With summer heat, I have been escaping to the nearby mountains to cool off.  I'm fortunate in that I can leave my home at 95° and in 30 minutes be unloading my horse several thousand foot higher in elevation at 80° and by time I finish my ride at dark it has dropped to 65-70°. Also with 10,000 foot mountains, It's pretty easy to find a hillside that is on the shady side of a mountain and out of direct sunlight.

We didn't get saddled up until 6pm last night and I had hoped to complete the 12 mile loop in 3 hours. I was a little optimistic. It took us 3 hours and 41 minutes. We had 4434 foot of elevation climb from the parking lot. and the corresponding descent back. I had to give the horses a couple of blows to catch their breath and they wanted to eat some of the mountain grass they found along the way.

Saw a nic bull moose in a hidden bowl about 5 miles into the ride. He didn't pay us much mind, but he did have enough brush around him that when we got close I couldn't see him. Only from across the canyon when I was looking down upon him was he visable.

A lot of smoke and haze in the air from all the Forest Fires burning. Utah has already had over 400 wildfires this season. Luckily most have been controlled and not been as devastating as the Colorado fires.

We started to loose light and had to hurry the horses along the last mile or two to get back to the trailer before total darkness. My horses have been barefoot for years. Yesterday was the first ride since I decided to put shoes back on them and I was reminded of how many sparks fly off horse shoes when they strike the rocks as dusk envoloped us.

The trail follows up the Middle Fork of the Ogden River for about 5 miles then starts up a side hill and climbs to the ridgeline overlooking the valley.

Here we are part way up the draw that leads up

The trail as it climbs. Almost to the top

These are pretty steep mountains, This is looking across the canyon at the opposite side of the middlefork drainage. The area on our side is equally as steep

Up on the top of the ridge we had to cross many steep side hills, that had several thousand foot of very steep mountain side below us. I've had my share of flat landers that won't ride across these areas. but we've done it enough times that we let the horses pick their footing and just stay in the saddle

Horses did great with their new shoes. Were eager to move forward on very rocky ground. I've been trimming my horses for 5 years, But have never done much with actually shoeing them myself. So I was happy to see the shoes stay on, and the horses moving well.

Bob, You were more than willing to ride to the top of the mountain with me.

I think I took you well above treeline on multiple rides with no complaints or begging to get off and walk.

Tonights ride took us up a different mountain.

But we did stop and fool around a little bit.  We are all swingers.  At least a long rope hanging from an old cottonwood tree type of swingers