Friday, June 3, 2011 - Ride Day at Barren Fork

On the trail by about 11:00, a bit later than we wanted, but sleeping late to recover was equally important. The trail map was very vague about where the trailhead was, so we wandered a bit before finally finding the trail we wanted. We have hoped to combine the two loops coming out of the campground into one 7+ mile ride, but most of the trail was in the sun, just along the edge of where they had clearcut everything on the top of the mountain. The perimeter trail offered no view of any kind, no shade, and was a pretty ugly ride. They had done nothing to replant the area, so it was all short scrub mixed deciduous post cutting waste. Too short to offer any shade, and just plain ugly. The horses were frisky from their layoff, and there were biting flies that were making them rather fidgety as well, so it seemed a lot of the time we were battling all kinds of elements. By the time we finished the first half of the loop, we had had enough. With sweat dripping from us, we trotted (just to create our own breeze, as there was none at all along the trail) back up the dirt road, which was the shortest way back to the campground, where we arrived about 2:00. It was good to be back on horseback, but a below average ride as things go. Spent the remainder of the afternoon trying to design a crocheted fly mask to help keep the biting flies off the horses’ ears in future. Meanwhile, the maintenance guys had come out again to work on the spigot, and left sure that it was fixed. Not so, unfortunately, again it petered out after just a few minutes. Lots of traffic again, some as late as after midnight, making sleep intermittent.