Fire Mountain Obstacle Course

Parking meadow~

It was foggy, cold & damp when I went up to the barn to get Farah.  Janelle had planned a Saddle-Up get together at Fire Mountain Friesians & Trail Training.  By the time I was three miles up the road, the sun had broken through the fog!  We met at the Starbucks off Cook Rd. & headed up from there.  Ten miles from I-5 to the farm.

Just part of the obstacle course~

Since this was the first visit for several of us, we had the mandatory orientation class first.  The cost for this is $30. with a $10. haul in fee.  The benefit, is that once you have taken the orientation class - for any future visits all you pay is the haul in fee!  You can take your horse & practice as much as you like, any day of the week!

Janelle on Duke pony a friends horse - coming out of the water obstacle :-)

 Most of us started with our horses in-hand.  Marilyn gave us some really great direction & guidance - plus a good description of how to approach each obstacle.

Checking out the noisy barrel :-)

 Farah remembered her prior expericnce with obstacles, trying to avoid those she doesn't like & rushing the ones she was familiar with :-)  She even tossed in a buck for flourish upon leaving the teeter-totter :-)

Farah with the ball~

Once I was in the saddle though - she did great!  Stopping in the middle of the Cowboy Curtain when I asked her, backing out of it etc.  She really enjoyed the ball!  Figured it out right away & tried to bite it :-)  By early afternoon, I was ready for lunch - so we went back to our trailer.  Several were leaving, but I wanted to see what the trails looked like.

Heading up~

We followed the path around the course, then went under the power lines & soon found a logging road.  It ended & there was a trail.  The trail ended at another logging road.  We followed it up & up & up.  No views & I wanted to see a view!

Owl!

I'd stopped to adjust my saddle pad - when this guy flew out over us!  At first I thought he was a hawk, but as he turned to perch up here, I could see that he was a big owl!  Joyce always loves seeing owls & I instantly thought of her & wished she were with us!

This was as far up as we got before reaching a dead end

Soon, we came to a very large pile of gravel & the end of the road.  Zoomed in a little, we could see the top of the mountain.

View~

As we turned back, standing in my stirrups - we did get a view!  My Garmin stats said that we'd climbed to 1,083 feet.  On our way down Lynn called me, she was back from her ride with friends & saw that my rig was the only one left in the meadow!  Thanks for checking up on me Lynn!

At the back gate~

 We got back down, found the back gate & took a little off-shoot trail that went toward the river that we could hear.  I was really curious, since most of the creeks & little rivers are so dry this year, yet I heard rushing water.

Full of glacial silt

It was Beautiful!  Just beautiful to see so much running water, but I realized seeing the gray color of the water, that it was full of glacial silt...  This can't be a good thing...  I think it means that the glaciers on Mt. Baker are melting down to nothing...  There were piles of gray slit along the banks of the river...

Where we were~

Back at Fire Mountain, I zoomed in to see the same clear-cut that we'd spotted from the mountain.  I'd love to come back & do some more exploring to see if we could get to the top.  We were indeed the last rig there by the time we got back :-)

Our Route

 Super day, so fun to spend time with friends!