Another "Square" loop!

At the creek

Today Joyce & I met at Bracken & we took the way out that we usually don't - which put us at the creek.  Beautiful & shady on what was to be a very warm (hot) day!  Joyce - as usual had a great ride plan - we headed for the river & from there down the Whitehorse Trail toward Arlington.

Along side the Stillaquamish on the Whitehorse Trail

It was obvious early on that today was going to be hotter than either of the last two.  The humidity was up close to the river, but now & then we'd get a nice breeze.  The rock was a little more compacted in spots - but still heavy going.

The Green Wetland~

The large tree that had slid down one of the banks had been removed, but the trail will need to be brushed before too long.  It's still not getting much use & won't - until the surface issues can be addressed or mitigated with another layer of rock that will settle what's there.

Joyce & Jesse admire the trail~

It's such a beautiful trail - with the trees arching overhead & the dappled sunlight.  Before too long we came out to the start of trail, where it splits off from the Centennial Trail.

We come to the Arch!

At this point, we turned north & headed up the Centennial Trail.  There were a few people out walking & one lady jogging with a baby in the stroller!  There was a blanket flapping & both our horses thought that might be worth a good spook :-)  She looked up, stopped & opened the blanket that she was using to shade the baby boy inside.  Farah had to take a closer look, but when she realized that the baby didn't have any food, her interest waned :-)  This Mom, out jogging with the baby - had twins at home!  I can't imagine what she must do with her spare time!

Finally at the Bryant store, we turned onto Grandview Road.  No shoulder to speak of & lots of traffic as usual.  I put Farah into her medium paving trot & we trotted all the way to the small road that took us off Grandview & eventually onto the trails back into the tree farm.  Sweet relief & shade too!  All together it was about a 12-mile Square loop.  By the time we were back at the trailers, we'd both run out of water & were ready cool off!