On the Trail

Brenda and I had a busy pre-Christmas time so the last little while we have been sticking pretty close to home. I have been making my almost daily pilgrimage to the pool to try and keep all the good eating around DPS at bay or at least so I don't have to buy new clothes.

Most days I have the pool to myself for almost the entire 2 hours that I swim but Brenda has joined me a couple of times, so that eight lanes is a little crowded with the 2 of us in there. I am sure the lifeguards are bored to death watching one guy plod back and forth, back and forth.

Yesterday we combined a Costco run with a trip over to Gold Canyon for a session for both of us with Dr. Cassie the Chiropractor lady. She had done such a good job with Brenda's adjustment that I thought I would let her take a whirl at my lower back and leg issue. She took a couple of X-rays and said yep I still had a backbone and it looked like it was 64 years old, so with a few crunches and a lot of cracking she finished up with me and sent me home. I am never sure whether this stuff works or not but this morning in the pool my lower back felt great so maybe there is something to it all.

Today after my swim I raced home to grab a sandwich and then threw my saddle in the truck and headed over to Phil Staden's place. Phil had brought down three horses and offered me an opportunity to take one of them out on a ride. Cash was a great little pony, well behaved and a pleasure to ride that was for sure. It has been months since I last rode and that time my leg was killing me so I was eager to see if that issue was still there. We took a trail we had scouted out a year or two ago west of us. It has some challenging spots and some just nice wash riding so it was a great place to test out my leg.

Phil and Don

 It was great to be back in the saddle, the leg stood up OK. Rene' the fellow at the back of that shot is the guy who bought your brothers place. Thanks Phil for the great horse.

Picket Post and ATVing

This week I spent some time at the pool everyday getting my routine back up to snuff. Yesterday Thursday was the first time I make the 4000 yards I try to achieve each day. Took ten days to get there after having a sloth like summer where swimming wasn't on the agenda. But it is hard to ignore Maricopa's great facility just down the road and that morning swim is usually just me, 8 lanes of pool, and a life guard or two.

After the swim I headed out to Picket Post as I heard a rumour friends of our Dave and Linda Modahl were going to be there for a Lone Rangers ride this weekend. The Modahl's live up by Seligman now so this might be as close as they will get this winter so I wanted to take the opportunity to pop by for a visit. I had a nice chat with them and over the time I spent there some others folks I know, Judy, Suzi, Becky, and Gary pulled into camp so I got to say hi to a bunch of riders.

PIcket Post Mountain

 It is always great to see old friends and it is especially nice to do it in as beautiful a spot as this.

This morning I was intending to head to the pool but Matt called from Dogpound North late last night and said there appeared to be a lake forming in the barnyard back home so I stuck around here to give him what help I could on the phone as he troubleshot that issue. Turns out the waterer had burst a hose, so he was able to shut it down and will replace the hose in the next day or two. Meanwhile the horses have the other waterer to use so all is under control on the northern ranges.

Once the water issue was resolved at DPN I thought it was a good time to take Blue II for a spin down at the end of Warren. There are a bunch of trails down there that I have ridden in the past with Blue and I thought some of them might be OK with an ATV. Some of it is State Trust Land but I have always had my permit up to date so that wasn't an issue. I ran into some hikers down there from Rocky Mountain House and had a chat with them about some of the places they ride their quads when they aren't hiking.

Blue II ready to unload

 Although many of the trails are good enough to use the Commander on, it is still a little bit more restricted than a horse, when you are on horseback it is kind of go where you like, but with these machines you need to stay on the commonly used trails so you don't cause unwanted impacts to a delicate environment.

Along the trail.

I am still getting a feel for where this new outfit will go. And travelling alone out there it is always good to use an abundance of caution. Although the likelihood of getting bucked off is somewhat less than on horseback the consequences would be just as serious I expect. For the first 20 years of my working life I was in the back country with either four wheel drives or tracked vehicles and learned along time ago not to get myself into spots that might be challenging to get out of so I am always looking around the next corner to make sure I can get back. It is amazing the places that this unit will crawl over and up though. I am sure as I get more familiar with it my horizons will expand a little.

Top of the Mountain.

And here is the view from just behind the machine. The red circle is where our truck and trailer are and the X marks DPS. Wonder how many drug lookouts saw me go by and wondered what I was up to.

Back in Canada Brenda has returned to Alberta from her Rare Disease Conference and after a couple of days of rest will jump on a plane to the Valley of the Sun. We are looking forward to seeing her on Monday.