09 April 00 - Around Bon Tempe "Backwards"

0026.jpeg (10041 bytes) Taylor and I left around noon. What a gorgeous day! Warm enough for just a T-shirt, but not not. And just gorgeous light through the trees. We took Canyon Trail and looked for the Striped Coral Root but couldn't find it. Chatted briefly with a bunch of birders coming down the trail, We cantered up the Connector Fire Road and walk/trotted up Deer Park Fire Road to Five Points. After a short break, we cantered up upper Shaver and hopped over the gate. Great to follow someone to get it the first time, We walked down Sky Oaks Road and turned up the dam road, and then cut off at Sunnyside Trail. We took a brief bushwhack down the little trail along the lake but had to turn around. Then we poked our nose onto a little trail and found a great place for lunch with a super view of Bon Tempe Lake. I'm not sure it's legal, but it's cool!

Sunnyside was lots of fun. We got a chance to talk to a number of fishermen and their kids. At one junture, Taylor started "climbing the hill" to indicate he wanted to get going. We chatted and he saw the error of his ways. At the end we had to take the road for a while, then a trail split - one way for horses, one way for hikers. I haven't taken this one in a bunch of years. They've been doing a lot of thinning (of non-native species?) and it looked wierd. When we hit the end of the lake where the water gate is, we hung a right and walked along the fire road until the "no ponies" sign came up. We turned right and went up some trail. We passed one set of gals hiking and then came up to a tree across the road with two hikers climbing over. Just at that juncture Taylor decided to bolt ahead and jump the tree. It scared the hikers. I turned around and came back and apologized. Not good for someone trying to be a "good equestrian ambassador!" We poked our nose into the woods here too, but no lunch spot appeared. We walked around to "Skip's watertrough," pretended to have a drink and then went over to Shadyside Trail.

It was very cool. The light was amazing and Taylor didn't balk once at the bridges. I guess going over with Charger a few months ago paid off. I really like this "backwards" loop. Never done it that way before. We danced across Bon Tempe Dam, cantered up Bullfrog Fire Road to the "Morgan-eating logs" and saw the Sherrif's department doing search and rescue training. After Sky Oaks we took Taylor Trail. I was drifting off, and I guess so was Taylor because he slipped down to his shins and got right back up. At Concrete Pipe Fire Road Taylor wanted to go left, the wrong way. I wonder if he has a girlfriend in Fairfax he ain't talking about! Anyway, we went down to Canyon Trail. Very close to the barn we saw the season's first columbine. Cool! We. Back around 3.

What a super day. Wish we'd had someone to share it with!

Here are the flowers I saw (Source : CalFlora, a botanical resource for California on the internet. Virtually all the photos are by Brother Alfred Brousseau)