Family Day in the Pines

! August 15, 2026
Colliers Mills WMA
4.08 miles
1h22m

In which Bonnie is very happy to have a new horse to lead down the trail.

Bonnie was very overdue for a trail ride. 

"Pwease can we doooo something?"

Unfortunately, while there are many great trails near Hannah's, none of them are really off-leash friendly. This meant we'd have to take a bit of a trip for our outing. 

I decided to make it a family day by heading down to Colliers Mills. Mike came along with his dirtbike in tow. 

The forecast originally looked pretty mild for August, but it turned out to be a hotter day than I anticipated. The temperatures climbed into the high 80s with soup-like humidity. Whoops.

The whole day wound up being a bit of a misadventure, though nothing catastrophic happened.

First, we hit killer traffic on the drive down. It also turned out that the main road was closed for construction. We had to follow a detour down some tiny back roads complete with one-way traffic. There was a lot of sitting and waiting. 

Max was standing under fans in the trailer, but I still felt bad about how much time he was spending in the box on a hot day. It would prove to be his longest trailer ride to date with me. I comforted myself by thinking it would be good practice for future horse camping (no spoilers). 

Some of these roads brought back pleasant memories. We were in the area where I rode Ozzy when I worked at the horse rescue. I haven't been on some of these roads in over fifteen years. Where does the time go? 

We finally arrived and it was quite muggy out. I told Mike I would probably keep it on the short side for Bonnie's sake. 

I was somewhat surprised to find we had the entire place to ourselves. There wasn't a single other vehicle in the parking area. While I did run into a handful of people out on trail, it was much quieter than usual. Works for me!

Soon we were on our way. Bonnie pranced happily along in front. She was clearly delighted to be out. Max mostly ignored her, but partway through the ride he seemed to start enjoying her company. More importantly, he was very mindful of where Bonnie was at all times. I appreciate a horse who actively avoids stepping on the bouncy dog under foot.

My happy place.

I started with my former "usual loop", the one I used to do with Marcus, Alice, and Jake in my horse training days. I guess the whole day was about throwbacks. This is another spot where I've ridden so many horses over the years.

Along the way, I saw a truck coming down the trail so I took a brief detour to get out of the way. This side trail was one I used to ride regularly because it's how I got from G's house to the WMA. I haven't been that way in a long time! 

By the time we got back to the main drag, Bonnie was panting. It made sense to make a beeline to the lake and let her cool off. 

Bonnie splashed right into the lake and drank deeply. Max was reluctant to go in the water. Since this was the first time he's seen a lake on a solo ride, I decided not to push it. 

We carried on up the lake trail, and I paused at every access point to let Bonnie splash some more.

We ran into a family who were fishing along the lake. They had two young kids. I called out to see if they wanted me to leash Bonnie, and to assure them she wouldn't approach them without permission.

It turns out the kids were delighted to see the dog, and it wasn't long before mom asked if they could say hi to both Max and Bonnie. (Of course!) 

When it came time to part ways, Bonnie looked like she wanted to stay with the family for their fishing day. I called her and she took off at top speed to get up front. One of the kids shouted, "Whoa! Your dog is so fast!!!" Yes. Yes she is.

Thank goodness for lots of water spots on a hot day.

At the fork, I headed left towards the dam. I was trying to stick close to water as much as possible. Halfway to the dam, Bonnie detoured back to the lakeside. There was a nice muddy spot and she full on wallowed in it. I could smell her from a distance, but at least she was cool!

A happy, dirty dog.

Back on our mission.

At the dam, I was surprised to find that there weren't many places to get in the water. I didn't take into account the fact that the marsh plants would be growing so densely. I did some exploring and even found a secret wooded trail near the dam, but there was only one spot to get down to the lake. I dismounted and hung out on the bank while waiting for Bonnie to cool off some more.

She thought this was dumb and wanted to resume running as soon as possible, but I wanted to make sure she was sufficiently soaked before we moved away from the water.

Sitting and staying because I said so, but she'd rather go!

We made our way down the path next to the bog. I remember when this trail was knee deep water and impassable in the winter. It's crazy to see how much the water table has shifted over the years. On this day, it was bone dry.

When we reached the main bog trail, I was surprised at how low the water level was there too. It has been a very wet summer, but it was preceded by two years of severe drought. It looks like the changes are pretty permanent. Grass has started to grow where lily pads used to. The bog is slowly becoming a meadow.

When we reached the intersection with Hawkin Road, I decided to start heading back. We probably could have kept going and everyone was on their best behavior, but I didn't want to overdo it. (When I saw how much energy Bonnie still had at the end of the day, I wondered if we should have kept going, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.) 

I'll admit I snuck in a little canter on this stretch. Bonnie clearly wanted to move out and you couldn't ask for better footing.

I was blown away by how much Max's canter had improved already. I have long said that long, slow miles over terrain are the best way to build fitness and muscle. Max is a testament to that theory. I was starting to get really excited!

Seriously, how was I supposed to resist this?

A short while later, Max flicked an ear back then calmly looked over his shoulder. At first, I didn't see anything, but it turns out he was right. Mike was coming down the trail behind us. Max had clearly heard the bike before I could.

I called Bonnie over to me and put her in a sit-stay. Once Mike came to a full stop, I released her. I wish I had video of the moment she realized who the man on the motorcycle was!! It was adorable and she was trying really hard to climb in Mike's lap right on the spot.

The timing worked out perfectly. We were both ready to wrap up our respective rides and we agreed to meet back at the trailer.

When Mike drove off, Bonnie really wanted to go with him, and it took a little while for her to accept she wasn't actually fast enough to keep up. 

On the way back to the trailer, we stopped at the lake one last time. Max hesitated at the shore, but this time I nudged him forward until he went in. As soon as he dipped a toe, he was like, "Oh wait, I like water," and dropped his head to drink. Good boy.

A very happy doggo.

Despite this being a short ride, I walked away feeling quite satisfied. Between solo rides, ponying Chip, and trail riding with Bonnie, this was the week I felt like I started to get my life back. 

But the day's adventures weren't over yet.

After stopping for lunch, Mike and I drove back to the barn. Nothing exciting happened along the way and the traffic was much better for the return trip. I did notice that the bump onto one of the highway overpasses felt a little rougher than usual, but not enough to worry about it.

Imagine my surprise when I got out of the truck and found that one of the trailer tires was completely shredded.

That's not how it goes!

I'm surprised there wasn't a huge pop when it blew out. This makes me wonder if the actual event was just a small hole and it wore down from driving home on it. Regardless, I'm glad nothing bad happened.

The trailer is only three years old and these were the factory tires. I was planning to replace them at this year's winter service, but I'm surprised this happened anyway. Of course, I immediately ordered new tires and had them put on right away. We don't mess around with trailer safety around here.

The barn driveway was a convenient place to swap out the tire and I'm grateful we didn't have to do it on the side of the road. I'm also lucky Mike happened to be with me when this happened. I know how to change a tire, but I don't think I would have had the strength to do this on my own. I have AAA and USRider so help would have been available regardless, but this was definitely the best case of a bad scenario.

Once the horse was put away and the trailer was fixed, we headed home, where Bonnie seemed quite satisfied with her day.

It wasn't a particularly long or ambitious ride, but somehow it felt like an important one. Max was settling into his new job, Bonnie was back where she belonged, and the pieces of my old life were starting to fit together again. Even the blown tire couldn't put much of a damper on that feeling. Sometimes getting back to normal looks a lot like a wet dog, a good horse, and a familiar trail.