Day 25: It All Catches Up - 37km

Sally’s in WakeField outside woodstock to Florencevile (37km)

We all woke up in good spirits after staying the night at Sallys. John whipped us up some delicious pancakes and we used the syrup we got from Dumfries. Katie and I ate quickly so we could start rigging up the horses packs. The night before we re-ogranzied and both got rid of a ton of stuff! Good-bye to extra sleeping bag covers, big sweaters, scarfs etc. It felt so good to lose 2 whole bags worth of stuff.

We left around 9:30, Katie walking Lux and me riding Ora. All her packs were staying well with the new pads I had from Sally. This was so I could ride her, have her packs, all the while nothing touching her saddle sores. It was working!!

…for 10 minutes. Then the day just went downhill.

The bags slipped off once and we got it readjusted. Then the slip off again, and again, and again. By the 10th time they fell, Katie and Lux were up and over a hill so we couldn’t see them. If Ora can’t see Lux, all hell breaks lose. And it did.

Everything just kind of came crashing down at once and I lost it. I couldn’t handle it anymore. I think I’ve been holding it in for so long, trying to constantly remind myself that I wanted to be out here, this is my dream, its not that hard, suck it up. But it is hard. Really hard.

Ora was spinning in circles, my packs were everywhere, cars whizzing by and the sun was blazing. I called my parents even though I knew there was nothing they could do. Im glad I did though. It felt comforting and they talked me through it. Eventually Katie came back looking for me and gave me a much needed hug.

She readjusted my packs and she walked Ora so I wouldn’t take my anger out on her.

We walked through the longest covered bridge in the world which was pretty awesome, then took our lunch break by the river. We still didn’t know where we were staying that night so when Brent came over to see the horses I asked (almost too soon) if he knew of or had a farm. He did, and said we could pitch our tents and there was paddock for the horses. And on top of that, he would drive our packs. So helpful.

We trotted and did a bit of cantering since we still had 18km to go and it was 3pm. The day went from horrible to super fun really quickly. We goofed around and the scenery was beautiful! That night, Brent, Sherry, Erik and his wife, joined us for a nice bon fire and some snacks!

Maybe it was the ice cream and onion rings, or Katie's reassurance that I wasn't alone. Or maybe it was because I finally let myself feel sad and tired. Whatever it was, I felt much better and even happier to be out there. I also talked to my mom, who reminded me that its not all fun and amazing. And it made me think of raising my foster Dog Guide in training, Kazi.

Soft serve ice-cream after walking through the world longest covered bridge with the ponies. ^

Whenever people would ask about the foster puppy program, I always said they should do it because it is so much fun! You get to take a puppy everywhere with you! But you also have to take a puppy everywhere with you. As awesome as fostering a puppy is, its also a ton of work. It can be extremely frustrating and testing of ones patience. I could go in to detail about all the difficulties, but there would be no point. Because in the end, you just really don't know what something is like until you've done it.

Same with the trip, until you've walked in our shoes, you just don't know. And thats okay. But through these blogs and videos and all of our posts, we will do our best to share the good, the bad and the ugly, because it is not all awesome.

Trying to get a nice picture on the Great Trail. ^