Archives for 2011

What a day! Despite assurances from the ranger that the trails here were suitable for horses, I wouldn’t recommend it until they’ve brought a crew with some chain saws for some serious heavy lifting! It started out innocently enough. The loop we planned was shorter than what we had taken on Friday, about 10 miles, so we figured it would take us about 3 ½ to 4 hours, including our lunch break. We brought oats for the horses and headed up the Mylius trail again to get to the crossroads. Fortunately, some nice hiker had cut down the branches that had tripped us up last time, so that made it easier, but with all the rain (it rained again last night), it was more slippery than ever. By now, though, the horses had learned to be more careful. Oh, I forgot to mention that Hubby’s mare Clio had lost one of her boots the other day, so we were looking out for it on the way up, and fortunately, we spotted it on the trail and managed to pick it up. He had an old one he had put on for the day, and we were double checking very regularly to make sure we didn’t lose any more. Anyway, we arrived at the crossroads, passing straight through the campsite to continue on Mylius trail. It immediately started going back downhill slightly, with lots of rhododendron bushes starting to crowd the trail. Then it opened up into a beautiful pine forest with a nice wide trail, and we were really loving it. Eventually, the trail led us down to Otter Creek, than followed along the creek for some time. Most of it was nice, but a few areas were so thick with mountain laurel (which were in beautiful bloom) and rhododendrons, it became pretty hard to pass through. The worse was a section that was like a tunnel. It was captivating to be in the middle of it, and would have been incredibly striking for a hiker, but it was just too low in some places for a rider. We had to get down and walk through several sections just to save our heads. If that was our only complaint, it would have been fine, but things got worse later. We went for several beautiful and uneventful miles, following the creek, listening to it’s wonderful babbling, before finally reaching the Condon Run trailhead, at about our halfway point. We found the other trail that led us out of there to the rest of the loop, the Hedrick Camp cutoff. We stopped there for lunch, feeling wonderful and enjoying the ride immensely. Despite warnings the trails weren’t very well marked, we had had no trouble pinpointing where we were, and the rock cairns always seemed to appear just when you started having doubts. After a lunch break, we headed off to finish off the rest of the loop, just a bit behind schedule because of the sections where we had to walk, and one hat diversion where Hubby had to backtrack to find his missing hat that had been pulled off on a low branch. Again, we managed to find the turnoffs with no problem, and began climbing Shaver Mountain. Alas, it started to rain, and we stopped and got out our ponchos, then, at Apollo’s suggestion, we waited under a very thick pine tree for a bit while the heaviest rain passed through. Once it thinned out to almost stopping, we headed out again, beginning our long climb up the mountain That’s when the real trouble started. It began with some downed trees across the trail, not a big deal generally, but the trees got larger and harder to traverse, then there were sections where three, four, five trees had fallen on top of each other, making it impossible to get over, and always at a place in the trail where it was very difficult to get around it, though we always managed it after considerable thought and effort. Then the trail started seriously climbing, with a good grade and some 350 degree switchbacks. We must have stepped over 200 trees by the time we leveled off near the top. My horse was sick and tired of stepping over high, thick logs, and the low logs were so commonplace, it seemed they were practically every other step. It’s hard enough climbing that hard, much less climbing and stepping to boot. Then, finally, we almost took a wrong turn because the rock cairn was right at what appeared to be a fork, but we didn’t know which fork. We started off to the left, because that was the high road and I figured the low trail might have been washed away, but that soon petered out. We turned around and came back, and took the low road. Now, bear in mind that we had already completed about 90 percent of the loop, figuring we were only about a mile from the original crossroads campsite. As we headed down the low road, about 100 feet down, on a trail that had a steep dropoff to the right and a mountain to the left, covered with thick rhododendrons on both sides, we suddenly came across a tree across the trail, about 10 inches in diameter. Too heavy to move, it was just about at shoulder height, so it was impossible to go under it or over it or around it. I dismounted and walked further down the trail, trying to reconnoiter a way to get around it, and it seemed nearly impossible. Well, since going back the way we came was not an option, we turned around and took the high road again, this time looking for a definitive way to get back to the trail, post-tree. This required another cross country trek, followed by a precipitous passage through several thick pine trees, and a quick turn to keep from falling off the mountain altogether. We were not happy campers by this point, now a good two hours behind schedule. We continued along the trail, and other than more and more trees to step over, and a few moments when the rock cairns had taken a hiatus, and that final mile lasting twice as long as we thought it would, we FINALLY arrived back at the crossroads, heaving a big sigh of relief that we managed to not break anyone’s legs in the process. I can’t believe how good these horses are, they are such incredible troopers! Needless to say, we rested there for quite some time, letting them graze all the grass they could stuff in their faces, as they had used up the oats we had given them at lunch LONG AGO! After everyone caught their breath and had their fill of grass (well, at least completed a full pass of all the grass available), we headed slowly down Mylius trail, which was even more slippery than ever because of the rain we had had earlier.  Finally make it to the bottom, a good two and half hours later than we had anticipated, but at least we made it safe and sound, at last. Not happy about the condition of the trails or the misleading information that led us here, but they would be truly lovely trails with just a bit of maintenance. Next time we come this way, we’ll try Johnny Meadows, which is apparently where most of the horse campers go, since the trails are more likely to be better maintained as a result. At least, we hope so!

Slept as late as we could, past 9:30, when the hungry horses nickered us awake. Spent the day quietly, napping, reading, watching movies, generally relaxing, which we both needed. It had rained again the night before, and we had a few more showers during the day, but the temps were perfect and we had nothing to complain about! Planned our ride for tomorrow, and went to be ready to get up early and take another trail ride!

While Hubby wasn’t looking yesterday, I managed to slip out of the store with an anniversary card in celebration of our 22nd (and second since we started horse camping), and left it for him on the breakfast table while I fed the horses. When I walked in, he said, “I guess it’s June 10?” He’d lost track of the days (no surprise there) and gave me a big hug and kiss in remembrance. Not unusual, we aren’t in the habit of giving gifts for any holiday, so it was a typical celebration for us. Anyway, we were going to spend the day doing our favorite thing, riding! We had had a terrific thunderstorm the night before, lots of lightning and rain coming down in sheets just after we went to be, though fortunately there wasn’t any wind (or we were so protected from it that we didn’t notice it), and we didn’t even have to put up or awning. The horses got a good shower, and none of the lightning was so close as to be too frightening. After breakfast we saddled up, raring to go under a perfectly clear blue sky and perfect temps in the upper 60’s on their way to low 70’s. We headed out to do some basic exploring today, starting with backtracking on the road to the entrance of Mylius trail, a lovely old grass road that soon began climbing. We passed several clearings that were obviously old homesteads from 100 years ago, until the road finally narrowed to a ridge-hugging trail that was a bit slippery from the previous night’s rain. As we neared the top, a small tree had fallen across the road at such a height that my horse thought he could go under it, even though I couldn’t. I tried to move the limb as I got closer, but it was too heavy. Too committed on the narrow trail, Apollo kept going forward while I leaned back like a limbo, trying to get under it. How I got under it with only a few scraps I’ll never know. I know my spine was laying along his back, and near the end I was along the side of his hindquarters like a trick rider. I thought I was going to fall out of my saddle, but just managed to clear the tree, grab onto the horn and haul myself up before it was too late. I strongly urged Hubby to get off and walk his mare under (she’s a tiny bit shorter, but still over 15.1 hands) and he did, but then the saddle horn got caught and she almost lost her balance as Hubby grabbed it and managed to get it loose just in time. Scary! There were a few more slippery spots along the way, all the time being grateful that horses have four-wheel drive! We finally made it to the crossroads, just under two miles up, and rested the horses, letting them graze on fresh grass in the clearing. It had been fixed up as a camping area, with a well-used fire ring, and all the trails had rock cairns at their heads to clearly mark this first intersection. Having seen it, and knowing what was in store for us for our “longer” ride tomorrow, we headed back down the same trail, my horse being more cautious now that he knew how slippery it was. Once we reached the bottom and headed back up the road toward camp, we decided we hadn’t had enough, and headed out on what started out as a cleary marked alternate forest road, albeit grassy, with no motor vehicles allowed. According to the map, it was just a couple of miles until it looped back to the road just past where we were camped, looking deceptively simple. It started out beautifully, with a much gentler grade, though it was a bit more gravelly in spots. Nevertheless, we got in some trots and canters, thoroughly enjoying ourselves. Eventually, the trail became more and more narrow, until it was barely a trail anymore, but we had never seen any turnoffs to the right, so we kept going until the trail started to get wider, then turn into a road, then pass through a gate, then start to pass private property and buildings and houses. We knew we had come too far, and were getting way off track, so we turned around and heading back, looking for that turnoff we missed. Finally we came to a clearing that seemed to have tracks on it, so we followed those for a while, along an unused trail that followed a creek down the mountain. It seemed to be a beeline for the bottom, which is just what we wanted, but the further we went the less traveled the trail became, until we were blocked by trees and forces to go cross country down a deer trail. That led us back to the same creek, I guess, and then the trail disappeared again. Although I knew we were heading in the right direction, and would eventually run into either the Forest Road or Gandy Creek, I wasn’t sure if we hadn’t gotten on the wrong side of a big ridge I knew was there, so my fingers were crossed! Then, thankfully, I heard the sound of children’s voices, and a few minutes later, a vehicle starting up, so I knew we had to be close. Just as we were threading through the thickest part of the underbrush, the road suddenly appeared just below us, and with a little maneuvering, we landed safely on it. We turned right to head back toward camp, which, thankfully, was less than a mile away! By now, we were exhausted, the horses were tired, but brilliant and unhurt (they are SO good!), and we finally made our way back to camp, arriving after 6:00. By the time we got the horses watered and fed and we got ourselves settled in, it was past 7:00, WAY later than we like to get back. But, we made it, that’s the important thing. We decided to take tomorrow off and ride on Sunday. With no satellite and no cell phone signal, we watched PVR’s movies and shows, and crashed early, exhausted. No alarms for tomorrow!

Hit the road fairly early, again trying to beat the heat of the day. Made a quick stop for breakfast on the way, then straight east on 64, then north on I-79 until our exit. Stopped the the Tractor Supply for oats and few sundries, then decided to skip our planned Walmart stop in favor of a Kroger that was next to the Tractor Supply. It didn’t have all we had hoped, but enough for the weekend. Stopped at the Headquarters for the forest to get some maps and a bit more information, though once again, the office folks don’t get out much, and weren’t very helpful about specifics. I had had a long conversation with a ranger in the district where we were heading, and he recommended the Grady Creek area. It’s not generally known as a horse area, but he insisted the horse area would be so crowded, even on a Thursday, that we might have trouble getting our vehicles in comfortably, and that Grady Creek was suitable, so off we went. It wasn’t too far out of the way, and in fact, was in almost a direct line when we would be leaving, so it seemed the perfect place. After a long and scary twisty downhill ride on County Road 12, we made a sharp turn to the left on Forest Road 162, which was a reasonably maintained gravel road, except for a few notable sections when the potholes were too plentiful to miss. I guess I misunderstood the ranger, I thought he had told me there was an area at the end of the road that was a campground, but instead there was simply dispersed camping all along the Forest Road, which paralleled the creek. We went all the way to the end, only to discover a small cul-de-sac that was just barely large enough for me to turn around. Having seen all the spots coming in, we selected one near a clearing that was a turnout (of which there were several along that road, leading to vault toilets), just on a corner. There was some gravel there, although not completely graveled, but we were close to the creek access and there were several good trees from which to highline, so we got busy and got settled in. The BEST, most immediately relief was from the heat! We were now at a considerably higher altitude, and the temperature was a good 15 plus degrees cooler than it had been, thank goodness! We got the horses watered and highlined, didn’t even bother with the satellite dish as there was a mountain and a forest between us and the satellite signal, and we had the awning up and the lawn chairs out in no time. We really set up a nice cozy corner for ourselves, and were really looking forward to our ride tomorrow!

Got up slowly after the alarm went off, had breakfast, then called the office just after 9:00 to try to find out more about the “new” trail. The girl who answered gave me some basic instructions, but it seemed a bit iffy, as she didn’t really know about it, she was just repeating what she had been told, so my questions went essentially unanswered. Then, out of nowhere, the manager and another woman showed up asking is we were the ones who had called the office about a new trail, and of course we answere “Yes”, so he proceed to tell us all about this new trail. They had apparently been working on it a while, and had just completed marking it (in blue paint) the previous day. He explained in more detail how to find and follow it, and was extraordinarily helpful. It makes such a difference when management is horse-friendly! This guy was actually a horse rider, and we remembered seeing him on a tall, striking palomino the evening before, taking a spin around the campground. After a very pleasant and informative discussion (he was very grateful and responsive to our concerns about the negatives of the campground as well), we finally headed off, now a bit later than we had intended, so the day was heating up quickly. We set out going in the same direction as yesterday until the blue trail cutoff, which we had noticed the day before but had ignored because it wasn’t on the map, which had been cleared by a small bulldozer. Kudos to the Cat driver, though, he/she did an excellent job of clearing the trail without tearing up the ground for the most part. The markings were easy to follow, and though the trail was still very raw, with lots of baby trees still apparent in the middle of the trail, it was a wonderful ride, again, with some grades, some following and crossing the creek, some deciduous forest, some pines. It’s going to be a fabulous trail once it gets some more use on it. There was only a couple of places where we almost missed a switchback, or it got too muddy, but nothing that was in any way treacherous for the horses. The manager said it was about 3.2 miles long, which was just about perfect for a short ride today after our unexpectedly long ride yesterday, Only problem was when we got back to camp, the highline was still in full sunlight, so we decided to stay in the woods for a little longer, following a small loop that partially backtracked on the Kiser Hollow Loop we had taken yesterday. That killed another half hour, so the highline was just on the edge of the shade now, and would only get better as time went on, so we came back in, settled in the horses (letting them eat some of the new grass nearby for a while, as a treat), then spent the afternoon working on the computer, reading, doing a bit of laundry (why not, we had a full hookup, might as well use it!) And generally doing our best to stay cool. Hubby took a nap, and I think I nodded off in my recliner for a while as well. It’s been a very nice stay here, despite the high price, but we would really have been suffering without electric to run the A/C, so once again, we were in the right place at the right time, as the heat wave had enveloped the entire eastern half of the country (it was even over 100 degrees in Minneapolis!), so there was not escape. Researched our next stop, made some phone calls, and decided to head out to the Glady Creek area of the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia, which would be a good halfway point from here in Kentucky to our next confirmed destination near Washington DC in Maryland. Another early night, setting the alarm once again for an early departure.

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.

Welcome to the second most poorly, intentionally-designed horse camp we’ve come across in our travels, second only to the worst, Occoneechee State Park in southern Virginia. Besides being expensive (27 dollars after the senior discount, though it is a full hookup, which is very much surplus to requirement for most horse campers), it is a very dumb layout. The “camp” is basically a parking lot, clearcut, then landscaped after the amenities were put in. There’s a lovely bathhouse that still smells of freshcut lumber, so it’s obviously new. Each site is a pull-through with water, electric and sewer, and wide enough for two vehicles. They’ve planted a few trees in the narrow medians separating the sites, so maybe in 10 or 20 years there will be some shade here. Meanwhile it’s scorching hot on the asphalt and gravel surfaces which make up the bulk of the campground. Across from the sites is a series of strange highline cables, short stretches with rings that don’t give the opportunity to allow the horses to move at all. Then there is a series of planks stretching from one end of the highline to the other, like a fence, or maybe they’re supposed to be a hitching post or something, but the end result is that a horse on a highline has to hang his head over the board as if he were standing in a stall, without the stall around him. Very weird. The worst part is that the footing at the highline is gravel, something no self-respecting horse owner would ever make his horse stand on for hours at a time, much less overnight. So all of the advantages of a highline are destroyed, as the horse can’t lay down, can’t turn around, can’t roll, can’t do any natural horse stuff at all, which is what is usually nice about a highline! Well, needless to say, we weren’t about to make our horses suffer like that, so we instead strung our own highline along the perimeter of the campground, which was all forest. Along the edge was some high grass, so the horses were happy munching fresh greens for a while. We had to roll out the long hose to fill their buckets, but we soon had them settled in. It was so hot again that the first thing we did was get the electric hooked up and the A/C going in order to get the RV cooled down. It wasn’t long before we were all set up, satellite dish and all, and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon and evening. There is one other site being used at the other end of the campground, by a group with at least four Paso Finos, who went out for a ride just before sunset. We figure there must be a good sunset point for folks to be going out at that time of the evening, or else they went because it had been too hot during the day and waited for it to cool down. Whatever, we’re planning on riding tomorrow, hoping that the shade of the woods will be cooler, and to getting out earlier in the day than is our habit (but not holding our breath :-)… It may be an ugly campground, but we’re holding out hope that the trails and the park are nicer.

Once again, all good intentions didn’t get us out of the campground before 11:00, so we left hoping (in vain, as it turned out) that the other trail had more shade than Friday’s trail did. No such luck. Once again, we were in the blazing sun most of the way. The horses were still a bit antsy, and at one point they must have smelled a bear or something, they stopped short and tried to wheel around and run away, but we finally settled them down enough to carry on. They had done the same thing once on the last ride, too, not surprising since this is bear country. We did manage to get in some lovely trots and a few canters, with Hubby especially please with himself for getting his mare into a very nice rocking lope for an extended while. That section of trail was only three miles, so we were back on the road to the campground in no time, but we were sweating again like crazy. We decided to go down to the Barren Fork Cemetary, the last remnants of the mining town that thrived here from 1880’s until union strikes in the 1930’s put it out of business. The cemetary dates back to the 1850’s, with some “residents” having been born in the very early 1800’s. Hard to imagine just how much life has changed since then. Anyway, we tied the horses under a shady tree and meandered around for a bit, before finally heading back to the campground. Despite forecasts for rain, there still wasn’t a cloud in the sky when we got back about 1:00, and the heat was incredible. It started to cloud up around 4:00, so, we covered the hay and put up the awning, hoping for a great squall that would bring the temperature down to something sleepable.