A Different Point-to-Point~

One of the few remaining trails through the bigger second growth trees~

I'd gotten the idea when I realized how close we come to the Centennial Trail from the old Scott Main Line road at the bottom of my loop.  Today - I met Jack & Lynn at Haller Park, we loaded Farah into Lynn's trailer & left mine there.  Jack drove us on up to the glass school parking lot, where we mounted up & hit the trail.  We started my loop in reverse, getting in some miles on the tree farm, before heading on down to Hwy 9.

The hole that tripped Jesse!

 Today I was determined to fill in the above hole!  It was deeper than it looks - no wonder he couldn't keep his feet!  It took about seven rocks to fill it, I stomped them down & hope it holds.

Hwy 9

It was a tight squeeze around the gate - once out to the highway - it was about 100 ft. to the current northern end of the trail.  I'd dismounted to see how to get around the gate & once Lynn was around, I started jogging pretty fast down that nasty section of road - next to the guard rail, with Sophie trotting along behind us!  We just got off when a Big truck went whizzing by!  Nothing I'd recommend - but for this one time, it accomplished our mission.

North end of the improved trail~

 We rode the mile + of trail that is unimproved & so pretty!  It had been mowed, but the grasses were higher than our mare's heads - giving them ample opportunity to grab mouthful's as we went.  Bad footing was on our minds, along with mole holes, so we did a lot of walking & kept our trotting speed down.  With all the rain - the horse path was slippery too.

New bright signage made from recycled street signs!

Originally thinking that we'd do the ride in about 3+ hours, we called Jack to tell him that we were running behind.  There were a few bikes on the trail, but we were the only equestrians.   There was a Bear warning sign posted just before the bridge over Pilchuck creek.

Bridge over Pilchuck Creek~

From what was really a cold feeling morning - even at noon, the day finally cleared & warmed!  We were removing our jackets in short order.  The closer we came to Arlington, the more people were out enjoying the trail.  Now that the kids are out of school, it was nice to see families out enjoying such a nice day.

Haller Trestle

Our final bridge was the Big one!  The Haller Trestle!  Lots of people were down on the banks of the river, enjoying the water - even as cold as I'm sure it still is!  Both mares had figured out that we were on a point-to-point & I'm sure Farah knew that her trailer was up ahead!  :-)

Our Trailers wait~!

We could see our trailers from the bridge!  Mine still there & Jack waiting for Lynn.  We'd gone just over 17-miles.  Eight on the tree farm & the rest on the trail!  Fun to know that we'd Done it!  :-)  Now - if I can just keep others from trying to steal one of my favorite riding partners!  :-)