I luv living in the desert. Sometimes I wonder how I came to be born in Scotland because I'm a desert gal thru and thru. I never ever tire of climbing up to high points, listening to the breeze and admiring the view. This is a high point round these parts. I love the 360 view from up here. I can name all the peaks and point out trails in every direction. I feel like I know this little piece of terra firma pretty well.
Yesterday I was out rallying around on my mtb for a while and discovered the elusive trail beavers have busy beavers. I rode about a mile of brand new trail. It petered out but obviously some little trail beaver has a route planned. It was sweet, really sweet. So I know this area better than most and still stumble on the occasional treat of fresh trails. Whomever built the section I rode yesterday is doing a darn fine job - keep on with it buddy :-) Very nice.
This is my Ergomo tally for the day. Power savvy geeks can figure out how long I was out for and how hard I rode.
While I was out I spooked a horse. I thought I gave it enough room but I was wrong and I'm sorry about that. I'd rather share the trail with a hundred horses pooping all over the place than a single ATV.
I was up on the Barrel Roll trail. I saw the horse and rider about half a mile ahead. It was beautiful, calm and peaceful and they were meandering up the trail - pretty picture to see. Nobody else was out there. Just us two ladies riding our ponies and lovin' being out on such a beauty afternoon. I was jamming along listening to some fine tunes (mix 13). When I was 50 yards behind the horse and rider I slowed to their speed and called out "hi there". The horse freaked out leaping off the trail and skitting around. Fortunately the lady was a fine horsewoman and didn't fall off - that would have been terrible.
She was furious once she got control of the horse and whirled it around to face me. She couldn't find me at first as she was looking in the foreground thinking I was right up her ass. It took her a while to scan far enough down the trail to find me. She chewed on me hard when she found me tho'. I waited until her mouth had stopped moving then turned off my mp3 :-o and asked her how I could have done it better. She didn't really have a better solution for me. Just told me horses think bikes are predators. I cruised on feeling bad I'd got her and her horse worked up and spoiled her ride. Hopefully she got over it quick and back to the business of enjoying the afternoon. Horses and bikes make uncomfortable bed fellows sometimes...