Fall Trail Ride, Bear Brook State Park

Just a bit south, the trees aren’t nearly as far along.  Some pics from this weekend:

One of the few trees that was well along in Autumn glory!

In somewhat of a last minute whim, we decided to go for a trail ride down the road a bit at Bear Brook State Park, the largest State Park in New Hampshire.  The trailering went very smoothly, with Jasper loading up without any fuss whatsoever.  If you’ve read some of our posts on trailering (here, here, and here), you know that’s an amazing feat.

Bear Brook was active with an Orienteering competition going on, but aside from a few folks hustling down the trails with maps and compasses, and a large and very polite group of mountain bikers (that we met three separate times in different places), it was relatively quiet on the trails.

 

It's not called "The Granite State" for nothing

After driving into the park and unloading, the girls got Zip and Jasper saddled up for the ride.

As you can see, Jasper doesn’t miss many meals.  Most Haflingers don’t.

Soon we were off, down the trails. This is the view those of us who weren’t riding got for most of the day.

If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes

The kids did decide to wait for us once we got to the picnic site.  After all, I had the lunches in my backpack.

Jasper watched us ruefully as we ate our PB&J and apples.  When we didn’t give in, he took to the blueberry bushes.

Zip, on the other hand, waited patiently.  He did, however, make it known that his rump needed some scratching.  Whereas some horses turn their rear ends towards you as a sign of aggression, Zip does so because he loves butt-scratches more than Homer Simpson.

Meanwhile, our son took some time to throw rocks into the pond

 

We took the long way back.  This one section of the trail was magnificent with huge White Pines.  I thought it looked like a huge palace hallway (much like the Temples in Luxor, though obviously a lot greener).

Hall of the Forest King

On the way home, the horses entertained the kids by slurping through their tongues as they quenched their thirsts.

The other pause that refreshes

All things come to an end, and even this trail ride did eventually.  Walking and riding are tiring…

To top it all off, Jasper jumped right into the trailer again afterwards.  It was a great day all around.