Sunbreaks!?

Farah enjoys the Greenery

It really did look like it was clearing as we left home.  I wanted to try the Garmin Transmitter V-Max adapter kit that I'd finally ordered from Action Rider Tack.  I've never even tried the human heart monitoring options that came with the 310XT.  I had the watch configured, put the electrodes where they're supposed to be - & obtained NO reading!   OK, I thought - we'd just get out there, do some trotting - work up a little sweat & it would work.  Not...  So I was off the saddle, adjusting, moving, re-clipping the ends etc.   Did it work?  No...  Back to the drawing board.  I've never ridden with one & after all this time I don't know why I want it now!

Thinking that we'd do our short loop, since there were some really DARK clouds moving around over head - we had to fight our way out to the old logging roads & power lines.  There's just no way I'm getting through again without going up with power equipment & getting some of the brush cut back.

Pouring Rain!

We didn't even make it up the hill before the storm struck!  The wind came with it & it was really nasty.  Farah actually wanted to just hunker down & wait it out - maybe with some grazing while we waited?  NO!  Keep going girl!  Lets at least get back into the trees!

Elderberry in the rain/sun

We got into the woods, it really didn't help any - I was soaked to the skin, but the sun did come back out!  Rain falling & sunshine!  All the rain put all the branches right in my face...  Farah's too.  A couple times she would stop & wait for me to move an especially nasty blackberry vine out of her way.  With this rain & the quick heat that comes with the sun - they're growing about a foot a day!

On the final hill~

Before we even got down the last hill, the clouds thickened again, darkened & the rain came back with a vengeance!  Once you're soaked, it really doesn't matter :-)  Back at the barn, I stripped my saddle & turned on the heat in the tack room to dry things out.   We did log over six-miles on our short loop & are hanging on to seventh place in the Distance Derby!

Ride from Home~

Water flowing over the road from the Beaver Dam

It was cold, but we'd had a sun break or two, so saddled Khari & headed up to see what we could see.  

To the right of the photo above

 The wetland I've been trying to protect all these years is directly behind the evergreens.  The trail to it has now become a creek bed & the clearing that was done is now full of young alders - making it impassable.  All of this is a "good thing" for protecting the west side.  

Once up on the power lines, we cut over to the west side & through an area where we used to have trails, but in the last few years - the trails sprouted houses on small acreages.   We'd attended a clinic at the "Flying Filly" but all was quiet there this day.

Covered Round-pen at the Flying Filly

We turned back & headed on south down the power line access road.  Past more of the Wetland ponds that are full to the brim!

Love the cattails & water!

  At the southern end of the access road, we turned east, back toward "our" trails, expecting that the gate there would be locked.

Many locks on the gate

 I should have taken a photo of where Khari squeezed through, between the gate post on the other side & an ecology block.  She was Amazing!  Best in the West at obstacles :-)  Some of the big snags that had been put at that side had rotted back enough to give about 18" of clearance.  Getting through this way put us near the paved side of our old trail system.  Now I was wondering if we'd be able to get out!  At the bottom of the trail, there was another gate that had closed off the shorter route back home for several years.  It was unlocked & standing open!  Bonus!  We went through & onto "our" trails to complete our upper loop!  

 My new GPS is working perfectly!  Lots of new Garmin tools on-line too & the ability to save & send out data sheets from our "workout".  Even a setting for "horseback riding"!