Another Outing into the Woods...

...and back home through Town...
Yesterday I went back across the freeway to mark that trail I almost couldn't find when it got dark. Bright pink flagging should do the trick, right? Storm did finally have a "bad day" at the start. Guess he was tired of being such a god boy, LOL...he is not the most motivated horse when leaving "home" (does ok if trailered out or with other horses...just doesn't like leaving from home) and I am not much either (hate riding by myself...kinda lonely and boring...yes, the horses is there, but it is more fun with another person around). So he played "mule" a few times and planted his feet while leading and I would have to go and chase him with the crop a little. And then he kept trying to turn around and go home. Almost got the rope from me once, while I was trying to hang a flag. BAD BOY! But when he finally realized we were going down the trail no matter what, he settled back down to his normal good self.
Thought I would take some pictures of the trails...


This is part of the woodsy trail going through the demonstration forest from Terri's to the freeway....

This is the trail from the woods up onto the freeway...you have to kinda scramble up the side...










This is the 4 lane fwy, US 101 (you can only see the first two lanes from here...I am still partly down the embankment waiting for traffic to clear enough to walk across) looking South (the Trinidad sign) and North (call box, heads toward Crescent City, Ca)




This is where the trail goes into the woods from the freeway after crossing...stop laughing, I'm serious! It's covered by low hanging branches...was hard to find after not having been over there for some time....

Ok, how's this view? I hunkered down and shot under the branches...the horse has to trust you and just duck under and "dive into the trees" hoping that there is somewhere to go...

Where's Waldo?.....I means, where's Storm? :) Find the hidden horse... this is just the beginning of the trail from the fwy to the lumber road...up ahead.... THE TUNNEL OF HORRORS...ok, kidding....but you'll see why it is called that now :)

This is the entrance to the Tunnel....if you were a horse, it would probably look like the door to horrors unknown too... :) That "black hole" is where the trail goes...it is not quite THAT bad, but on an overcast day, even with a flash, this was the best I could do....
















This is inside the Tunnel...again, it isn't this bad, but pretty darn close on a day like this...wet, dark, and very tight...no horses with claustrophobia need apply... :)


Storm inside the Tunnel...it is this narrow most the way...bout 100yards I would guess? Maybe more.. As you can see, he thinks this is a stupid trail...WHAT trail ???? he asks....
One of the many logs he has to climb over once out on the logging roads...this one is about medium..some are smaller, some are taller.. he is pretty good about it all.
We marked the trail, then I decided to follow the far right logging road to see where it went, as it was WAY to slick to get up the steep clay hill after the 2-4" of rain we had the day before. It ended up splitting a few times and I decided to stay to the right. I ended up on a logging deck and saw a gravel road and some tractor type equipment just a little below. Went down and low and behold, we popped out NOT on another logging road as expected, but on somebody's property with a new house being built.... WTF? Where the heck ARE we? Hmmmm...well, saw a gate and another road and figured we could take the road to wherever it went, if we could get through or around the gate. It went around, so onto the road we went. I had to think for a little bit about what direction to go...decided on left, as the signs put up for the housebuilders to find the house were all facing to be viewed from that direction (meaning that way was civilization, LOL)...ended up on a paved back road and the mailbox numbers confirmed my direction was correct. Followed the paved road until it popped out somewhere that was finally familiar...

We were on the frontage road that parallels the Fwy on the east side... that meant we were about a mile from town.
So I could turn back, or go into town and then not quite 2 miles to Terri's house...maybe even less. I hadn't ridden storm on roads yet and only remembered the "Dreaded Hamilton Road" incidences from Amber's (usually involving lots of panic, spinning horses, and sometimes Amber on the ground...hmmmmmmmm). Town was a 15mph speed zone, but Patrick's Point Drive (to get to Terri's) was a 45mph road with some idiot drivers that do not slow or move for horses. I used to ride my mare down the road all the time, and she was fine with it, but Storm would be a new experience. Well, I figured I would go ahead as it was so close to home. All else fails, I could get off and just lead (a long walk for me, but oh well).

So down the frontage road we went (not much traffic this way as it dead ends with only one or two roads off it) and headed towards town.
We met two cars, both driving carefully, and Storm did fine. In fact, we have some BIG trucks go wizzing by on the Fwy next to us, and the only thing that "bothered" him (made him toss his head the first two times...whoopee) was when a car would change lanes, going over the "bumps" in the markings and make a bbbbbbrrrrrrrttttttttttt kinda sound....
Once in town, I had to go under the freeway again, so I got off just to be safe (busy area with two exits and on-ramps feeding cars into and out of town, and then the weird and loud noises overhead when cars go over on the Fwy' and I didn't want him jumping in front of a car if he did spook. Well, no biggie there either, as usual. We stopped on the main cross street (would then be heading right to go down Patrick's Point) and took more pictures....

This is the local "bike locker" (so you can keep it safe while you carpool to work or take the bus or whatever). The town decorates it like a big gift every year around this time. Storm almost dragged me over to go look at it...he probably thought something great was in there for him :)

And here is the one and only gas station (Trinidad is pretty much a main street, some feeder streets, and that is it...not big, but a nice quiet town to live in...)
After the photoshoot, I hopped back on and rode down PP to Terri's. Plenty of vehicles of varying kinds passed us. Some were careful and slowed down and moved over, but some were the usual idiotic drivers and went zipping by about 4ft from us (we were in the "bike lane"...well, kinda, LOL...what passes for one anyway... most the time, except when we could hit some grass patches by yards or businesses) and Storm really just ignored them. He was more focused on going home. So we got home with absolutely no issues and had a great time. He even offered a few good racks for once on the grass, vs the pace he was doing before... whoo hoo!
So over all, despite the goofy start, he did great!