Wednesday

Monday morning we went riding with Al Haggerty.  He is an excellent guide since he has wintered out here for 10+ years and knows his way around.  We were headed for the baby Jesus trail and he said we should pack a lunch.  Cool!  So I put on the sleeveless top, slathered on the 30 sunblock on my white arms added a sweatshirt and off we went at 10am.

Lady is looking for one of those humongous jack rabbits, they are about the size of Gracie with big mule ears.

Okay look straight out in front of Al and that is where we rode about 2/3 of the way up that mountain.

Getting closer.  It is hard to judge the distance out here because it is so open.

Word has it that two old ladies put this trail in and it took them about 3 months.  It is very wiggley through these rocks and even when you are riding on it  and look around it doesn't look like a likely horse trail but it is really cool and definately the riding highlight of this trip so far.

So it looks very brown and dry right now but they tell me come spring it will turn green and be filled with flowers and all the dry river beds will be flooded and overflowing.  I hope that happens before we leave, I want to see all those flowers! Also we are riding in a free range area which means there are loose cattle roaming the desert.  So you never know when you will see them and they have special watering troughs out there for them and us.  I wonder what in the heck those cows eat.  I mean you see the pics of this place, do you see any grass?  But all the cows are fat and shiny so they must find something to eat.  Sometimes when we see them they have those jumping cholla stuck all over their faces, OUCH.

We rode about 6 hours with 1/2 hour for lunch.  The Tramp had kind of a rough day, he was terrified of drinking out of the first cattle waterer because it had a water puddle around it so Terry worked with him quite a while until he would drink happily while standing in the puddle.  Then he got stuck in a rock V on the trail and fell down and couldn't get up.  He didn't panic at all just layed there thinking about it until he figured it out.  I have a video of it I will send you via email hopefully you can open it.  He didn't get hurt at all and was a real trooper on those rocky hills.
Today we went to the Gem Show, more on that later. Goodnight.