Woke up to a very frigid morning, prompting me to have to pull out the parkas I had recently stored away. Warmed up a bit after breakfast, so we headed out just before noon for our last ride at Goethe. Today we took the Orange trail from the south end of the Apex Trailhead, more of the same typical managed Florida forest scenery. It would have been a terrific ride all around if we hadn’t gotten turned around because of the poor trail markings. It really doesn’t make sense to me to only have a trail marked in one direction, it really makes things so much more difficult. Halfway along the trail we realized we were completely turned around. We were following the markers and then the markers went in a completely opposite direction than where we thought we were, and after several more false starts, we finally came across enough road markings to realize we were on the wrong side of the loop entirely. Then we had to fake it for awhile, riding on a couple of roads because the markings were going the wrong way, until, thankfully, we finally found the right crossroads to get us back on track. I really hate it when a ride gets spoiled because of something as easily remedied as poor trail markings. It makes no sense to me to have a trail that has three separate loops all have the same color blazes, making it nearly impossible to tell when one loop ends and another begins. We wanted the 11.5 mile loop, not the two other loops that would have added another 10 miles, but it wasn’t easy to discern the difference. Would be nice if they picked different colors, or better yet, actually named each trail so you could tell where you were on the map. Oh well, I guess you can’t have everything. Once we finally got back on track we were able to relax again. I have to say we’ve seen more wildlife in this forest than in most, today we saw hawks and a white-tailed deer. No pigs today, but that didn’t keep the horses from smelling them once, and we had to persuade them past one part of the trail where they had obviously been rooting around recently. Eventually everyone settled down, and the last hour of the ride was very enjoyable. Got back by 3:45, having done lots of trotting today to work up some stamina for both us and the horses, then settled down for the rest of the day in preparation for our departure tomorrow.
Woke up to a very frigid morning, prompting me to have to pull out the parkas I had recently stored away. Warmed up a bit after breakfast, so we headed out just before noon for our last ride at Goethe. Today we took the Orange trail from the south end of the Apex Trailhead, more of the same typical managed Florida forest scenery. It would have been a terrific ride all around if we hadn’t gotten turned around because of the poor trail markings. It really doesn’t make sense to me to only have a trail marked in one direction, it really makes things so much more difficult. Halfway along the trail we realized we were completely turned around. We were following the markers and then the markers went in a completely opposite direction than where we thought we were, and after several more false starts, we finally came across enough road markings to realize we were on the wrong side of the loop entirely. Then we had to fake it for awhile, riding on a couple of roads because the markings were going the wrong way, until, thankfully, we finally found the right crossroads to get us back on track. I really hate it when a ride gets spoiled because of something as easily remedied as poor trail markings. It makes no sense to me to have a trail that has three separate loops all have the same color blazes, making it nearly impossible to tell when one loop ends and another begins. We wanted the 11.5 mile loop, not the two other loops that would have added another 10 miles, but it wasn’t easy to discern the difference. Would be nice if they picked different colors, or better yet, actually named each trail so you could tell where you were on the map. Oh well, I guess you can’t have everything. Once we finally got back on track we were able to relax again. I have to say we’ve seen more wildlife in this forest than in most, today we saw hawks and a white-tailed deer. No pigs today, but that didn’t keep the horses from smelling them once, and we had to persuade them past one part of the trail where they had obviously been rooting around recently. Eventually everyone settled down, and the last hour of the ride was very enjoyable. Got back by 3:45, having done lots of trotting today to work up some stamina for both us and the horses, then settled down for the rest of the day in preparation for our departure tomorrow.
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