Singing in the rain!

Today is the warmest day of the year so far, so I was determined to ride.  I knew it was going to rain late in the day, but of course when I was ready, it had started sprinkling!  But I decided we were going to cowgirl up and go anyway!  Tomorrow is supposed to be 30 degrees less, so I'm going to take advantage of it!

Corky and I and our trusted trail partner Chance started off!  We kicked up a couple of deer, but Cork just kind of side stepped until he seen they were deer.  All winter long the deer have invaded the pasture trying to get to the hay, so the deer are like his buddies.

We moved here May of '14 and I have a trail system available to me that is an answer to prayer.  I have funny names for trails and roads so I can describe my rides to people.  The first one I'll tell you about is the canopy.  It's a small section of young maples about 100 feet long that when the leaves are on, it's like a canopy shadowing you from the sun.  So after the canopy we turned left!

You can see that the ground is starting to show around the base of trees in spots.   As we went along towards "hydrant" trail, Corky kept trying to take trails that would lead back home, but with gentle guidance went where I wanted.  We meandered through the trails and Chance, though very happy, is definitely out of shape!

Then we came to the reason I call this "hydrant" trail!

There is a fire hydrant in the middle of the forest!  There is also a hand pump, an old wringer washer and some fencing around apple trees.  Evidently at one point someone lived here or had a camp.  There is no sign of a building, though.  I was told it burned down long ago.

On we went until we come to the next trail marker!  A lawn chair!  I can go either way, but we chose left to head back for home!

As we followed the trail home, we came to this stand of pines.  There is just something about a stand of pines for me that calms my soul.

I was feeling very blessed to have a warm rain, listening to Corky walk through the soft snow with the occasional bird song.  As we neared home and I asked Corky to go left again to avoid a flooded area, he chose on his own to take a trail off to the right.  At this point I thought he was tired because he had slowed down quite a bit, so I let him choose his way home.  It was just us three and the forest and it was so calming and serene!  I soon realized Cork was enjoying himself as much as I was, because the turn for home he didn't take!  He took the long way home!  As we neared our road, we came upon this horse-eating rock!  A rock he's seen a dozen times.  Yes, in the snow it looked like a monster coming out of the snow!  I urged him on and we were on the road.

I hope you enjoyed our ride as much as we did!

Janeen and Corky from the UP of Michigan!