pitterpat

Jerry and I have been spending some of our spare time exploring the Arroyo Trabuco Wilderness – Arroyo Trabuco Trail, most recently the Eagle Trail. Our access point has been in a neighboring city Rancho Santa Margarita, about 12 minutes away. According to the Orange County Parks. com website, “The Arroyo Trabuco addition to O’Neill Regional Park is 935 acres of relatively pristine land. Planned recreational use will be passive, including hiking, nature photography and picnicking. In future years, hiking trails will link the Arroyo Trabuco with upper Trabuco Canyon and the nearby Cleveland National Forest in an effort to save much of the twenty mile Trabuco Corridor for public enjoyment.”

I do need to make a comment on the photos from this particular expedition. I’ve recently decided to spend a little extra time and learn how to use my awesome camera, which I’ve mostly been using in the automatic mode. My sweet hubby has, along with my great son Matt, been patiently teaching me over and over again what all those little dials do. So, if some of my photos look out of focus or the color looks off, yup, that’s why. I don’t know what the heck I’m doing!

The trails are steep, rocky, and often narrow on the Eagle Trail. Tall oak trees reach for the skies, their branches hanging down and by doing so create a dark canopy, obscuring the path ahead in certain sections of this trail. A wide variety of plant life begs to be given a closer look and a welcome bench pops up here and there for those who grow tired or just want to enjoy being among all this nature. The uphill climb coming back gave a great cardiac workout at times.

The driving force that spoke to me to get home was my anxiousness to see the photos I had taken of the horses at Harmon Camp. In this photo that I took from the hilltop before we started down Eagle Trail, you can see the horse stable and corral area. I was so excited and hopeful that Jerry and I could make it down and see the horses.

The hike down Eagle Trail in Arroyo Trabuco Wilderness was gorgeous, but honestly nothing could compare to what awaited us at the horse corrals. A beautiful 7 1/2 month old Paint named Colby. He was quite interested in me, coming up to the metal fence, poking his youthful head through the bars, his mane whipping in the wind his eyes looking a bit on the wild side, nuzzling me and hoping to get a treat of some sort. I could have stayed and visited with this young seemingly wild colt named Colby for a long time. The hike had been somewhat hard and he was the treat, certainly worth every step of the way. The air had taken a chill, the wind was up, the clouds were moving in, it was starting to get dark. Colby was anxious, the light was perfect. I felt in a spiritual moment. Something I guess I had been looking for the last few days. It was time to head back home with my sweet hubby. Thank you Colby. Thank you Jerry. I had a beautifully spiritually uplifting afternoon.