memorial day weekend 2013

last week was a long week.

I was more than ready for friday to end.

and now thinking back I can’t remember what I did on saturday, besides bbq-ing that night. saturday day must have been pretty exciting.

if I recall correctly I did nothing but relax. I did teach saturday morning fit camp at the gym and then came home. I took a nice long peaceful nap in the recliner. then I finally showered and headed off to a friends’ house to bbq for the evening. it was great company and great conversation. I don’t think I ever laugh so hard as when I’m around these people. many more fun memories to come.

sunday morning I woke up with Hubby with every intention of going for my long run, but my ankle was being funky that morning. I had plans on meeting my parents on the mountain to go hiking but thought that paired with 12 miles might have over done it. so I cancelled my run and chose hiking. I met my parents on the mountain and we had plans to head up to black mountain lookout.

I didn’t have to wait long for the fur-kids to load up.

this would be the earliest we’ve made the trip.

we immediately ran into snow at the road to the trailhead so it looked like we were walking to the trailhead.

we had to do a little bush whacking to get around the bigger snow drifts but nothing too major.

 

we made the trailhead with little trouble. but still had to bust snowdrifts.

this WAS the trail. all snow covered. some spots were clear. some…not so much.

if I had used my noggin’ I wouldn’t have hiked in chacos…BUT I didn’t. my feet got wet and cold and muddy. but I didn’t lose any toes.

we finally lost the trail under the snowdrifts and decided it wasn’t smart to keep going with 3 dogs and a thought of “maybe that’s the trail??”

the dogs didn’t mind the snow one bit. they were able to cool off and get hydrated.

my feet are still muddy. nice chaco tan started though.

I came home. sat down just long enough before it was time to batten down the hatches. a nice evening t-storm rolled through and even though it rained hard I still had every window open to listen to the thunder and smell the rain.

this morning once again I had every intention of going for my run. my calves were extra tight from the almost 4 miles of hiking from the day before and I was in no real mood to head out for 2 hours.

the high school rodeo was in town and we knew a kid participating so…once again I would have had to be up and out early. the dogs needed out about 10 minutes before my alarm was set to go off which started off the day on the wrong foot. I crawled back into bed looking for motivation. the minutes slowly clicked by and I wasn’t going anywhere. so once again I bailed on my miles to be accomplished.

we made it up to the rodeo and spent most of the day at the fairgrounds.

being around the horses made me want to ride our own. as we headed out of town to get ours a nice little storm rolled over the mountain and I thought for sure our plans were spoiled. but we got two horses loaded and headed out towards the mountain to ride on a winter range for elk.

the mountain was clear by the time we got to the unload spot.

we saddled the horses and started to get on.

this is about when the fun really started. easy always spins when you try to get on him and that’s what he was doing today. Hubby asked if he wanted me to hold him and I told him no. I wanted to do it by myself. I’m independent…what can I say? I got my foot in the stirrup and stepped up to get on and easy started to buck. I almost had my other leg up and over. I held on for about 3 good bucks and then got tossed and landed in the grass on my belly. when I got up my pants and hands had grass stains and my right arm was on fire. it felt like I tore a muscle. Hubby held onto easy and I got on him with no troubles but he still felt wonky. so I told Hubby to just let me walk him a little bit and get my nerves calmed down.

once I felt good enough to continue up the open range everything seemed fine. easy was still being fussy but we just calmly kept walking.

we got up the hill to about treeline and started side hilling across.

it was gorgeous up there. slight breeze that kept things cool. I wasn’t doing any of the work so I was a little on the chilly side.

this whole ride slim hadn’t been walking well. he just wasn’t picking up his feet. we were almost back to the truck.  he had one good trip, went down on his elbows. Hubby started heading right over the dashboard. I thought they had it saved and then slim’s face went into the dirt and I thought they were going completely over. things could have been a lot worse had they rolled completely over. Hubby was able to bail. slim stood up and kind of shook himself off. Hubby took the saddle horn to the inside of his leg so he’s a little sore there. slim had a little limp when we unloaded him back at the ranch but we think he was just stiff. plus slim has hurt his front shoulder before so it tweaked it again. after this ride though I think we decided that slim will just be a pasture horse. no more serious riding. just a fun out in the pasture, easy little ride kind of horse. he’s just too old to be able to get out there anymore.

at this rate I should have just tracked down our mare and took her instead of slim. but she was being all funky just in the pasture. crow hopping and bucking all around when I went to catch her. with that storm rolling in at the time. it wasn’t smart on our part.

we’re all home. fed. showered. and icing certain parts of our sore bodies from our own rodeo.

work week begins again tomorrow and by golly I’ll get those 12 miles in come hell or high water. and it might just be high water if its anything like the last 2 days have gone.