At 18 years of age, Cinnamon has her share of middle-aged physical complaints so she tends to start off a little sluggish. But by the time we got to Timber Mesa, we’d come far enough to give her a nice warm up so I urged her to go a little faster. She responded by trotting up the Trail a short distance but the climb up Timber Mesa Trail is so rocky and steep, she quickly slowed to a walk again. When the Trail tops out on the mesa, it becomes a slightly rutted dirt lane that is much easier to travel on. As we approached the junction where the Timber Mesa Trail crosses the motorized trail, Cinnamon alerted at the cheerful chatter of children on our right. A family that was hiking the Timber Mesa Trail approached as we crossed it. I don’t know if they saw us or not.

On top of the mesa, some of the Gambel’s oak leaves were turning yellow, orange and brown and several small, low growing bushes were sporting red leaves. I asked Cinnamon to running walk as we went along the smoother middle part of the Trail between ruts. When we got past the oaks into an area that is mostly ponderosa pine, the ruts had been flattened out enough that the Trail was safe to gallop on so we did. Three short gallops got Cinnamon more energized for a while after we slowed down to a walk. She shied slightly at I don’t know what as we ended the third gallop. We followed the Porter Mountain Loop Trail around past where it crosses the Timber Mesa Trail a second time and continued toward Porter Mountain. Cinnamon hadn’t been on this part of Timber Mesa in several years so she was alert and interested in where we were going. We had the Trail to ourselves.

As the Trail approached Porter Mountain, we found a junction between the Porter Mountain Loop and the Maverick Trails and turned right. We then found another nice place for a short gallop or two. Somewhere along the way, my ponytail holder fell off. We had resumed walking well before we heard a small four-wheeled machine approaching. When we saw it, we got off the Trail to let it pass. The driver was proceeding slowly enough to avoid kicking up dust and was attentive enough to notice us and wave. We appreciated the driver’s courtesy. A very short distance later, we came upon a jeep parked on one side of the Trail and a side-by-side parked on the other side, only a quarter-mile or so from where the Flume Connector Non-motorized Trail crosses the Porter Mountain Loop Motorized Trail. Three or four people and a dog were standing in a group near the side-by-side. They hugged and restrained the dog as Cinnamon and I rode past. One lady exclaimed, “What a pretty horse.” I thanked her.

Shortly after passing the people and their machines, we found the junction I thought would take us to the Flume Trail. Cinnamon was happy with the idea of turning right because that agreed with her sense of direction about the route home. We strolled along this lane a little way and, sure enough, it crossed the Flume Trail. We were somewhere between trail markers FL6 and FL7 when we turned right on to the Flume Trail which paralleled the motorized trail until we reached marker FL9 where the motorized and non-motorized tracks diverged. The oaks in this section were quite colorful so I photographed some of them. One old juniper was so picturesque I photographed it as well. Cinnamon and I stayed on the Flume Trail until we reached its destination of meeting the Timber Mesa Trail at FL10, where we turned left and followed the Timber Mesa Trail down to its trailhead.

At the Timber Mesa Trailhead, we turned left and I asked Cinnamon to running walk down the entrance road to the wire gate beside the cattle guard. Cinnamon ground tied nicely and entertained herself by eating some dried grass she found under foot while I opened the gate, led her through and then closed the gate again. I mounted and we walked along the shoulder of Porter Mountain Road to the Osprey Connector Trail gate. As we neared the gate, Cinnamon suddenly startled slightly and looked back over her left shoulder at a black cow lying in the shadow of a juniper tree beside the barbed wire fence.

When it was safe to do so, we crossed Porter Mountain Road. I rode Cinnamon through the horse gate on the south side and she did her part to help me handle the gate so nicely, she earned a treat. From there, we strolled through the meadows and forest down to Porter Creek Canyon and took one of our usual routes home. It was a nice trail ride on a gorgeous fall day.