Ride Like The Wind And The Dust

Made plans to meet friends at our horsey club. Haven't been there in at least six months, parking at the bottom of the hill next to the train tracks, which cuts off probably 45 minutes of riding. The place was packed! It was an excellent weekend to camp out; I stayed up half the night before with a blazing bonfire.

We also saw other friends there, and they joined us for the ride. We were headed for the same old destination: The Woodstock Inn.

We got there past our anticipated ride out time (RTR) so we decided we would go the shortest route and travel the fastest we could. It's been so dry lately that all the old mud holes are powdery dust, taking the slick out of the corners.

After getting down off the hill, crossing the river into the park, past the serpentine parts of the trail, we booted it quickly down the path, slowing only for pedestrians here and there. KC was fairly amped up, and I kept his speed down as best I could. Later I would and did let him open it up. He is fast but out of shape (winter has a way of doing that to everybody!) and a mere Quarter Horse.

There has been some trail maintenance since we rode there two weekends ago. Unfortunately there are so many downed trees, and big trees, too. What a loss for the park. We got to the Woodstock Inn in record time, the horses were also ready for break time.

We picked another, different path back, going the longer scenic route through Granite, the old land fill, and down into the outlet for Liberty reservoir. I was hoping for a photo shoot, but the place was teaming with dogs and pedestrians. The paths were dry and stable, so when we got going there was no worry of sliding, slipping and falling on the curves. We also were kicking up some dust, I'm sure people were getting dusted as we ripped past them. Damn horse people!

(according to the GPS: average speed 3.2 mph; maximum speed 21.2 mph)