3/29/15 Maiden Trail Ride for Traveler

Traveler's Maiden Voyage

Trav, did really great, he was a little unsure where

he should be at first, as the ride proceeded though he started picking his place on the trail...

Getting braver all the time, what a great little 

buddy. 

After getting toweled off he laid right down in the back seat, 

the blue path is our ride, nice little 5 miles

 

Pony, put away and fed, and now we can go up to the house and get our grits !!  

5 miles

131.9 MTD

3/26/15 Traveler

Traveler

                This is my new, trail companion, he hails from Idaho, he was picked out of a shelter there and transported to Washington  and put up for adoption at the Bangtail Dog Rescue in McCleary. 

Traveler, is 8 months old, and a little shy, but very sweet. 

Our very first adventure, was to Lake Sylvia. We adventured and explored lots of new things. 

The dam was so loud and very powerful  and geese were pretty interesting looking... 

Then Friday morning we ran down to Hoquiam River and walked the shoreline, watched the sunrise. 

3/22/15 Bush Whack

          

             Headed out in the afternoon, on trail by 3:00 PM, a little later than norm, but the days are longer now.  Mission was to re-open an old grade, that I am sure was used as a trail at one point long ago. 

No takers on wanting to go bush trail, so, we went it alone, just me and BP, no trail dog yet to accompany us.  Working on that.... 

     

         So with saw in hand, off we went, it is dark in this area of trail, and I was a little unsettled when BP would all of a sudden look out into the darkness, as if she had heard something.... I would stop for a moment, looking to see if there was something out there,, then back at it I went,, chop, chop, chop, until all the branches that would pose a problem were removed.  

Checking the gps freakwently, to see how much farther it would be to the trail intersection, and making sure I had not vered off course.  Finally, after a good hour we made it to the intersecting trail. I decided to walk back through what we had just cleared out, and come back through it and ride up into the Dark Forest, and out the other side. 

The sun broke through the clouds just as I got back to the school 

5 miles

MTD 126.9

3-16-15 Dora The Explorer

Took Sandi out to familiarize her with the MMK trail system, which is pretty overwhelming at first, but with a good GPS and google earth you can find your way around quite nicely.

The green track on the map below, was our 7.7 mile double loop ride, and we managed to get some exploring in on the north end of the loop, found a nice brush out option for the Dark Forest Noll.

 Finished up on the MMK Ridge, looking out at Mt. Rainier, as always a stellar place to ride, there were only some brush pickers, and we only heard them, and saw their vans.

Jasper 

7.7 miles
121.9 MTD

3/12/15 Exploration Ride

This afternoon was nice and revealing, explored a couple trails that I spotted last time out, and found a couple more to explore, the next time I am out.

 Ran into Barb and Tom, they were doing a little exploration themselves. 

The red track is 7.7 mile loop, good trail. 

This old Vine Maple has been choked out of sunlight long ago, but the moss has made it look like an octopus.  





Brown Pony, thankful she is done for the day :)

7.7 miles
MTD 114.2

3/8/15 Bloomin' Crazy

This is crazy weather !!!  I don't ever remember it being so nice so early in the year, of course I am sure we will pay for it later.  The woods are already so dry, if it doesn't rain a substantial amount before summer I am sure the woods will be getting shut down on us..   The Scotch Broom are blooming!!!! this is freakish !! 

I ventured up the old trail system, and surveyed it's ability to be brushed out on the one end,,, I think it is very doable and would add so much nice trail to the system... below is just one small section, it is so pretty through here.

 Brown Pony, did well today, even though during our surveying portion of our ride, she was forced to go off trail and muster through pretty rough terrain, she persevered.

Miles 7.7
MTD 106.5

3/7/15 Dogless On The Trail

Today was yet again another stellar day for anything and everything...   After working the store till 1:30 pm I decided to leave the place a little early and head out to the woods.

Jill had to work a half day as well, but I knew she was wanting to come home and take her man man, aka Butters out for the afternoon. Being that for a couple years now I have been borrowing Butters from Jill, so that I would have a trail buddy....   today I went riding without a trail buddy and it was so weird, I have always had a trail buddy.  I want to look for a trail buddy, but Denny thinks I should wait till one of my retired peeps pass,,,,,, can you really ever have too many pups ???   Oh, I suppose you could, if you had like a 100,,, that would be too many .....

Any ways, my ride was very nice,, a little lonely, but so very wonderful !!!

Miles today 8.4
 MTD 98.8

3/6/15 Getting Back At It

             ~~~    February,,,, was a month full of, being sick, lame horse, too much work and feeling non~productive..

But,,, we're in March now, so let the riding begin. 

Powder is still on stall rest, I hope to get her to Dr. Vanzwol this week. 

Brown Pony has her new shoes on and is back on the trail. 

Although yesterday, her first ride in a month,,, was interesting, she was a little on the muscle, at first, well, until about the half way point of the ride. The little bush pickers were out, I only saw one, but the way BP was behaving there were more in the woods. She gets braver every time we go out..  all in all, she did well with having a whole month off. 

The water crossing on this very old decommissioned road, now a trail, is one of my favorite little places, the water is crystal clear, the footing is solid, and the little plants are beautiful. 

We took our time here, Butters messed around a bit, the first time Butters had to cross this it was almost a foot deeper, and he was trying desperately to traverse the bushes on the side of trail so as to not have to swim.. He truly is the best little riding friend. 

BP & Butters

Butters

Rainier from the MMK Ridge

Looking north at Southern Olympics from MMK Ridge

7.3 mile loop bring my current trail miles to 

90.4 MTD

3/1/15 Powder,,,,,, Benched Again

       

          Took off this afternoon to ride Powder on her 2nd ride, since she was re-cooperated from her mystery lameness....... and I got all the way to the trail head, geared up, and mounted, and low and behold,,, my girl was off.....  so we loaded up, and came home...