October 17, 2010

Woo Hoo the riding weather is FINALLY BACK!!

 Last week my riding buddy, "LoriW." e-mailed me saying she would like to come out to Salome to ride Sunday so I mapped out and printed a trail in an area I have been curious about and made a plan.

 We had a bit of a late start, so it got a little warm early on the ride but not too bad and there was a nice breeze, especially at the higher elevation.
   Lori met me where I keep my horses and I loaded Mocha onto her trailer with her Mare "JJ" and we trailerd about 4 miles south of town...
 
 Except for the first mile we followed the trail marked on the map... (South is UP on this map)..

 In spite of not being ridden since June, Mocha was as calm and well behaved as if he had been ridden all summer. AND he did not have one ouchie moment going totally barefoot! (Note in the following pictures how rocky the trail was the entire ride)...






Almost there!!..

Just a little bit farther...

We climed 360 feet from where we started..

What a view!!...

                                      lat 33.704130°      /    lon113.625950° ... (elev 2250 ft.)





 Here you can see the steepest part of the trail of a 13 mile loop ride that we plan to do later this winter...

Me and Mocha at the top-o-the mountain..

I like this one the best!..

And this one too...

Turning around to go back the way we came...




The end of a great ride!...

We did not see any ATV's, hikers, bicyclists - no one. Heard an occasional airplane, but mostly only the clip clop of hoofs, the gentle breeze and each others voices and horse sneezes.

 What a great first ride of the season  Cheesy.

We both had a very enjoyable ride and plan to do a lot more exploring out there throughout the winter.
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