Sunday, January 18, 2009

Columbia river Dike trail ride......

Didnt post Sat., I ended up with a bad cold and sore throat, and have just felt terrible, getting better now, still feel fuzzy.

These pics are from a ride that Sara and I took on one of her trips home. We rode on the Washougal dike, and along the Columbia river, this is a city park.

Easy and Emma, we are headed down the dike, it is a gravel road on top.
The ride all the way down the dike is about 3 miles, so it is a good quick ride, it ends at a locked gate on private property.

Sara on Easy, there is a funny story here. When we headed back to the trailer, we got mobbed by a large Russian family, all their little kids. They just wanted to pet the horses, we let them all pet Easy, as Emma wouldn't hold still, and I didnt want to squash the little kids LOL they spoke no English, just "horse, horse" LOL We like to be good ambassadors when we are out. They did thank us for letting the kids pet the horse.

Me and Emma on the side of the dike, Emma didnt have shoes on so we walked in the grass. The field beyond us is Steigerwald national wildlife refuge, I jokingly call it Steigerwald mosquito farm. I wish they had riding trails through the refuge as it is over 200 acres.
http://vancouveraudubon.org/steigerwaldnwr.html Here is a link to the refuge, I know the man that wrote the article. They have started on the visitors center, and there are some more good pics of the refuge area.
We went down in the sand beside the river. This beach has had so many names, growing up we called it Cottonwood or B.A beach, now it officially is called Captain William Clark Park, I dont know who's idea that was LOL, supposedly Lewis and Clark came through here on their way to the ocean.Emma and I on the beach.



oooooo scary things LOL Emma didnt like this concrete barricade, so we circled it........
.....and circled it.......... Easy was not impressed, "what was the big deal" she thought LOL

......until she put her nose on it, then it was no big deal, silly horse LOL
Coming up the trail back onto the dike.



This was a beautiful section through the tall grass, cool light, huh.



When we where down on the sand this was the view East.
We had to be careful riding down through some of the pools as there is mud they can sink in pretty bad.
And the view West.
Looks like two different places, up river for some reason had a lot of moss/algae on the sand bars. We so get just a little of the ocean tide up here, but not much.
And we were treated with a beautiful sunset at the end of our ride.


9 comments:

  1. Beutiful Country!
    I love the photos taken from horseback.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I enjoyed the pictures. Thanks for "taking me along" on your trail ride.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That was gorgeous. I feel like I have just been on a ride with you. Love the sunset shots!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a gorgeous ride! Emma is so pretty. I like the picture of her going through the grass with the sunlight on you two!
    We run into a lot of "monsters" on our trails, too. Old logging equipment, giant culverts...it is funny how they snort a bit!

    ReplyDelete
  5. That was just beautiful! I enjoye the ride so much.

    Linda
    http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks everyone, yes it was a special ride, the first Sara and I got to take after a couple of years of her joining the Air Force.

    Both of us fat girls need to ride more and get in shape LOL

    ReplyDelete
  7. That's a really nice ride over there...when I lived on the Oregon side of the river, we would go to the Sandy River Delta which is just a mile east of Troutdale. So, both areas are very similar!

    ReplyDelete
  8. These are beautiful photos.. I enjoyed the ride so very much.
    I sure hope you are feeling somewhat better today!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting my bubblebath of life! Come back soon!