Met Some Pricky Fellows Along The Trail..., (Was I in your 'hood, Big Heart?) Options

[HorsingRound]

Drove two hours to meet my pals for a ride in Thousand Oaks, through and around Wildwood Regional Park. Here's the GPS link

Started out here:


Rode in the shade of the canopy of oaks, and along a creek, which we crossed a number of times.


Climbed out of the canyon onto a peak overlooking Thousand Oaks, CA.


View of Amgen, largest employer in Ventura County, and developer/maker of insulin.


Friends goofing around at the top (it's easy to see why they're married...)


We descended into a neighborhood, passing California-style "McMansions" along the way, and were headed for the mesa in the background.


This post has been edited by HorsingRound: Nov 1 2009, 11:33 PM

[HorsingRound]

Met some pricky guys along the way.




Had to wait for hikers to clear out of a narrow, fenced path along a hillside, with a waterfall below us.



Ate lunch in the shade of the oaks again.


Climbed out of the canyon again, affording us a view of the waterfall and the narrow, fenced trail from the other side.


Up on to the rocky mesa,


zigzagging up switchbacks.


Me and Jeannie at the top.

[HorsingRound]

Rode down the backside of this mountain.


And I mean straight down! Between two properties, apparently. You can see where we're headed. I got off and walked my horse it was so steep. I didn't feel like riding on her neck. Most of the other riders decided to walk down too. Right after I got off, she shook because she was so sweaty, and flung my GPS unit into the brush on the other side of the fence! ...good horsie...[not]



We rode through another gated neighborhood,


past a celery field and,


past a barn, remnants of the agricultural past, that haven't yet been cleared out to make way for another gated luxury community with bridle path corridors.


Then back to the rigs. Thanks for coming along!

This post has been edited by HorsingRound: Nov 1 2009, 11:38 PM

[BigHeart]

Wow, cool! I didn't know there was a staging area off Santa Rosa, that looks much easier to navigate than the one off Los Arboles. I've ridden there once, it's a bit too steep for my old gal. Thanks for taking us along!

[kitten-kat]

Pretty pics.. sometimes I miss southern cal.. othertimes I dont.

[mo qh trail ride...]

Great pictures. I have never been on a trail where someone had built a fence along the way. That must have made you feel a little safer. Glad the couple standing on their horses didn't fall and break their necks. Thanks for sharing your ride with us.

[trails4me]

How cool! I have never been to California, but it sure looks great in your pictures!!
The warm sun looks so nice too
Love the shot with the long views of the city and your friends with the flag, cool shot.

[HorsingRound]

Pretty pics.. sometimes I miss southern cal.. othertimes I dont.

There's good and bad to just about everywhere. I enjoy where I am for what it has to offer, and mostly ignore the bad, although I moved out a ways from the city 13 years ago, so I don't have to deal with traffic or smog or crime or any other other "city" stuff too much any longer.

Great pictures. I have never been on a trail where someone had built a fence along the way. That must have made you feel a little safer. Glad the couple standing on their horses didn't fall and break their necks.

On this particular stretch of hill, it worked okay except we had to wait a few minutes until there were no hikers--it was too narrow to share. One of us was about to walk to the end to stop traffic but then there was break in the flow and we made haste across that part.

The fence and trail were in good shape and secure, but many years ago, I rode on a trail with the same arrangement--a chain link fence next to a cliff--and the tread of the trail had washed out, and the trail was at an angle down towards the canyon, so my mule's legs kept sliding under the bottom of the chain link fence with every step, and once we'd started, we couldn't turn around! That was frightening!

How cool! I have never been to California, but it sure looks great in your pictures!!
The warm sun looks so nice too.

It was 85 degrees that day. My daughter accuses me of being part lizard--I love warm weather and am as happy as a lizard on a rock on days like yesterday. I hope that you can come out and explore some day.

[SST]

Looks like an awesome ride!
Please take us with you on your next one!

[jklucky2001]

Nice pics thanks for sharing.

The one looking down on the community looks like there are a bunch of houses in a bowl with some sort of brush that looks brown and dead all around them... With all the wild fires in So Cal, that seems like a bad place to live... Maybe they should clean out all the dead brush.. Or maybe I am wrong and just seeing something different than it really is.

85 degrees??? We've been getting below freezing at night here and on our occasional sunny day, barely into the 60s. I'm part lizzard also, I should move into your barn during the winter and lay out on a rock on those hot afternoons!

Oh almost forgot to say nice prickly fellows. 'Round here we carve pumkins, looks like the McMansions carve cacti!



This post has been edited by jklucky2001: Nov 3 2009, 09:59 AM

[paintpony1]

wow, very pretty. that looks like FUN!

on the contrary, im trying to get out to get some pics of good old fashioned new england fall foliage. then again my camera is MIA :(

[Peppers Dad]

Very good pictures, you really covered some rugged country on your ride, many ups & downs. Very scenic background in all your pictures. Very interesting where you can see thousands of homes & business, from top of the mountains. Thanks for sharing. Best Wishes. PD

[meekie]

Wonderful pictures as always. Thanks for taking us along on your ride.

[HorsingRound]

The one looking down on the community looks like there are a bunch of houses in a bowl with some sort of brush that looks brown and dead all around them... With all the wild fires in So Cal, that seems like a bad place to live... Maybe they should clean out all the dead brush.. Or maybe I am wrong and just seeing something different than it really is.

85 degrees??? We've been getting below freezing at night here and on our occasional sunny day, barely into the 60s. I'm part lizzard also, I should move into your barn during the winter and lay out on a rock on those hot afternoons!

Nope, you're not wrong. Thousand Oaks burns up on a regular basis. This area is dry, almost a desert, and the natural flora is dormant most of the year. Dumb idea to build housing tracts right up to it, but this scenario is repeated over and over, in a patchwork of potential disaster throughout the area. Different factions have tried to pass ordinances making it tougher to build in open spaces, but they're always voted down as anti-business/anti-private property rights. People ought to be able to do whatever the he11 they want with their land, right? They build, it burns, we (the public) pay (disaster funding)--they rebuild in a fire zone, it burns again, we pay again... But this stoopid thing is happening everywhere. (e.g., they build in lowlands, it floods, we pay)

Now, about moving into my barn. You're more than welcome, but I live 3,000 ft higher than the coast and it gets pretty darn cold here too. I've already had frozen crusts on the water buckets a couple of times this fall. We'll just have to find another barn somewhere in San Diego that we can all move into.

[Crazy trail adve...]

So, you parked on the backside. That is a nice way to enter the park.
I can't believe the water is still flowing. We've given more than a few folks heart attacks along the chain link trail. But it's really pretty. Good pics! I don't ride there much anymore, I tend to head to the end of Rancho Road and ride the trails above Hidden Valley.

[HorsingRound]

So, you parked on the backside. That is a nice way to enter the park.
I can't believe the water is still flowing. We've given more than a few folks heart attacks along the chain link trail. But it's really pretty. Good pics! I don't ride there much anymore, I tend to head to the end of Rancho Road and ride the trails above Hidden Valley.

I should've given you a shout so you could join us, 'cause I guess it is close to your place. I haven't ridden in that area for 12 years, and then in the last couple of months I've ridden there twice--rode in Simi with the Galloping Gourmets. (I'm in the photo in the article--my horse looks whipped, but it was an easy ride. I think she was just bored.)

[SpottedTApps]

You go on the coolest rides! Jealous. ;) Thanks for sharing.

[Crazy trail adve...]

Oh ya! I met the Galloping Gourmets in Mammoth when we were coming home with Vievo.
Where did you ride in Simi? I would totally meet you!

[HorsingRound]

We started out from a parking lot next to a stable off of 1st Street, at Challenger Park, and generally headed south, up and down some ridges, and then made a loop back. The photo from Lifestyles magazine is from this ride.

I rode with the GGs shortly after that at Mt. Pinos: GGs at Mt. Pinos

Fun group! I know a couple of them pretty well, and ride with them often, but I've only ridden with the GGs a couple of times since they ride during the week.

(Stinkin' Photobucket is holding my photos for ransom... Should be up again soon.)

This post has been edited by HorsingRound: Nov 6 2009, 01:29 AM