Tuesday, September 02, 2008

A dream fulfilled

A cross post from my Green Slobber horse blog:

The girls and I visited my mom and stepdad in their beautiful California cabin this summer...10 days of pure bliss! We spent four of those days in the mountains, camping with the horses and trail riding. It has always been a dream of mine to ride in the mountains and I can now say it was everything I had hoped it would be and more. Kayleigh had a blast and led a few of our trail rides. I was a little concerned about her on some of the steeper trails as we don't really have many places in the Midwest that make the horses sit on their butts on the way down! I shouldn't have worried...she rode 'em like a pro.
My mom and Kayleigh, leading the way. We were camping near Truckee, Calif., which is pretty near where the infamous Donner party engaged in cannibalism.
Kayleigh absolutely loved being our trail boss. See her new chinks? She LOVES them! While we were out and about in the mountains they got a few scratches from the trees. She came up with a great story to tell back at camp about how a mountain lion jumped out and attacked her, the chinks protected her and Cheyenne (her horse) galloped up the mountain to save her life. She's quite the storyteller.
The views were incredible. My mom kept apologizing for the skies being so smoky from all the wildfires, but they looked pretty darn clear and blue to me. Guess I'm so used to the humidity haze around here those California mountains skies were stunning.
At the top. Amazing, isn't it? Not a soul or a bit of civilization in sight. LOVE IT!
The view I woke to every morning on that camping trip. I could live with a view like that for the rest of my life.

6 comments:

Kathy said...

I sure do miss you guys.

Anonymous said...

great fun. mt. riding is the best.just have to watch out for them there mt. lions. NICE PICS.

Anonymous said...

glad to see u had a gr8 time :)
more pics soon?

Anonymous said...

great trip and pictures. isn't the view, unreal? i love it. Wish i could get back on a horse.
how did Alexus like the trial ride?

Jenn said...

Kathy...We miss you too!

Uncle David...thank you! It was a blast. We didn't see any actual mountain lions, but we did find some mountain lion tracks which were just as exciting. And I'm pretty sure there were bears outside our tent. :P

a. di...It was wonderful! Yup, more pics of our trip as soon as I can sit down and wait for them to l.o.a.d. Internet has been really off-and-on unreliable at home lately.

grma..The view is spectacular. I was amazed and awed that such awesome places still exist, basically untouched by human meddling. Alexis went on one trail ride and she seemed to enjoy it. She's not much into riding. She and Amy and Tristan spent a lot more time hiking and rock climbing.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of mountain lions...I walked T to the bus stop last week, and one of the other moms who drives her daughter to the bus stop from deeper in the valley said a mountain lion ran across the road in front of their car that morning. She said it looked like a young one. I didn't go for a walk that morning :) She said a neighbor found a big pile o' bear poo the day before, too.