We climbed up that long rocky jeep trail though the scenic canyons.... lots and lots of rock as we remembered. It got colder, the higher we climbed. For a while the rains held back which made riding conditions more comfortable. Today, Bob and I were riding with Lucy Trumbull who was planning on riding fairly slow in order to finish on her young horse. I had the same plan with my youngster. We decided that Bob would part ways with us somewhere halfway down the trail, and that Lucy and I would ride the rest of the trail together, if I survived the "separation anxiety" that Dakota would subject me to when Yahoo disappeared from sight. Luckily he was vastly improved from the previous time and it really wasn’t a big deal. We started up the long trail next to the asphalt road, which was less than 1/2 way from Darwin. This was and always has been the most boring part of that day.... in the cold wind, it was even more of a bummer trail. We began to climb towards the top of the hill that would take us down to Darwin, and the rain began again. This time it was blowing straight at us, freezing cold and stinging your eyes when it hit. I resorted to my sunglasses to protect my eyes and then wished for little windshield wipers on them.....but it was better than the pain! I will add ski goggles to my riding attire if I ever have to ride in weather like this again! The sloshy wet ground turned to snow as we climbed. My first time riding in snow and it was pretty cool! My horse was born and raised in Eastern Washington so he didn’t bat an eye at the change of footing. Yahoo’s done Day 2 - and ridden the top of that mountain through deep snow so he didn’t care either. We hit the top of the hill above Darwin and we agreed it was the nastiest moment of the whole ride, when that cold icy wind just ripped right into you. We braced against it, leaning forward against our trusty steed’s necks - we could see the town of Darwin in the distance and that was all that mattered to us! Our last day of "enduring" was 1/2 through and the home stretch was in sight!
