Sunday, February 14, 2010 - Valentine's Day Drive

Packed up and headed out to our next stop, Brushy Creek in Homochitto National Forest, Mississippi. We had enjoyed Big Foot, I’m sure we’ll be back to that one, it’s so close to I-10, it’s very convenient. Cut cross country to Brushy Creek, had some trouble finding water in the town nearby, ended up poaching some from a local lumberyard that was closed. As we reached the turnoff, Hubby and I became very concerned. The road was steep, curvey and looked muddy, and neither of us liked the look of it, but it was 4:00 and we didn’t really have a Plan "B", so we decided he should go first and scout it out with the pickup truck before I tried to get in with the big rig. Once he hit the top of the hill, he radioed back that he thought I could make it, but to take a run at it just in case (very reassuring!) So I did, and managed to make it. The road was narrow, barely one lane with very soft shoulders in some places, and it got worse the further we got back. Potholes big enough to swallow up a St. Bernard. We finally reached the "campground." To call is "primitive" is generous. It’s not even a campground. There are a few turnouts, but you have to go into a ditch or up a slope to get to any of them. A few have a very narrow entries, but it’s almost impossible to navigate. Whatever you do, don’t go past the "no horse trailers" sign, that becomes the trail down to the creek, which is much farther away than any camper would want to lug water from, or even walk your horse to, unless you’re heading out on the trail. The worst thing was, there was no loop, no place for a big rig to turn around. After much discussion, we finally settled on trying to back into one spot far enough to turn around, but when we tried it, we couldn’t quite get far enough up the slope before the wheels started spinning. We opted for another spot where I could drive forward over the hump, then back up to turn around. We had just enough room to do that, but came very close to hitting bottom. All the while, we had a man who was spending the night in his truck nearby trying to "help". Once we got turned around, we found a semi-graveled area by the side of the road that had been occupied by a horse trailer when we arrived, but the owners had ridden by while we were discussing our options, so we took that spot once they left. At least now we were headed in the right direction. We quickly made the decision not to stay more than the night, it was just too ugly and unmanaged. Naturally, after dark it started to rain, then started to pour, and since we knew the forecast was calling for below freezing temps, I ran out and put the horses in the trailer, getting soaked in the process. It stopped a bit later, but since the horses were wet at this point as well, I left them in to stay warm. A really crummy place. I don’t know what the trails were like (other than wet, of course), but frankly, I wasn’t really interested after seeing the sad shape of the campground. It’s a pity, too, because it wouldn’t take much to fix it up nicely, a few truckloads of gravel and a little TLC. Very disappointing...