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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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 :-)
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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...
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| 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 :-)
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| Our Route |
Super day, so fun to spend time with friends!
