MDW: Rudolf Bennitt Conservation Area

OK I am the actual worst, since I've had the photos sitting in a draft post for weeks and just needed to WRITE about them, but I've been so exhausted from work and just general life things that the amount of #effor it takes to come put words in here was just too much. Sorry not sorry, lol. Anyway, Memorial Day weekend was AMAZING, because T came to visit me! Friday was a bit of a manic day, we had to find a car for DH because the insurance company wanted the rental back (don't even get me started on what a shitshow this has been, we are STILL fighting with the other insurance company about paying medical bills), so we were up and at 'em early to try to find something before T was due in from her drive. Let me tell you, it's not a picnic car shopping with a very specific list of needs and not huge budget in this market. Used cars are up like 30-50%+ from this time last year, which makes me even madder about the idiot who totaled DH's car, ugh. We mostly succeeded -- I finished signing paperwork and left DH at the dealership and T only beat me to the house by like... 5 minutes, lol. Naturally she was in the barn taking selfies with the ponies before I got there, haha. Friday night we just yakked and cuddled noodles and drank margaritas - yum!

Cici was a MASSIVE fan of T and would like her to stay here 24/7 plz. I concur Cici, I concur. 

Saturday morning DH made us a big breakfast before we set off on our adventure!

It was still a little too wet to ride at Indian Camp Creek (I checked the rainout line as soon as I woke up, boooo), but I figured we could head up to Rudolf Bennitt Conservation Area. I paged through some of my older posts about it to refresh my memories of the parking lots, but I decided to follow the instructions on the Missouri Trailblazinbg page instead of my GPS (mistake, but I didn't know that at the time lol). We got the tack and horses loaded in short order and hit the road! 

Unfortunately, when we got there, it was a parking lot I'd never been to full of some.... ermmmm.... real sketch locals camping for the holiday weekend. We stuck out like sore thumbs on my Spanish mares, with me in a western saddle and breeches and T in full dressage tack, lol. I think they were mostly confused by our helmets? Then we couldn't find the trailhead, despite asking every person in the parking lot (turns out it was like 20 feet into the woods behind one of the trailers and we were basically on top of it when we asked the people in that trailer if they knew where it was and they played dumb, thanks assholes). So we ended up striking off down the gravel road, because we'd passed a trail crossing. Thankfully we didn't pass much traffic and were able to finally get on the trail!

Road riding. 

Cinna was pretty amped to be out!

Finally on the trail

Having fun!

We ran into several groups (actually the same two groups twice, ha), and it was about an equal split of super intoxicated people, and people who had 0 control of their horses (or mules).... so. Definitely an adventure. But I pulled up a trail map and we didn't have much trouble following a big loop, and the weather was blessedly LOVELY and the bugs were minimal, so the horses were happy as clams. 

We even got to ride past the lake, which is my favorite :)

Baby horse even led for a bit!

Tired and ready to go home post-ride. 

I backed the rig into a parking space and was pretty proud of myself, lol. 

Our ride. 

T got the full experience of backwoods Missouri redneck trails and riders (including a super hammered lady almost falling into the portapotty and 2 young kids coming to retrieve her/carry her back to her campsite at like TWO IN THE AFTERNOON), but apparently we didn't scare her away, because she was ready to go out again the next day!