Bare Bones- The Trail Ride

Cartman and I headed up to Olympia this morning to do the trail ride at the Bare Bones Endurance Ride.  I am planning on attending the Santiam Cascade ride next weekend so wanted to get a nice hard work out but not over do it.

Since this ride is only one hour from our house I was able to drive up the morning of the ride- good thing because I ended up working until 11pm Friday night :( 

I did come home from work briefly to do chores, so I was able to get everything ready to go early this morning.

We vetted in and hit the trail about 1/2 hour late, but hey, we had all day!!!!

C was ready to go:)  This trail is really fun if you have a sure-footed athletic horse.  Pretty much every step on the 15 mile loop was either up, down, turning, or avoiding roots and rocks.  We had a blast.  It was a bit warm and in some areas the terrain blocks any breeze so it can get a bit hot.

Luckily it wasn't too humid today and every time he started getting really hot and sweaty we would pull out into an open area and the slight breeze cooled him right back down. 

If you want to train bridge crossings the Capital Forest is the place to go- I think I quit counting at bridge 6 or 7.  They are all in good repair and have safe approaches. C is good on bridges, but I had to keep pulling him back to walk as he just wanted to blast right over them.

We ran into several people we know and visited a bit, but kept a brisk pace and before I knew it we were back in camp!  Cartman had no interest in water out on the trail despite the plentiful water sets.  Once back in camp he drank really well though.

I manage to get off trail in camp- seriously..... They had re-routed to the finish line and blocked off the trail we went out on.  I missed the sign and just wandered around until I found a way close to where we usually come in on this ride.  Oh well.

Cartman vetted through well, with an A- overall.

I let him eat for about 45 minutes then we wandered through camp to check out the Rein rescue horse and try and catch up with a few people but it was starting to get pretty busy at the finish and I didn't want to leave C tied too long at the trailer, and was too lazy to pull out the hi-tie, so we loaded up and headed home.

first bridge?

starting up the big hill

Yes, that is a vacuum cleaner.  sigh.



Some riders we met along the trail

Not touching that lovely clean water....

pretty trail

We managed to find some mud!

I'm blaming my off trail stunt on photo taking and not paying attention.