Slept late, then after breakfast saddled up and started following the trail that was the route to be used for the competition tomorrow. We were under the impression that each of the obstacles had already been put in place, but in reality we only found one, a tarp on the ground at stop 3. We also thought it was a linear trail (every map we had indicated it was a linear trail), but in fact they had made a loop by following the fenceline. Because we missed it (it was poorly marked), we didn't see what the last three obstacles were (there are six total, apparently). We're still hoping we'll be able to observe tomorrow, but it's beginning to look like we won't be able to. Anyway, the trails were lovely, passing through some beautiful huge live oak with moss hanging down, typical old Florida terrain, lots of palm trees, and even a few cactus (which I thought we left behind in Texas! :-) Trails were sand and grass, with some great straight-aways for some trotting and cantering, something we're really doing a lot of these days. We followed the trail north until we reached a four-way intersection. We went straight at first, and in about ¾ miles, we came to the end of the trail, at a gate on a busy road. We turned around and came back to the intersection, and turned south. After about a half mile there was a fork, but no trail markers, so rather than risk getting lost, and still believing all the horse trails were linear, we headed back. Had we kept going, apparently, we would have made the loop, but once again, bad maps that don't match bad markings ruled the day. Disappointing, but at least we learned about it later so we can take it again on our next ride. There is also a trail that goes south out of the campground, but it seems to be mostly in the open, and the sun is a bit too hot (at least, in the afternooon, which is when we've been taking our rides lately), so I don't think we'll be taking that on. By the time we got back from our ride, several more campers had started coming in, so we had a few conversations with some of them. It seems most of them are newbies, we only met a few folks that had been to an event like this before. In the evening, we thought there would be a big bonfire and everyone would gather, but there was a small bonfire and only a few people gathered, mostly folks just stayed near their own campsites. Again, a bit disappointing, we had hoped to develop some camaraderie, but that didn't happen either. Oh well. Maybe things will improve tomorrow! The ride was nice, at least.
