Narnia, Again

8.5 miles at an average speed of 3.6mph.  1,500 feet of elevation gain and ditto that loss.  Not bad, considering that it was still/again snowing through whole first half of the ride.  But even the barn driveway...

Took this when I had stopped the car to move a downed branch out of the way and had a bit of trouble getting underway again after.  Briefly thought I'd had to back all the way down to the road and start over again, but no.  Snow tires are love.

..was so pretty that I could not bear to give up on my trail-ride plan in favor of schooling inside.  Tucker was dubious; he had only just been turned out and wasn't sure he wanted to come back in.

Made me walk most of the way down to get him.

"But I just found the grass!"

The view was worth the trouble, though.

The causeway ahead, with frozen swamp to left and right.

Looking out over one of the hayfields.

Winter woods pictures never turn out as well as I'd like, but you can see how the snow is weighing down the branches .

The swimming hole in winter.  That tiny little speck just off the point is a person dragging a sled.  Not sure what that was all about...

The way back from the dog park, equipment shed looking very rustic ahead on the right.

Confession: we did get lost trying to follow the trail down the backside of the mountain.  I had no trouble following it last time I hacked that way in the snow, but this time we ended up mostly making our own trail and so I decided to better-part-of-valor that one on the way back.  We cruised along the dirt road -- it was snowing more heavily on the north side of the mountain and occasionally the blowing powder made for a brief white out; it was pretty wonderful! -- and down to the causeway, back-tracked to the mountain trail and instead kept going straight and bailed onto the road, then threaded back through the farm and down for a loop around the dog park.

The snow made for reasonable footing and we did get some short stretches of trotting in (and a very few very brief canters), though as the average speed suggests, the overwhelming majority of the ride was in walk.  Tuck felt great and very sound, including during an experimental stretch of trot on the plowed and paved road.  So that's good news!


We have another demo saddle arriving tomorrow, something I'd prearranged before deciding to demo the Specialized and probably just as well; waiting on that has kept me patient and a point of comparison should be useful info.  Unfortunately we're also heading directly into another frigid snap...  So it was extra-nice to get some outdoor miles in while we could.  And now back to bundling up.