May 16

Today I took Sinwaan out to Bennington Lake. My first solo ride out there. We parked at the bottom and I remembered my GPS this time. We walked up the path along the road to the dam, trotted across the top of the dam, (to the building is 1 mile), then took the double track trail down to the trail closest to the Lake (also known as Meadowlark Trail if I am reading the map right). This loop is fairly flat but the trail was overgrown and half of it we were riding through swarms of bugs which were hovering over the green plants that had consumed the trail. Sinwaan hated that, tossing his head. It was very warm. We came upon some people and I slowed down, they finally got off the path so I could go past. The child wanted to pet Sinwaan. His mother commented "he is working" so I didn't stop. We crossed the water and things seemed to be cooling down, finally some cloud cover! We did more walking when the path got close to the water, as there were lots of people set up for fishing and lots of things to see. I offered Sinwaan a chance to drink and he was not interested.

After that trail we headed back up to the dam and down the other side, connecting with part of Whitetail Trail, we had a nice canter on the flat and then downhill to the trees. We trotted quickly through there, winding back and forth on the twisty trail. Exiting the trees I was undecided which way to go - left or right? Both were uphill. We went right to go back up to the top of the dam and continued on Whitetail Trail all the way around the lake. I had forgotten how many hills there were at the Lake! When I ride with other people we are usually talking and the time goes by quickly and I don't notice the hills. Sinwaan was working hard today and a couple times I let him stop for a breather and to graze. We were not making very good time.

After crossing the water a second time we headed back towards the trailer along Mill Creek. We took the little spur trail for fun. Across from Dean's place I again gave him an opportunity to drink. He waded around in the water for a couple minutes but no drinking. Back to the trailer. GPS reading said 8.6 miles in exactly 2 hours. Wow that is horrible, but I think Sinwaan got a really good work out on all those ups and downs. It was a nice ride, although a little lonely. I was hoping for more miles in that amount of time, so I decided that unless I have a riding partner I won't bother taking the time and gas to trailer out when I can ride about the same distance from the barn in less time.