I took Simon on a ride this weekend.  It was a perfect day for some mountain time.  It was sunny, and just the right temperature with the slightest breeze.  We started off pretty early and I had a hoodie on.  And we finished around lunch time and I was comfortably down to a tank top. 

Fire road that comes out of pet cemetery parking to the trail

Daisy, Simon and I did the Pet Cemetery – Tower Loop ride.  I posted about this loop back in December complete with map and details of turns so I won’t bother with that here.  https://blueridgepony.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/trail-report-pet-cemetery-tower-loop/

For this loop I turn right at this sign and head to the tower.

The trail was still nice and clear, with lots of fresh green growth and pretty colors coming in.  The squirrels were out and so were some of the bugs.  The creeks were flowing and it really couldn’t have been a better ride. 

Mushroom covered tree

Since I used my new stirrups with the cage front and wore sneakers I got off and hiked some.  I figure this will work out my hiking muscles and my riding muscles.  It actually helped my ankle stretch out.  Which seems like a good thing. 

The short bit of fire road from the tower to pick the trail back up on the right.

Simon was a little annoying when I was on foot.  He stopped to paw the ground a few times like he was going to lay down for a nice roll.  He only did this on very narrow trails when were going down a pretty steep grade with a drop off to one side. He gently pushed me a few times and also tried to nip me in a back more than once.  I think he was trying to be annoying.

It might be hard to see, but those black dots are tadpoles.

We passed some bikers which Simon was very excited about and nickered to them until they were completely out of sight. We were also passed by a small truck on the road hack back to where we parked which he whinnied at until it drove over the horizon and I had to hold him back from racing full tilt after it.  He also chassed after Daisy along the twisty trails, nipping at her when she let us get close enough.  Needless to say he had plenty of spunk and we got in quite a bit of gallop and lots of trot.      

Simon, always being silly.

One really cool part of the trail was a peanut butter message jar at the picnic area where the fire road ends at the tower.  We added our note to the jar after reading the others.  Pretty cool idea.  I’ll dedicate a post to it later this week. 

This is the picnic table with the peanut butter jar tied under it. You can see it on the right hand side with its red lid.

It was a great morning ride and I am already looking forward to the next one.  There are a side trails off Tillman road and other fire road access points I want to check out.  I would like to try parking at a slightly different point and give some of these other trails a try soon. 

Looking at at the creek we crossed to get off the trail and back on Tillman Rd for a hack back to the parking area.

Looking back at the tower. The trail we came up to it on is just behind it to the right going into the woods.