In which I visit an old friend and Fee takes me stomping on old grounds

Rosemary and I have told stories on stage together, 

but not for a long time.

Rosemary and Griffindore.
Griff is a four-year-old gelding.  Wanna guess his breed?

Facebook brought us back together again, and I was delighted to learn that she has a young horse that might be suitable for endurance.  "Come ride with us!" she wrote, and a few days ago, I did.

Rosemary lives in my hometown, which I left more than 15 years ago.  When I lived there, I rode my mare Story all over the Chuckanut hills.

Sometimes we'd get bored with our familiar trails and cross the freeway overpass (on foot, not via trailer--did I mention how much I love Team Sensible horses?) and then take the little trail behind the rifle range (did I mention that Story was a VERY sensible horse?) up onto the south side of Galbraith.

That's where we went with Rosemary and Griffin--only we went up the NORTH side of Galbraith, also known as the "Geneva side" (named for the nearby elementary school--my dad taught there for many years).

We admired the view on the north side of the hill, and then

Lake Whatcom.  I grew up in a house at about 11:00 in this picture

we went up to the top of the hill, and down the other side.

Peekaboo view of Lake Samish and another house I lived in.

Galbraith trails have been vastly improved since I left town, thanks to the WHIMPS.

Rosemary networks with other trail users.

The WHIMPS not only mark the trails and keep the branches clear

they build fun obstacles for mountain bikes.

For bikes.  Not for horses.

Puget Sound in the distance

We stopped to pose for pictures

New FB photo

and then tied up for lunch.

A squashed egg-and-tomato sandwich, and a flask of lemon tea.  Perfect!

Fee was perfectly comfortable parked near a tree.

Team Sensible.  Love this mare!

I think she halfway expected us to pull out a chainsaw and start clearing trails, but we didn't.

More bicycles.  We saw more bikes on these trails than I normally see in a year on the home trails at Victoria.  Fee was totally good with them, although she did swivel ears at several riders, hoping for cookies.

On the way back to the trailer, we met up with some other riders.  In a classic case of hometown Small World Syndrome:  the owner of the barn where Rosemary keeps Griffin is a friend of Dory's.

Pretty day.  Pretty trails.  Nice folks.

It's good.