This was the sunset at our camp the first real evening on the Colorado Trail--a fitting beginning for our new adventure.

The next day started off well, again we chatted with several endurance riders before hitting the trail. The endurance race course was a series of loops, some of which overlapped with the Colorado Trail. So the first 7 or 8 miles of our day was along the course and we saw lots of endurance riders traveling in both directions. Now Shyla is a very competitive horse and in my 12 years of riding her, I don't think we have ever been passed before by another horseback rider. We always seem to do the passing since Shyla moves at a pretty quick pace. However, today we were being passed about every ten minutes and every time poor Shyla would kick it up a notch to walk as fast as she could since I wouldn't let her trot or canter. Many riders asked if she was a gaited horse and were pretty humored to learn that she is a quarter horse. As for Takoda, he was having to keep a slow jog for those first 7 miles just to keep up.

Once we got off the race course, it was pretty smooth sailing. We stopped for lunch in a nice meadow. It's nice to finally be riding a trail with plenty of grazing. We made it to our camp by 6pm, having traveled 24.5 miles.

#2017CT