Having Fun Yet? Not!

Mt. Pilchuck~

The plan was to ride from the Morgan Horse Club - my first time - to find my way around on my own!  This is one place where I always rode with Joyce, it was so close to her house.  I've never had occasion to go on my own.  Pat was gutsy enough to want to join me :-)  Since she's known me as long as anyone - it took guts to take the chance!  :-)  We started out on the red/white/blue marked trail.  I was familiar with it - soon realizing that we were going out - the way that Joyce & I usually come back.  The trail was in remarkably good shape, someone had worked on the blackberry.

Going up the "White" trail

 When we arrived at the clear-cut, I recognized it too & took the "white" trail, that I'd ridden with Joyce earlier this year.  It's much better established now.  It was a gray morning, cool, cloudy & perfect for riding.  At over three miles, we came up onto the road.   While we were deciding whether to go up, or down - the decision was made for us!

Logging Truck, heading up~

 We could hear the roar & around the corner came the logging truck!  There was room off to the side to get out of his way & he slowed down for us.  I could tell from the road that it was being heavily used.  We decided to head on down, my idea was to just continue on the loop in reverse.  Other than turning back the way we'd come, there was really no way to get off the roads. 

Here we are :-)

We took an offshoot or two, I knew that none of them went anywhere - but we looked anyway.  Anywhere that looked like it might get us away from the truck traffic was a welcome idea - but not feasible.  So many of the old trails are blocked off.

The bridge over Pilchuck Creek

An oiler truck came up behind us - while we were trotting, we hadn't heard him - when we did, we got out of his way.  At an intersection, I took a wrong turn & soon realized that it had been - when we came to this bridge.  Just as we were debating whether to take it or not -  we heard another roar...
Instantly moving away - here came the truck, on the downhill grade.  Both mares handled the noise & dust so well.

The beautiful Destry

At this point, I decided to call Scott & was lucky to find him at home!  He knew right away where I'd gone wrong & directed us back up the hill.  During that trek - yet another truck came at us, around a blind curve.  When he saw us, he instantly started breaking - it was steep & he was headed for the bridge.  Once he got by, I couldn't get to the top of that hill fast enough!  I took the correct turn this time.  A few minutes later, Scott called to see if we'd made it.

The bright spot!

I can't say what a relief it was to get back on the jeep trail that would take us back under the power lines & back to the MHC parking.   Once onto the wooded trails, we ran into Lynette & Skeeter - they too had found out that the trucks are running.  I called Scott when we were back at the trailers - to tell him we were safe...

Our route~

I was amazed once I downloaded our track - that I had actually made the loop!  Yippee!  I will NEVER make the mistake of going down that hill to the river again - at least NOT when logging is happening!  So much for enjoying the climbs that this area offers - at least For Sure not during the week!  They're taking some of the huge timber left up near the top & the size of the gravel pile at the quarry tells me that they plan to do a whole lot more :-(