If You Can't Take the Heat, Go to the Trails!

After nearly a week straight of rainy days, I desperately wanted to get out and about this weekend, but I was worried the trails would be too muddy/closed. Imagine my surprise when I checked the rainout app Sunday to see my favorite trail was open! After some catching up on barn chores (we needed to switch to night turnout so all the fans had to be dug out of storage/fly sprayer/etc etc), I threw tack in the trailer and hit the road! 

I rode my normal loop backwards, since it was mid 80s and muggy so I figured ending with a chance to play in the creek would make Ruby a lot happier. That was true, but about 80% of our normal creek access points were completely swarming with people 🥴

Had to wake her up to get on the trailer, lol

So much screaming. One kid yelled and asked me how much to buy my horse so I told him he couldn't afford her 😂

The trails were hopping - 3 other pairs of riders (including some teenage yahoos cantering around blind corners, who ended up being in a terrifyingly tiny truck hauling a huge steel trailer when I got back to the parking lot 😬), several pairs of mountain bikers (all polite this time, yay!), and a truly baffling amount of pedestrian traffic on the equestrian only trailhead... But as the first really hot day this spring, apparently all the city slickers wanted to go sit in the creek. I let a few kids pet Ruby at one of the access points (because I had to go around them to get in the water), but we tried to make a beeline by all the other screeching ones and get out of dodge quickly. 

I never get tired of between the ears shots on her. 

I managed to pick back up the wrong trail when I got back out of one of the creek access points, so what I intended to be a pretty quick 5.5 miles turned into about 7.5, but it was 90% shaded and we just walked, so Ruby didn't seem to mind much. 

Not as squicked out by fresh asphalt like last time. 

"Why are they on the equestrian trails carrying coolers?"
Dunno Ruby, dunno

Keeping one ear on the screaming kid in water wings throwing rocks

It was definitely a much needed break from my current reality, which includes commuting 10+ hours a week again, having to wear dress clothes (gross), and car shopping for DH while we fight with insurance companies. Pro tip, try not to get hit by a driver under the influence, because their insurance company won't accept liability without talking to their driver which is hard to do when THEY'RE IN JAIL 🤬 

I don't miss how much of a PITA the goats were but on stressful days I absolutely miss hugging the bebe goats, sigh. 

Anyway. Fun outing, even if everyone I invited was too busy to come keep me company (that's what happens when I do things spur of the moment, haha).