Where we live in the foothills, only about 20 minutes haul from the lake, we often have different weather than down in the valley. I had heard about fires burning a few hours north but up at our house there was no visible sign of the fires. At the trail head the sky was mostly blue, but looking out through the tress over the lake: Smoke!
N said the smoke was pretty bad where she lived; it’s scary that it’s barely May and it’s already so dry, with fires, heat, and wind already making headlines. I’ll freely admit I’m not adjusting all that well to getting stuff done in the near 90 degree temps. The forecast calls for a 20 degree drop and a chance of showers in the next few days though, just enough to really confuse everyone’s systems!
Yay, Willow is arriving!
Peeking Willow and N’s awesome new tights
Out on the trail the sky started out blue but smoke was obscuring the foothills looking out over the lake. Not good! Still the trails were beautiful as always..
The spillway is really flowing!
Desire was *starving* this whole ride and could barely be bothered to walk or trot for the trying to eat
Yes I am bribing her with a carrot to get anything besides listening-to-spillway-roar-behind-us ears–semi successfully, I might add
Neither of the mares drank until we climbed back up to the visitor center but was only about 11 miles in 3 hours, so not an unreasonable span. Still there was a lot of sweaty, foamy, stinky grey mare to go around!
Desire is still shedding out the very last of her winter goat disguise and the combination of shedding hair, sweat, sunscreen, fly spray, dirt, etc we were both covered in…well. Most of the time I am okay with being grungy especially when dressed and prepped for the occasion but there are still moments that it’s all a bit much. Also, the flies are particularly bad all of a sudden and Desire has already started getting little sores on her back and belly from the bug bites. Apparently it’s time to up everything to full summer heat and bug protocol! But wait it’s going to rain in 3 days..
Ah, Northern California 🙂
Moving the hay net in the trailer manger uncovered this contribution from our chickens. Omelette anyone?
Redheaded Endurance 
Eeee, I love the floor! And the waterfall, but you know how I drool over hardwood 😉 Glad you had a fun ride with N – tell her I *love* those tights!