Jackson, WY - Continued

 

Ari took this picture of me and Mercutio on the Kelly Trail. Mercy figured out that snow is pretty darn tasty, so whenever we stopped and there was snow, he would reach down to grab a mouthful.

Ari's cell service in Jackson was pretty sketchy so I wasn't able to get the pictures he took until after we left.

On Sunday, we returned to the Grand Teton National Park for another ride. We parked at the Cathedral Group parking lot and then bushwhacked through the fields to String Lake Trail, then took Paintbrush Trail. Altogether a four hour ride. I love how Mercy is checking out the view.

Cathy, the barn help, at Valor parked right behind us and said she was going to do the same ride as us, but wanted to ride alone.

So, she was right behind us - although we didn't see her again until we got back to the parking lot.

You can see String Lake in the background and the Tetons beyond.

When we go on long trail rides, I usually pack one of these in my saddle bag. It allows me to pee standing up behind a tree without pulling down my jeans. I just unzip and insert the cardboard funnel and position it to capture my urine.

Here is Ari with the Tetons ahead as we ride to String Lake.

This is the String Lake Trail.

This is on the Paintbrush Canyon Trail.

We had put boots on both horses for this ride because we knew it would be rocky in sections. For most of the ride, Ari was in the lead. But when we turned around, I was in the lead. When Ari is in front of me, I will check to make sure Lennox hasn't lost a boot during the ride. Ari is supposed to do the same, but he didn't. Or he claims that he couldn't tell that Mercy lost a boot because he had on the black socks. Black boots over black socks makes it harder to tell compared with the neon green boots Lennox has.

When we crossed the water by the bridge at the start of the String Lake trailhead, I checked Lennox to make sure he had on his boots and asked Ari to check Mercy. Mercy had lost the boot on his left foot.  We normally check after going through water or mud since that tends to be when a boot might get lost.

I was pretty upset about losing a boot - they aren't cheap. But we dismounted so I could take off the remaining boot and the two socks. 

We went back into the water a couple of times to backtrack looking for the missing boot, but no luck.

We had packed a lunch of sandwiches and stowed them in a cantle bag on the back of Ari's saddle. So, the remaining boot and socks went into the cantle bag for the remainder of the ride.

Ari took this beautiful picture of Jenny Lake from the trail.

When we got back to the parking lot, I was still peeved that Ari hadn't noticed when I lost that boot. Cathy rode up as we were unsaddling the horses and asked if we had lost a boot. She said a hiker had found it and tied it to a tree branch. She knew we had boots on the horses, so she was pretty sure the boot belonged to us. She grabbed it and tied it onto her saddle for the ride back. Ari can't believe how lucky I am. 

When we got back from our ride, Pia helped load some hay into the hay pod on our trailer. This meant that we had to unhook the water and electric and move the trailer next to the barn.

Pia left Monday morning to take a couple of her horses to a vet. This meant that on Monday Ari & I were basically the only ones on the premises while Cathy was at her job. We were leaving Tuesday morning. Ari spent the afternoon at the laundromat doing our laundry while I worked on one of my books. Ari said the laundromat was busy with lots of backpackers.

While Ari was at the laundromat, Terry and Mary drove in with their two horses. They are newlyweds doing a horsey honeymoon. They asked about trails and I recommended Game Creek because it was close by and an easy trail.

So, they loaded their horses back up and went off on their trail ride. When they came back, they said it was a great recommendation. They rode about an hour and had no problems at all.

They had a very interesting trailer. It was a 2 horse trailer with the door on the side and basically the engine as part of the trailer. It didn't have any living quarters, just a tack area. They were spending the night at the KOA down the street, renting a cabin and leaving the horses at the barn.

They had an Arab gelding and a mare. Mercutio fell instantly in love with the mare.

The Arab would try to get between Mercy and the mare to protect the mare and Mercy would charge the Arab, pin his ears, and yell at the Arab to get out of the way. He pretty much spent the entire night trying to get the mare's attention.

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