles before you get there than once you get into the mountains there is a lot of scenery to take in. There are many "trails" to choose from and several make a loop.

    There are several mines up there so have to watch out for hidden vertical mine shafts . Have to keep your distance from the cholla too, it can get ugly if you bump into one of those! Also because of the cholla you wouldn't want to bring a dog. They are a Bi*%h to pull out.

   We took a side trail off the main 4x4 road just to explore. I hadn't been on that one before. It went about a quarter mile to a dead end. We decided to have lunch there. After lunch we had to head back so Lori could be on the road by 3:30 and be home before dark.

Lori enjoyed the scenery and said she wanted to do it again sometime soon. I had canceled driving the Transit Wednesday (Dec 16th) because ridership has been slow during the holidays so we planed to do our next ride than . We are hoping some "AZBCR" members will join us. We are planning 2 more rides in January.