We don’t usually drive twin rigs to an adventure.  Long story short I won’t bore you with the details.  AND we don’t usually park on the highway but we had no choice with this trail.  At least the turn out was huge so we could get out-of-the-way of speeding cars.  Ya gotta be saddled up already or get saddled up quick.  But who would not wanna get out in that beautiful forest lickity split.

Of course I had my gigantic Lassen/Plumas County map handy.  WAY too big for my little pommel pack but hey….ya gotta have a map right?  It was all the forest service office had. I’m not sure why Carol is using her phone.  A map? A text? A email?  Not out here.  But she has a cool navigating tool that tells us our altitude and coordinates.  She knows how to tell where we are.  What a concept.  With my gigantic map and Ms. Cosmo’s….I mean Carols navigating tool we can never get lost.  We have good old fashion signs too.   Like the one Cosmo is ignoring stuck on the tree behind her.  In case you can’t make the sign it says Canyon Route that way.  We DON’T want to go that way.  We DO want to go the Meadows Route.  Hah hah!  We have come 2 miles.  It is always nice to know how far you have come.This trail was a bit challenging.  Steep going up, up, up which is work for the horses and then steep on the sideways going across.  We are talking erosion, avalanche steep.  We looked straight ahead with steady leg pressure INTO the mountain and light stirrups in case we need to bail off the horses in an emergency.  This is when you appreciate your calm steady horse.  This is getting WAY to serious don’t you think?That is why we need to stop, let our horses rest and taste the GREEN grass.  A trail riding treat.And have a beer…..NOT play the flute.  No really Cosmo is not playing the flute.  She has this method of keeping beer cold which I appreciate at times like this.  You see those green saddle packs?  The ones in the back are packed with rock salt.  Rock salt to keep those beers frosty.  Except this beer, our only one,  got a bit too frosty.  We ended up drinking about two sips each.  Most of it was splattered on Cosmo’s front pommel bag as you can see and the rest was solidified into immortal foam.   It was a nice ritual anyway and cooled Orion off to boot……ha ha no pun.  Orion is clearly not focused on drinking any beer.   He is clearly focused on a potential monster who might be lurking in the forest.Yeah we found the way again.  Spencer meadows is where we are headed but don’t have time to go all the way unfortunately.  AND we hear there is no water there.  Not good for our thirsty horses who don’t drink beer. But just as good we make it to a beautiful mountain top.  This is were your heart gets big and you have to fill your lungs up with air.   This is were you are glad you persevered and made it all the way up here.  This is were you love your horse and this world more that any thing in the world. This is were we finally get off our horses, find a good log, eat and yak, eat and yak, eat and yak and solve all my …..I mean our problems.  And our horses gladly stand still.  It is called a trail nap.  Har har……I don’t usually like to put so many photo’s of myself into a blog post but I could not stop smiling after riding to the top of that mountain.   Still can’t stop smiling.   Eventually we met the end of the trail and you know what that means.

Home Sweet Home.

Adios Amigos!