After a slow, hot start in the morning, we started debating whether it was too hot to ride. My feeling was it would be cooler in the forest for the horses rather than standing in the hot sun, and eventually Hubby agreed, so we set out saddling and were on the trail by about 11:30. We just can’t believe how hot it is for this time of year, once again following the pattern that whereever we are, there’s some kind of record temperatures going on, either hot or cold. Anyway, I was right once again, it was cooler in the forest. We followed the Kiser Hollow Trail, which was essentially a perimeter trail around the western part of the park. It was a lovely trail! Almost all just dirt and leaves, nothing too mucky, only a few short-lived rocky areas and a brief section that skirted the forest so that we were out in the sun again, but soon we were back in the forest, heading down toward the creek, where thankfully it was even cooler (relatively speaking!). It was a wonderful mixed deciduous forest, intermittent pines and lots of oaks and sassafras and so on. After having spent so many miles of flat terrain, it was a pleasure to finally have some grade as we first descended down to the fork in the trail, then followed the cool creek for some time, then ascended again, fairly gradually with just a few steeper moments. All around a lovely ride. We came out across the street from the riding stable, then followed the trail around the horse camp to our camping spot. We realized that we had gone the entire length of the Kiser Hollow Trail, with was over 10 miles, a bit longer than we had anticipated, but it was so nice we didn’t really mind. Fortunately by the time we got back the highline was in shade for the horses, and thankfully, the A/C had kept the RV cool for the dogs while we were gone. After sweating like pigs putting the horses away, we finally collapsed in our recliners in the cool inside air, waiting to recover before settling down for dinner and a movie in the evening. Unfortunately, the forecast is calling for even hotter temps tomorrow, so it looks like we’ll be getting up earlier to try to avoid the worst of the heat. Hubby took one quick trip to the ranger station for a version of their trail map so that we can compare it to what I already had off the internet. Turned out to be a terrible map, hard to read, faint, small print, pretty bad. The only piece of new information, sadly, was that the trail we had taken today was the only official equestrain trail in the park! We had planned on taking a series of longer trails that essentially circled the park, but the new map indicated they were only for hikers. I called the office to question them about it, and they confirmed that the map was correct, that those trails didn’t allow horses. For a moment we thought our only choice for a ride tomorrow was going to be doing the same trail in reverse, but then the woman said a new horse trail had just been cut, and that we needed to speak with the manager in the morning. Looking forward to that conversation! Went to be at a reasonable time, with the alarm set early.
After a slow, hot start in the morning, we started debating whether it was too hot to ride. My feeling was it would be cooler in the forest for the horses rather than standing in the hot sun, and eventually Hubby agreed, so we set out saddling and were on the trail by about 11:30. We just can’t believe how hot it is for this time of year, once again following the pattern that whereever we are, there’s some kind of record temperatures going on, either hot or cold. Anyway, I was right once again, it was cooler in the forest. We followed the Kiser Hollow Trail, which was essentially a perimeter trail around the western part of the park. It was a lovely trail! Almost all just dirt and leaves, nothing too mucky, only a few short-lived rocky areas and a brief section that skirted the forest so that we were out in the sun again, but soon we were back in the forest, heading down toward the creek, where thankfully it was even cooler (relatively speaking!). It was a wonderful mixed deciduous forest, intermittent pines and lots of oaks and sassafras and so on. After having spent so many miles of flat terrain, it was a pleasure to finally have some grade as we first descended down to the fork in the trail, then followed the cool creek for some time, then ascended again, fairly gradually with just a few steeper moments. All around a lovely ride. We came out across the street from the riding stable, then followed the trail around the horse camp to our camping spot. We realized that we had gone the entire length of the Kiser Hollow Trail, with was over 10 miles, a bit longer than we had anticipated, but it was so nice we didn’t really mind. Fortunately by the time we got back the highline was in shade for the horses, and thankfully, the A/C had kept the RV cool for the dogs while we were gone. After sweating like pigs putting the horses away, we finally collapsed in our recliners in the cool inside air, waiting to recover before settling down for dinner and a movie in the evening. Unfortunately, the forecast is calling for even hotter temps tomorrow, so it looks like we’ll be getting up earlier to try to avoid the worst of the heat. Hubby took one quick trip to the ranger station for a version of their trail map so that we can compare it to what I already had off the internet. Turned out to be a terrible map, hard to read, faint, small print, pretty bad. The only piece of new information, sadly, was that the trail we had taken today was the only official equestrain trail in the park! We had planned on taking a series of longer trails that essentially circled the park, but the new map indicated they were only for hikers. I called the office to question them about it, and they confirmed that the map was correct, that those trails didn’t allow horses. For a moment we thought our only choice for a ride tomorrow was going to be doing the same trail in reverse, but then the woman said a new horse trail had just been cut, and that we needed to speak with the manager in the morning. Looking forward to that conversation! Went to be at a reasonable time, with the alarm set early.
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