Saturday, April 27, 2013

Sunny Saturday - Last in April

Beautiful Saturday - we chose to ride!! We have so much going on this weekend, but know that we can't do everything. We have our priorities.

We rode out from the League in Marriottsville, riding to EW Beck's in 'downtown' Sykesville. I had packed some baler twine because there is no guarantee that hitching up is going to be easy. The parking lot is wide open with a buffer of Locust against the steep hillside.

There were several campers at the League, someone was painting the men's room, but saw very few people, a couple dogs and one horse. Everybody was out riding! We went out the side, into the woods, the trees are really leafing out, finally.

On the way we had to ride down River Road, on pavement, approximately a mile. Most everybody is good about slowing down and avoiding us, but KC has an issue with white vehicles. The Postal truck was too much for him! We met this truck at the thinnest part of the roadway: sheer rock wall, probably 30 feet high, no shoulder, and a guard rail on the other side, no shoulder, right on the river. He tried to turn around and go back where we came from, but I managed to turn him back and we proceeded past the scary white truck.

We dismounted in the little park on the edge of Main Street, walked through the very busy Southern States Cooperative, and onto the side walk, which is very thin, two people can not pass on the sidewalk, with the stone building right on the sidewalk. He stays on the sidewalk, walking quietly behind me as cars and bikers drive on by. We tied them up in the stand of trees on the back corner of the municipal lot.

We ate on the patio, but from this courtyard-style arrangement could not see the boys. If they had 'run off' they would have come right down the roadway in front of us, retracing their steps like horses do. Neither would leave the other, so it would have been both of them.

While there we saw several very noisy motorcycles and one seriously 'hoopty' truck, jacked up so tall I know I wouldn't be able to gain entry.

When we came out of the restaurant I said to him, "I see too much of KC, I shouldn't see his rump in the parking lot." He said, "Do you see Skip?" Yes, I can see his legs, he's still there, but KC was tied up close to the tree. He made sure he didn't have enough rope so he couldn't step into the tie.

Apparently that was not the case! KC was actually ground-tied to a raspberry branch, snagged with the thorns. The baler twine was broken. My little pony didn't go anywhere! For that I gave him a cookie.



On the way back we went up the destroyed roadway that used to be Gorsuch Switch, but now is a very rocky, overgrown road bed, with a natural spring running down it. Into the big meadows and past the BIG Poplar tree that is hundreds of years old and has populated the surrounding forest with Poplars.

When we got back to the League more people and horses were there and KC was looking right and was startled, spooked by two horses that were being hand-grazed. I didn't have my hands on the reins and his spook immediately turned into embarrassment because he was not paying attention, neither was I.

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