Riding With the GunDiva - continuation

At the end of the last post, we had just crossed Fox Creek and made the decision to head for the lake (OK, more of a pond for those of you who have real lakes!).  That meant heading up quite a steep hill...

... continuing up the hill; the trail turns back on itself several times ...

Now, about 2/3rds of the way up, this trail takes a 90* turn and 'hops' up some rocks.  If you look closely, you will see that Mr. Beel almost had a 'seat fail'.  I looked up just in time to see him sliding precariously back onto Ranger's flank.

Of course, in a couple more steps, he had righted himself, but it was a snafu you don't see from Beel very often.  GunDiva was prepared and slide an inch.  A little further and we started hearing the frogs from the pond - which brought huge smiles to our faces, as we had not yet reached the top of the ridge.  And then we saw this ...

Where's the water????  All that light coloration should be covered in pretty blue water!  So, we started around the lake to see just what there was.

 The lake from the other end; some water, but you notice the aspens are not budding out yet here, so there is still hope that we will get run-off when it warms up again.  This is not NEARLY enough water.  It should look like this towards the end of July (only with leaves on the trees, of course.).

Back down the hill, continuing on another trail, to one of Ranger's favorite spots.  He just can't pass up good water, so he holds up the crossing.  Yes, Mr. Daddy, I realize you don't have to do these kinds of stops on your quad - unless it happens to die in the middle :)

Jesse has to be urged to get OUT of the water....

And GunDiva sees it as good obstacle practice ....

So, now we are headed back towards home, having done a clock check.  Darn!  We took the straightest route back to the lodge and did find a snow bank that really needed skirting.  Yeah!

We actually did just skirt the tip of this, leaving little horsey prints at the edge, and got back on the main trail.  We wanted to check the next 'water hole', which turned out to be pretty mucky.

 Now you see where the mud came from in the hoof pictures.  It was right after this ride that we took those shots.

We all got through, and headed up the hill to the 'Hangin' Tree', which we knew was down, but Ranger hadn't been with us that time and HE didn't like what he saw - so he and Beel had a little touching practice.

Oops.  Better get a move on, so with a little trot out, we high-tailed it for home.

So, here I sit, watching it snow.  One side of me very excited about the additional moisture; we had 3 inches when we got up this morning, some sunshine, and now more snow - hopefully another 3 inches.  The other side of me can hardly wait for more ride time.  Wish my GPS was working.  This is the earliest we have been able to ride in years, and I would love to be tallying up miles.  We were out for about 1 1/2 hours and  I would say we covered close to six miles.  Our guys walk about 4 mph when they are in good shape, which they are not right now, so they did well.  Not endurance speed, but a whole lot of fun!  Thanks GunDiva.
Bionic Cowgirl