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| Picnic Area with Hitching Rail |
Set the alarm for 8:00, had breakfast, then packed up the saddle bags with plans to take the longest loop in the forest, almost 15 miles, leaving about 10:30. It's been such a long time since we had a long ride, but as this might be the only nice weather we have while we're here, we decided to make the most of it. Our only concern was that with all the rain, there might be some impassable places. Last year, when we were here in February, we had plans to take the Blue trail, but the water was so high that we couldn't cross a bridge. In fact, the water was up the to horses' chests when we were still 10 yards from the bridge, and the water was running fast enough for us to turn around. This year, though, the bridge was clear and we were able to easily pick our way through all of the water hazards, most of them were no more than knee-high. The day started out cloudy, but as the day passed, the clouds broke up, the sun came out, and it warmed up enough for me to strip down to my sleeveless tank top, a perfect day weatherwise. We LOVE these trails. The footing is sand, clay, grass and pine needles, or any combination thereof, which means no boots, no rocks, excellent draining for the most part, just great footing except for a very few slippery spots. The trails are extremely well marked, and we only missed one fork because an arrow on one tree was tipped to the left instead of to the right, but we discovered our mistake just a few hundred yards out when the trail petered out, so we turned around. We stopped at the old POW camp (from WWII, when they brought captured Germans here) for lunch at the Horse Rest Area (I'm not kidding, there's an actual sign there), which was about 2/3 of the way around the loop. There are picnic tables and hitching rails all along the trail and we stopped at several to take a break, to stretch our legs and rest the horses. They were brilliant, by the way, they didn't seem to mind the long journey one bit. In fact, we've gained so much confidence in the past year, we were trotting and cantering a lot, and Hubby even got a few gallops in! He's been a little nervous about those in the past, but he's learning to relax and sit more deeply in the saddle, which is making a huge difference for him. My horse is learning to canter on cue better than ever, and we did a lot of it today. A great ride that lasted until we arrived back in camp about 5:00, stiff and sore, but happy that we survived an all-day journey (though we'll likely be in need of pain killers tomorrow!) These are the kind of days that we LIVE for! And the very best part? There's no fee for camping here! If it wasn't going to get cold on Wednesday, we'd probably stay a lot longer, but because of incoming rain, hail and cold air, we'll be moving on, on the only sunny day that's forecasted, Wednesday.
