Friday dawned clear, sunny and best of all, no wind- perfect weather for riding! Unfortunately, due to my own lack of planning, I arrived at the stables about a half hour too late to joing some friends who were going on a long ride. What to do?
Normally I don't like riding into the mountains alone but I definately wanted to spend time on the trail so I decided to go anyway. I made my way down the wash, past the Equestrian center and headed east along the 210 Freeway until I crossed underneath at Wheatland Street. I then made my way accross Foothill Boulevard and proceeded east along Foothill until I hit a dirt access road leading towards the mountain fire roads. The entrance to the fireroad starts just past J-Bar Ranch (I really need to come up with a map to explain this better!).
It's a steep one to two mile ride up the fire road and Max was not particularly enthusiastic about it and on several occassions he attempted to turn around. A couple of swift kicks with the spurs disuaded him from that plan.
As we ascended, we encountered various hikers and even one guy on a unicycle! Max wasn't sure about the unicycle but he soldiered on, urged along by my spurs. I had to stop Max on several occassions to rest him but eventually we made it to the top.
I then followed the fire road further east, making for Doc Larsen Flats (aka Five Points) where I'd then pick up the Doc Larsen Trail and head west. The basic idea was to complete a loop, ending back at the stables. At one point I got off Max and walked him for a bit to give him a rest and we then mounted again.
As we proceeded along the fire road, I then heard the distinct whine of dirt bike engines and thought "Oh boy!" Technically motorcycles/dirt bikes/ATVs are banned from the fire roads by the US Forest Service but the prohibition is frequently ignored so one has to be vigilant when riding the fire roads. A little bit later, we finally encountered the dirt bikes (there were two of them) stopped at a bend in the road. I thought fine, let me just slide by with Max and get some distance and everything should be fine.
Despite my waving hand and calling out, the two dirt bikers were completely oblivious and they then proceed to start their engines and race up the road towards me. I was waving and shouting by this time and Max was getting upset so I was spinning him in place and trying to keep some distance from the edge of the road (I didn't even want to think about the drop-off!).
Finally the two idiot dirt bikers saw me and they cut their engines (thank god). They apologized profusely and I wasn't in the mood to push the issue that motorcycles are prohibited (I was more concerned about controlling Max). We managed to work our way past and get some distance before they started off.
We finally reached Doc Larsen Flats and then proceeded down the Doc Larsen Trail. After a bit, we finaly made it to the bathtub and it was here that I gave Max a long rest and let him drink from the tub. After awhile, a mountain biker showed up, travelling from the way we'd come from. Max wasn't sure about the bike and he began to back up but I quickly got him under control and got him to relax. The biker and I spoke for awhile about the idiot dirt bike people and he then proceeded on his way. Since he was travelling the same way that we were, I wanted to give him time to get some distance before I started with Max.
Max knows the Doc Larsen Trail pretty well and he knew that we were heading home so he whole attitude was now energized (no surprise there!). We then started back at a good walk- I wasn't going to let Max trot out even though he wanted to. At this point, I found using both hands on the reins to be a big help- I was able to rate his speed but not keep constant pressure on the bit (which is something you don't want to do).
Eventually we made our way down the trail, past the Oaks and then headed past Middle Ranch on the last leg for home. At this point, Max actually relaxed a bit so by the time we got to the stables, we pretty much "ambled in".
Then to really test Max, after I'd let him rest for awhile, we went out again, this time with two friends for a short ride around the lake in the Hansen Dam Basin. At first Max wasn't happy about this but after realizing that he had to do it and he was now with other equine companions, his atttitude improved. By the time we returned it was getting dark and all-in-all, we'd spent about six hours in the saddle. My rear and back were definately feeling it and I'm sure Max was also feeling it so I added a good dose of Bute to his bucket.
Overall, an excellent day for riding!
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