Riding for the Website

Last weekend we headed off on a ride that we had done a few weeks ago. Nope we haven’t run out of new horizons but this time we were on an organized ride that was raising funds to support the website that has led us to many of the great places we have been this year. The Arizona Back Country Riders or AZBCR group posts a lot of information for trailriding and sport horse events here in Arizona so we have benefited from their site and over the next month or so will attend 3 or 4 rides supporting their site. This ride has been called many things but I like the name our friend “K” gave it when he called it the Goldmine Trail so that is what I am calling it.

Here are our horses just hanging around on their highline resting up for the ride on Saturday morning.

And our friends “K” and “Teresa’s”, along with “K”.

When everybody was ready in the morning we had 23 riders showing up to support the site.

Most of the trail was up the Hassampya River and then up some of the tributary washes. Along the way we found a couple of watering holes/swimming holes depending on your point of view.

Now we aren’t the only folks and critters using these desert oasis or cienega’s as they are called in the Southwest are used by the wildlife and cattle as well as insects. You can see the screen ramp to allow any critters who fall in to extricate themselves from the containers. Sharp eyed long time readers will realize that this is the same ride that Blue and I had a interaction with a cholla cactus on a few weeks ago. I am glad to report that any folks who came along just to see the rough stock portion of the ride re-enacted were disappointed.

Here is Brenda on the last leg into camp, probably already planning that great Cowboy Casserole that she had whipped up for the potluck later in the evening. We really enjoy the camaraderie that this group fosters and especially the opportunity to hear some new stories and maybe spin a yarn or two about the Northern Ranges. Maybe, just maybe we may convince some of these folks that you don’t have to hide out from the sun all summer as long as you get a little higher in latitude and we have some great spots along the Eastern Slopes of the Canadian Rockies that we would love to share with our Arizona friends.

Special thanks to "K” and “Teresa” and “Dave” and “Linda” who have put up with us all winter and shown us such great riding spots. Below is a link to all the photo’s I took along this ride.

Goldmine Trail.