Planes! Fish!

One of many ponds at Murphy-Hanrehan

On Sunday, I left my husband and son to their own devices (football) and trailered Rhio to a nearby park, Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve.  It is only 14 miles from the new barn and offers a nice amount of varied trail with some hills.  It's what I think of an "urban" park, as it's located within the greater metropolitan area of the Twin Cities.  When you are out on trail, however, it feels quite rural, with the exception of the planes.  We were obviously in one of the flight paths being used that day, as there were countless big jets flying over on their way to or from the international airport.  And, it must have been as nice a day in the sky as it was on the ground, as I noted at least 5 small recreational planes flying as well.  Rhio didn't seem to notice the planes, but I definitely did.  It's not something I'm used to while riding, as the majority of my hours in the saddle have been in much less populated (quieter) spaces.

The very start of our ride, up a hill from the parking and group camp area.

Rhio and I met up with our new friends Sparrow and T. for some conditioning miles.  Sparrow and T. are new to endurance and we met earlier this year at a Mock Ride hosted by our local endurance group.  I'm trying to get T. to come to a ride this year, and we've ridden together several times this summer.  The horses seem to enjoy each other, as do their riders.

T. aboard Jack Sparrow, bay horse of mystery lineage (but a very good boy! and he likes this trotting/cantering stuff!)

Hydration is important! Sparrow already knows how to drink on trail. 

Boy, nothing beats the view between these ears, no matter what they're pointed at! 

It has been unseasonably hot and humid these past few days, beginning on Sunday with highs in the 80s and full sun.  We received about 5" of rain the previous week, and all that water on the landscape has to go somewhere - so it either was saturating the air or standing on the trail!  Every water body was rushing and/or overflowing its banks.  Luckily the soils here are excellent in wet conditions, and it was not at all muddy.  We trotted most of the first 8 miles, with the exception of the flooded trail segment around a small lake.  For this 1/4 mile section, we walked through knee-deep clear water, which provided a first for me - fish on the trail!  Rhio was in the lead, and at one point a whole school of minnows darted off the trail and into the grass along the side.  That was a surreal experience!

The flooded section of trail, where I saw the school of fish.

The larger portion of ridable trails is on the "prairie" side of the park. We enjoyed nice vistas of blue stem grasses turning their pretty red color for fall, waterfowl and snowy egrets dotted the many ponds and small lakes, and  I even spotted an Eastern Bluebird, goldfinches, and some species of wren (kind of hard to do quality species identification at a trot!).

Blue stem turning red

We met many other riders, and several hikers & dog walkers, out enjoying the day, and everyone seemed to be having a most excellent time.  We did our last 3 miles on the other side of the park, on a narrower trail through tall oak forest.  There are more trails on this side, but they are closed and inaccessible.  We were forced to do an out-and-back style ride on this segment, as at the bottom of a hill, the trail was completely obscured by a pond full of duck weed.  We'd ridden through water on this section of the trail earlier in the summer, but the bottom was not solid like near the lake, and we didn't want to chance it.

Woodsy side of the park 

Overall, we did about 11 miles in 2 1/2 hours with 1100 feet of elevation gain.  It was fun, and Rhio feels great!  I'm thrilled to be so close to this park, and I imagine many more conditioning miles in our future at Murphy-Hanrehan.  I'm looking forward to our 30 mile ride at Run for the Ridge this upcoming weekend.

Post-ride snacking