Lions; no tigers, no bears

Well, the weather here continues to be mostly beautiful; even the bit of snow (that's right, snow) was very picturesque. I am enjoying this "break from reality" and riding as much as I can. The last two Wednesdays (my day off) I have gone on an all-day lunch ride, leaving at 9:30am and returning around 4pm. Everyone packs a bag lunch and sticks it in their saddle bags and we head up the mountain. 

Last week my ride went to one of the higher summits and the views were amazing. The spot is called Lion's Hotel, because many years ago Charley's grandmother saw a mountain lion in the rocks. I'd really like to see one; some of the guys have pictures from a hunt and it's a beautiful animal. So, the ride up is steep and the way down is steeper, but I was on a nice big horse named Nevada Bob and we had no problem. Here is a picture heading out of the barnyard, and one of me at the top. 

This week my ride went wandering through the desert with Jason, the barn boss. When Charley can't decide where to send a ride, he tells Jason to just "wander" and it's great because Jason knows every inch of this land. We couldn't go up really high because there was still snow there. Instead we went over one ridge and across the desert to an area where there are a lot of Indian petroglyphs from hundreds of years ago. They're really quite amazing, both the images and the fact that they are still visible after so much time. 

We ate lunch on a little hill with big flat rocks, overlooking the desert and mountain ranges to the east. The sun was shining and the air was mild -- a beautiful day. I'm really starting to think I should move to a place like this where the sun shines more than once in a while!