Trails Ahead

Saturday, March 27, 2021

The dogs and I headed to the forest to check trail conditions. This warm weather has begun to invite horseback riding. We found the trails fine for that. I wanted to find a path to the trails over which my horse could pull a cart. Every upward entry to paths is short, but steep and very rocky. Once having passed a rocky segment, hikers and riders meet great trails.

The challenging segments don’t contain little rocks, but partially-buried boulders. Worst, the top rocks are positioned over secondary, also-buried boulders. I examined a steep area with signs of people having attempted to clear rocks, resulting in a deep hole with more big rocks. Sigh, rockiness goes deep.

I couldn’t get a good photo of the rocky hole. It’s challenging to capture depth with a digital camera. As an illustration, here’s an uphill path. I added a red line stretching from high point to high point. Beneath that line is depth, and above the line, beyond the trail bump, are shadows indicating a deep hole. Some rocks dug from that hole lay beside it. The difficulty for a horse pulling a cart and human is evident.

Teeth-gnashing, because immediately beyond those high shadows is the perfect road that appears in the two preceding photos.

I want to drive my horses. In previous summers, I exercised the horses between driving lessons on local neighborhood streets. Since then, an inflow of homeowners has made this area more populated. New residents are increasing the traffic of cars, bicycles, and motorcycles. Newcomers often aren’t aware that, legally, horses have the right-of-way. I’ve become a little timid and an seeking alternative routes.

Meanwhile, today will be sunny, warm, and ideal for horseback riding. Yesterday, I cleaned the equines, brushed their coats, manes, and tails. On getting finished and released, each headed directly to the dirtiest spot available and rolled mightily. Ah, well.

By the way, this morning’s moon-set was more spectacular than yesterday’s. Now that earth and moon are positioned more closely together, I couldn’t resist taking another photo using approximately the same amount of zoom. Neither capture is great, but together show today’s moon, nearer, rounder, and more satisfying.