Will and Sophie

Sophie had a rude awakening this summer as I started to put more riding time into her. She's actually a cool little horse who has a lot of try. I've always had geldings (boys) and thought I'd never want a mare as they can hold an attitude (like any girl- which I normally don't care about but I don't train many girls) but I think I'll take an attitude any day as Sophie is all about learning and trying to figure out what I want her to do. She's still pretty little but I have hope that she'll be bigger one day as right now her butt is higher than her shoulder...a sign that she won't actually be a pony when she grows up.

Meghan rides English and occasionally shows cross country. She likes her horses BIG. I like mine small and we always laugh when we ride together because Meghan is much shorter than me, except when on a horse.

Idaho Sunsets

I love the sun and sunsets in Idaho. Meghan lives on a beautiful 10 acres with too much grass for a desert area, but she's got great views and sees a ton of great sunsets. Notice the pack of dogs surrounding me.....

Flowers

This is my all time favorite mountain bike ride- Cold Springs to Warm Springs. Much of the ride takes place on Baldy, the Sun Valley ski resort. Three years ago, about 1/2 of Baldy burned. Now the ride is really cool because wildflowers are taking over the burned areas. I was dying to bring Wade on this ride. Wade is our friend from Washington. He gets my Most Improved award this year. Last winter Wade weighted 220 lbs and was a fairly slow biker. He now weighs 160 and can rip on his bike. He's inspiring and a ton of fun.

Jarred's Annual Trail Ride

I think Jarred might get on a horse once a year. It's humbling for him, something he often needs. Meghan and I stuck him on Meghan's big horse, Will. I kinda wanted Will to be bad but he was a saint. This is one of the last photos I have of Nic too. I sold Nic this summer. I really miss him but having to ride and show two horses is not in the cards for a semi-poor school teacher. Nic went to Montana to live with a girl who will love him as much as I did.

Potato Mountain

This ride had more creek crossings than I've ever been across but they were nice since it was almost 90 the day we did this ride. Our biking friend, Wade, from Washington came to Sun Valley for a week and we got to do some fun rides with him.

Poineer Cabin

This ride took us up to the famed Pioneer Cabin. It's more of a hiking trail as it is steep and sometimes loose, I did a lot of pushing my bike and swatting at horse flies. The views are amazing though...makes you want to keep riding and riding and riding....Pioneer Cabin also looks cooler from the outside than the inside. The inside looks like what I envision a meth house to look like...I always want Pioneer Cabin to be quaint and cute inside. It could be a cool place to stay after a long hike. Someone needs to fix it up.

The Best Summer Ever

This is the first summer of my adult life that I've not worked. The last actual work I did was a barn sitting job in June. Since then I've done nothing but whatever I want! Funny how much free time I thought I'd have since I wasn't working AND funny how quickly I filled that time. So here's our summer in a nut shell, or as Colleen calls it, Readers Digest style.

July 5- Our month in Idaho begins. I usually work in Idaho but this year I just came to play. I brought both Sophie and Nic and got a lot of riding time in, even took Sophie on her first big-girl trail ride. The photo above was taken at my friend, Lori Sewell's place. My horses stay there every summer, it's like a resort for them as there are a ton of horses in the neighborhood, the grass is great and Lori has super nice soft sandy pens for them to sun themselves in mid-day. The other great part about Lori's is that Meghan lives about 5 minutes away. We always stay with Meghan so the convenience of both locations is perfect.

While in Idaho we also biked our buns off. I figured I averaged a little over 50 miles a week on my mtn bike, seems impressive until I calculated that Jarred averaged 100 miles a week. Now I seem like a weenie. We got to ride all of our favorite rides and some new ones. My overall favorite ride is called Cold Springs to Warm Springs. The climb is fun and the downhill is the best of anywhere I've ever been. I rode this ride once a week while we were in Idaho and took anyone and everyone would would come with me on the ride. Jarred managed to get in some "epic" rides, these generally involve hiking with bike exploring unknown locations. I steer clear of these rides. I like biking and want to keep it that way.

We also have awesome Idaho friends. Staying with Meghan is great as she's always game for our energy and my obsessive cleaning of her house. Plus she has two of the best dogs. We always seem to meet new friends during our visits too. I think I have more of a social life in Idaho than I do in Washington.