Riding in the land of the free, because of the brave

Cowiche Canyon Conservancy is a land trust originally founded in 1985 to preserve Cowiche Canyon. The Conservancy owns and manages 5,000 acres and offers close to 30 miles of trails through sage and grasslands, flowering meadows, oak woodlands, and basalt cliffs. At the bottom of the canyon is a creek replete with salmon, beavers, crayfish, great blue herons.

The best part of this amazing canyon is it's about a mile from our home making it the perfect playground for the husband and his bike. 

He rides on a specific trail from our home leading him to the parking lot and trail head of the canyon. 

A few years back someone decided to build a house smack dab in the middle of his trail. I'm sure if the guy knew the dilemma it put the husband in he would have been more considerate in the placement of his new construction, had he known a bike trail even existed on his property, or not.

The husband was not deterred, he rallied the troops to blaze a new trail. His brigade consisted of him of course, the leader and commander, and me.

We put on our hiking shoes and headed down the trail. Once the existing trail ended, he started scouting a way to reroute the path.

 Braving the weedy grass we started stomping and marking it with little green flags. This was no easy battle but we soldiered on, all the while our socks and hiking boots were being attacked by prickly fox tails.

They fought a mean battle, by the time we finished marking a new route, our armor looked similar to this photo.

There was no way to salvage the socks as well as my old shoes, they were clearly defeated. I had no other choice but to give them a salute and lay them in their final resting place, the trash.

Because of our great effort years ago, the trail has become well used and is now an established path leading to the trail head of the canyon.

Today we rode our horses from our house to the trail head and into the canyon. We spent the day exploring and enjoying natures desert beauty.

We started at the top of the canyon and followed a trail leading to the bottom where we found a perfect spot to dismount and let the horses refresh themselves before climbing our way out and back home.

After 10 miles of covering trails the horses were happy to be back, the trailer is always a welcome sight after a full day's ride. Before trailering them to the farm, we gave them a bath to wash off the sweat and to cool them down.

It was a perfect 4th of July day and as small as it may seem, as we rode on our little trail we blazed years ago, it made me think of the men and women who fought and continue to fight even bigger battles to keep our country free. How grateful I am for them.

May God continue to bless America 

as well as everyone else in the world

who are battling for their lives and freedoms.