Head for the Hills~

Snow covered peaks of the Cascades

My favorite place to ride... high & wide open country.  Sunshine - blue, blue skies - the kind of day that you wish would last the entire year...  After our weekend of walking through fire, screaming police sirens, smoke bombs & flares - both Farah & I were ready for some quiet time!

It was quiet too, but I pulled in to find several vehicles in the horse trailer parking again.  A couple ladies with dogs who were offended when I asked them if they could read?  I think they got my point.  When we were about a half-mile out - a loose dog came running full speed & barking at us - one of those "under control but off leash" dogs that are now allowed.  His owner came out of the bushes to try to catch him.  We flew by at the trot.

Once up on top - the beauty of the views & the day took my breath away.  The newest clear-cut on the trail to the monument has opened up yet more views of the Sound & was actually, almost dry now that it's exposed to sunshine!

Olympics in the background

(Still looking for the Renegade buried in the mud years ago Diane :-)  Once over to the west side of the mountain, there was a fantastic fresh breeze blowing up off the water.

A now "common" photo~

The trees, grasses, ground all erupting in fresh spring growth!

Farah

Farah would have happily spent the rest of the afternoon grazing, but after a short while we headed back over to the east side.

The lake was like a deep blue jewel~

On our way down, we ran into a large group of people with bikes.  They moved over to the side of the road, very polite.  Then when we came to where the blue bucket used to be, we headed down again - my idea was to do a good gallop back up to the top.  On the way we passed two more ladies with bikes & a third closer to the bottom.  I told them we were going to gallop back up & to please stay to the side.   We turned & Farah knew instantly that she could Go!  :-)  We Went!  The girls did stay to the side & Farah didn't even break stride as we galloped past!  Fun!

Flowering Currants

The flowering currents almost "lined" the trail & looked stunning against the green foliage.  Once back at the trailer I let Farah graze on the tall grass along side the road before we loaded up to head home.

I downloaded my GPS stats & added my days miles to the Distance Derby.  Yippee!  We're now over 300-miles for the year & that without January miles!

 Victoria by hhmstead at Garmin Connect - Details