Lulabelle's Managerie: Sometimes bad decisions are good lessons

Although I wouldn’t really say I made bad decision, just one that didn’t turn out so well!

So I was rather excited about my ride on Sunday, I chose Sunday because it would be not as hot. I fed Lucy extra hay the night before and extra rope and ride both the night before and the morning of. I bought snacks for myself for out on the trail, I made myself eat breakfast and I had new easyboots to try out.

We didn’t end up using the easyboots but that is really not part of this story.

So this was our projected ride:

(the blue line is the route I was taking)

Long, but I felt we were up to it, I felt that coming up Howard King could be a bit strenuous but that we could take it slow.

So I turned my GPS on at Sandy point (after walking down my road, and then riding up Gazos) and did a lot of trotting down Whitehouse Canyon Road. She was really good about keeping up a good pace, although for her it was rather slow.

Turning off onto Henry Creek was the first time in a long time we have gone on a trail we didn’t know out in Big Basin! It looked a bit foreboding, as it was pretty steep and along a ridge.

Here is the view at Henry Creek Trail:

Very pretty!

So I walked down the Henry Creek trail and was pretty much cursing it as the most horrendous trail ever by the time we finally got into the shade! It was one of those roller coaster trails, that goes up and down a lot! And for some reason Lucy was not into going downhill that day, go figure! She also thoroughly enjoyed walking really close to the brush and swiping herself on it. I allowed it figuring she needed to itch herself until I found that she had caught her saddle blanket on something and pulled half of it out from under the saddle!

I was rather surprised to find that when we got to Henry Creek there was no bridge! I’m not used to that, usually in my local parks little baby creeks that dry up in the summer have bridges over them! This on the other hand was a substantial creek that was rather deep for late summer. Creek crossing is not a problem for Lucy, unless of course the creek bottom is all very slippery bedrock! I let her go in before crossing to cool herself off and she almost slipped and fell in several times. She seemed glade to get out. So how to cross was a bit of an issue. I decided against riding her in case she fell while crossing, at least then only my saddle might sustain injury. So I lead her across, or my like we both slipped and slide across! It was refreshing to be splashed though!

So at that point we were on the Skyline to the sea trail. I have been on this trail before, but not for many years. We followed the trail up to where I assumed the Howard King trail was. There we got a bit of a surprise, the Howard King Trail was not open to horses! So looking at my map the trail says it allows horses further up so I assumed the whole trail was open to them.

So now I had three choices:

Go back up Henry Creek Trail ( I really didn’t want to have to experience that trail twice in one day!)

Go down to the McCrary Ridge Trail which would take us a couple miles out of our way.

Go way down almost to the ocean and take the trail that goes up to chalk mountain (which is a couple miles down the trail from where I turned on to Henry Creek.

I choose the McCrary Ridge Trail.

So we went trotting the two miles or so back down the Skyline to the Sea trail , which was fun, its a nice flat trail.

When turning onto the McCrary Ridge trail its posted that its recommended for horses only as it has steep climbs, nice to know! But hey I am on a horse and therefore should be fine, right? Right!? Um yeah. We would have been fine if the trail had stayed in the trees, like the first half, and if it hadn’t been such a hot weekend, and if I hadn’t decided to get off to spare Lucy the extra weight (yeah 130 lb is so much to a 1050lb horse!) and if I hadn’t poured most of my water into my odwala to water it down after the creek and then refilled the bottle with creek water. Creek water is bearable when cold, and I would rather go 10 miles without then drink it hot! This coming from the girl who grew up and still lives off creek water, but I guess its all in what your used to!

So I didn’t drink until the creek on Gazos, bad idea as it gave me a headache.

So anyway, the McCrary Ridge trail was nasty! Steep, hot and unbearable. Before I even managed to get to the top I was desperately wishing I could be home! And considering I could see close to where my ridge is from there, way across the valley, it was a bit disheartening. Because I felt like hell I assumed Lucy did too, although other then slowing down and taking lots of breaks she didn’t seem that bad. I managed to drag myself back up on top of her at the top when we got to Hihn Hammond Road.

Nice views though!

Hihn Hammond road would be a lovely ride under other conditions. Lucy didn’t like going down hills at all so I had to get off to keep her pace up.

It was so wonderful getting to Gazos! I turned my GPS off at this point since it was close to being out of battery.

Gazos was easy peasy! Lucy recovered quite well, especially after she drank and we trotted most of Gazos. She drank again at Sandy Point (oh did I mention that she drank at Sandy Point on the way up? Very impressive! She is learning drink before we head out!)

Down Gazos and up our road was also very easy, although we still ended up getting home really late!

So all in all we were out for nine hours, we road between 22 and 24 miles and amazingly recovered well! Lucy seemed fine, and I just needed a good night sleep!

But we defiantly won’t be going on that ride again for a little bit, even though Lucy recovered well I want to make sure we don’t get caught in the heat again! But it is a good ride for working up hills, that long ridge is a good workout then at the top it stays mostly flat until back around at Sandy Point. Maybe in a couple months when the weather is cooler.

I need to make up my mind if I want to continue with distance on our rides or stick with 10 mile rides and up our speed.

So here is the route I ended up taking: