I brushed Cinnamon thoroughly to remove the heavy coating of dust she’d acquired during the trailer ride and saddled up. We set off clockwise around the Los Burros Trail. The Trail crosses the road up Lake Mountain to the fire lookout tower just before meeting the junction with the Four Springs Connector Trail. We had just crossed Forest Road 267, following the Los Burros Trail, when a red UHV -- with several people in it --came down the road. Cinnamon stopped and turned around to watch it. I reassured her and she resumed walking. The Trail passes a stock tank which was dry.

Half an hour into our ride, Cinnamon alerted to a bicyclist who had already seen us. He went around us by going off trail through the forest. Cinnamon watched this maneuver skeptically. When the bicyclist was gone, we again had the Trail to ourselves.

A quarter-mile further along, the Trail goes beside a spring, a defunct windmill and a small water storage tank with a fence around them. There is a concrete water trough outside the fence. A sign near the fence reads: “Game Water.” Cinnamon stopped to look at all this and carefully sniff the corrugated metal cover on one end of the concrete trough. When I asked her to move, she went off trail, sidestepping a wide circle around the trough. I reassured her and we resumed walking up the Trail. A few minutes later, we passed a cattle-loading chute which Cinnamon merely glanced at before turning her attention to the metal trail gate, barbed wire gate and cattle guard where the Trail crosses the McNary-Vernon Road. Cinnamon helped me open the trail gate by pushing it with her nose as we rode through it, then side passing and backing nicely so I could close it.

From there, the Trail climbs a slope that is gradual at first but rapidly becomes steeper. The New Mexico Locust on both sides of the Trail was not yet in bloom. When we topped the ridge, Cinnamon looked up and down the steep power line route as we followed the Trail’s easier route across the right-of-way. The Trail hugs the north side of Wishbone Mountain which is heavily forested with fir, spruce and pine. Cinnamon kept a watchful eye to the right down the steep slope into the canyon. We followed the Trail through the trees as it dodges around the tops of small canyons while ascending and descending the contours of Wishbone Mountain. The slope eases as the Trail circles the Mountain.

We’d been on the Trail an hour when Cinnamon spotted a meadow with tall bunches of grass that looked like lunch to her. The wild strawberries were in bloom. Small daisies, several varieties of yellow flowers and a few lotus flowers were also blooming. I don’t know how Cinnamon knew I’d planned a lunch stop but she picked the spot I was looking for. I let her graze while I ate lunch. After lunch, I adjusted Cinnamon’s cinch and we returned to the Trail.

In a few minutes, we were climbing the steepest section where the Trail has log and dirt water bar steps to prevent erosion and provide footing. Cinnamon climbed it perfectly. The Trail levels off to a more gradual climb up the shallow head of a canyon then crosses Forest Road 96. After crossing the road, the Trail makes a short climb up another hill into an area that had been logged. I stopped to photograph a false lupine and snapped the shutter just moments before Cinnamon ate the flower. We resumed walking. There were slash piles from the logging beside the Trail. When we came to the Short Cut Trail, we took it.

About half a mile from the Los Burros Campground, we met two teenage boys who were carrying bows and arrows. A man and woman were slightly behind them with two or three loose dogs. The woman and I exchanged greetings about how nice the weather was.

Cinnamon recognized the gate into the campground and took a long look that direction but I turned her up the hill following the Trail under a power line before it wanders through the forest above the campground. The Trail zigzags around trees that are no longer there, wandering across two more hills before dropping into a small canyon. We were a half mile from the trailhead when my camera battery quit. When we approached the gate, a quarter-mile from the trailhead, I found the top hinge had slipped. The gate was no longer aligned with its frame. I led Cinnamon through it. The cross bar was higher than most gates but Cinnamon stepped over it neatly. I mounted and we continued following the Trail around a curve where we could see my truck and trailer on the other side of a meadow.

At the trailhead, I unsaddled and groomed Cinnamon. She ignored the bucket of water I’d brought for her but watched intently as I put hay in the trailer. I poured the water on a pine tree just before we left. At home, Cinnamon was impatient about unloading so I gave her a reminder lesson before turning her loose. She ate Velvet’s leftover lunch while I unloaded my truck. I fed both horses and parked my trailer to end another lovely ride on the White Mountain Trail System.