After a leisurely morning, we saddled up and headed out on the trail just after noon, starting out counterclockwise on the Blue Perimeter trail. The ranger had told me it was about 7 miles around this rather small park, but there were numerous other trails crisscrossing it as well, so we had options. Leaving the campground out the southeast corner, we started down a lovely wide trail with a row of trees reminiscent of a country lane. That quickly turned into a section of old growth forest, and some lakes and ponds, including a couple of spots of water crossing the trail, that was the first water we’ve seen in ages! Before long we came upon some wide open fields, but the footing was mostly a grass swath, so it was perfect for trotting and cantering. Despite the long ride on Saturday, the horses seem quite up to it, and we did a lot of trotting and cantering! Eventually we arrived at the day parking trailhead, and judging from the kiosk map and the terrain, we decided that staying on the perimeter trail, which basically just followed the road, would be too boring, so we cut across the park on the green trail, then headed south on the white trail to the picnic area, then cut across the green trail back to the perimeter trail that headed us back into camp. It was a lovely ride, and except for a couple of run-ins with a couple of sets of bikers on the equestrian trails (one couple was apologetic, the other two girls were rather indignant that I made them stop and walk past us, rather than blow past us as they were intending to do... One even got snippety when I pointed out that there were many bike trails in the park and they didn’t need to be on the equestrian trail, though I got the feeling that they were so busy chatting that they didn’t even notice they were on the wrong trail... We had heard their voices for quite a while before they ran into us.) Other than that, we had a great time, out till about 3:00, rinsed the sweat off the horses, walked the dogs, had our ice cream lunch, confirmed a job in May in western New York, and settled down for the night.
After a leisurely morning, we saddled up and headed out on the trail just after noon, starting out counterclockwise on the Blue Perimeter trail. The ranger had told me it was about 7 miles around this rather small park, but there were numerous other trails crisscrossing it as well, so we had options. Leaving the campground out the southeast corner, we started down a lovely wide trail with a row of trees reminiscent of a country lane. That quickly turned into a section of old growth forest, and some lakes and ponds, including a couple of spots of water crossing the trail, that was the first water we’ve seen in ages! Before long we came upon some wide open fields, but the footing was mostly a grass swath, so it was perfect for trotting and cantering. Despite the long ride on Saturday, the horses seem quite up to it, and we did a lot of trotting and cantering! Eventually we arrived at the day parking trailhead, and judging from the kiosk map and the terrain, we decided that staying on the perimeter trail, which basically just followed the road, would be too boring, so we cut across the park on the green trail, then headed south on the white trail to the picnic area, then cut across the green trail back to the perimeter trail that headed us back into camp. It was a lovely ride, and except for a couple of run-ins with a couple of sets of bikers on the equestrian trails (one couple was apologetic, the other two girls were rather indignant that I made them stop and walk past us, rather than blow past us as they were intending to do... One even got snippety when I pointed out that there were many bike trails in the park and they didn’t need to be on the equestrian trail, though I got the feeling that they were so busy chatting that they didn’t even notice they were on the wrong trail... We had heard their voices for quite a while before they ran into us.) Other than that, we had a great time, out till about 3:00, rinsed the sweat off the horses, walked the dogs, had our ice cream lunch, confirmed a job in May in western New York, and settled down for the night.
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