Archives for January 2012

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.

Had a good night sleep, woke up with the alarm, and several snooze buttons later, finally crawled out of bed. Had breakfast here since it’s only about a two hour drive. Packed up and moving by 11:00, a straightforward drive down I-75 with just a couple of misdirections, thanks to my Verizon GPS, which hasn’t been working very well since their workers went on strike a few months ago, though I’m sure there’s no linkage there… Received a hearty welcome from the ranger at the main gate, and was all settled in, including satellite signal, by just after 3:00. Here there are two campgrounds next to each other, a regular one and the horse camp next to it, with 11 sites designed for horses. There are posts for highlines scattered around, and they’re in the process of building a barn nearby, so obviously they have an active horse community here. Looking forward to seeing what the trails look like. Went out to dinner at the Outback in nearby Lithia with an old high school friend and his wife, had a great conversation until 9:00, before heading back to camp. Looking forward to our first ride here tomorrow, feel they must be pretty good to be such an attraction! Fingers crossed!

     Set the alarm to get up a bit earlier, had breakfast and then finally headed out about 11:15 toward the Land Bridge over I-75. Cornelius our campground host had said it was about five hours, so we figured we were in good shape. We took the buggy route because we thought it would be more direct, but missed a turn somewhere and ended up on a dirt road that was obviously on the Ross Prairie Wilderness, which was south of the Greenway. Since it was heading east, in the direction we wanted anyway, we stuck with it for awhile, until we found an unmarked trail heading due north. That soon took us back to the buggy trail, which we followed to the road crossing at Route 484, doing a lot of trotting along this section to condition both ourselves and the horses. From there we stayed on Yellow Trail number 1 across the entire next section of the Greenway, from 484 to 49th Street. It was a nice trail, though the scenery wasn’t nearly as nice as the first section, it was still pretty good. It took us longer to cross than we thought, and we got behind schedule. We eventually got to an underpass at 49th, and kept going, still following the Yellow trail, mostly walking now, as the horses had gotten more tired than we had anticipated, guess we pushed them too hard too early. We finally reached the Land Bridge, where, thank goodness, they had a couple of hitching posts and a trough of water for the horses. We crossed over to the other side, just so we could say we did, and then came right back again, stopping at the trough to rest and have some lunch. Gave the horses some oats and feed, which helped their energy a bit, and headed out again about 25 minutes later. They were still reluctant to do more than a walk, however, so it was a long ride home. We took the main Greenway Road because we figured it would be the most direct route, plus the footing was a bit firmer, mostly old asphalt with a few patches of gravel, not our favorite, but the trails here are pretty deep sand, particularly in the second and third sections of the trail, and the buggy section of the first section, which is one of the reasons the horses got worn out so early. We managed to get to the road crossing at 484 just before the sun went down, but the rest of the trip was in the gradually darkening skies of civil twilight, which was really lovely going through our favorite part of the forest, though as it was getting dark it was a bit spooky at time, though the horse were too tired to care. Fortunately, the skies were clear and there was an almost full moon brightly lighting the sky. I just put Apollo on auto pilot and let him take us the rest of the way, almost. I made him turn in one spot to stay out in the open rather go into the now quite dark forest, and that messed us up a bit, but soon we crossed the right field, and from there, Apollo led us straight to the gate at the campground, though honestly, I was having a hard time seeing it until we were practically on top of it. Good horse! He got us home safe and sound. We quickly stripped off their gear, checked them out to make sure everyone was okay after their exertions, gave them extra rations of feed before hanging them back up on the highline, took the dogs for a walk and collapsed into our recliners with a bowl of ice cream after having spent almost SEVEN HOURS in the saddle! What an adventure! Before going to bed I looked out at the door, and Apollo was laying on the ground sound asleep with mama Clio watching over him, just like she always does for her sweet colt. Tomorrow no alarms, we sleep as late as we want and do our best to rest as much as we can, though there are some chores that just have to be done. What a memorable ride!

   Wow! What a surprise! From the maps I had downloaded about Ross Prairie Forest, it just looked like a grid of dirt forest roads, so we weren’t expecting much. When we got here yesterday, I noticed we were on the edge of a Greenway as well as the Forest, so I quickly located a map online of that, and it seemed like a simple enough loop just north of the forest. We headed out the back of the campground, and almost immediately came across trail markings that didn’t seem to correspond with anything on the Ross Prairie map, so we just started following them. We headed out, appropriately, on Trail #1, also marked as the Yellow Trail. It wound us through one of the nicest pieces of old growth forest we had been on in a LONG time. Huge live oaks and magnolia trees, sometimes intermingling with native pines (not the rows and rows of managed forest we’ve been riding in the last week, thank goodness). The trail was mostly single file, the footing was mostly good except the occasional patch of soft sand, and it was so well-marked we were astonished! The markers even told you whether you were heading east or west on a trail! As we traveled on #1, we crisscrossed several other trails which also seemed to meander through this luscious piece of forest. We got a little off track at one intersection, because the trail led up a sandy hill that seemed to have tracks everywhere, so we backtracked to a wider trail that we soon discovered was designed as a buggy trail. That quickly led us to a sweet little spot of a primitive camping area, including a picnic table, a hand pump and small trough and a fire ring. We also discovered that the #1 trail also led there, so we were able to pick it up again and proceed from there. We followed it all the way the Route 484 (only about 2+ miles, but it seemed longer because it was so beautiful), where we turned around and headed back, this time on Trail #2, which occasionally merged with Trail #3. Whenever it did, we got in a nice trot or canter, and in one spot the horses even decided to gallop! We were out less than three hours, but it was such a surprise we kept exclaiming how incredible it was, and that made it so enjoyable! When we got back, I did some more research on the Greenway, its history as a former Cross-Florida Canal acquisition (that never got built all the way), and found trail maps for each section along the way. Our host Cornelius had mentioned about being able to ride all the way to I-75, which didn’t exactly seem like a “destination” ride to us, until I discovered that there is actually a “land bridge” that crosses that Interstate. It’s a wide overpass that apparently has it’s own landscaping, like a little island across, so we’ve decided we need to make that trip tomorrow. It will be a long day, about 16 miles or so, so we’ll have to get an early start. That said, it’s time for bed!

Got up at a reasonable hour, packed up and headed out, first to a place due east to pick up hay, then south to Dunnellon to fill up the propane tanks, then finally down to Ross Prairie Campground, arriving just after 2:00 or so. A rather uninspiring campground, though it certainly has all the modern conveniences as a horse camp. High line posts abound, a couple of wash racks and lots of hitching posts, but the few trees are small so the campground has a rather open, parking lot kind of look. We were heartily welcomed by a camp host, a gentleman name Cornelius, who suggested the site I had booked online might not be the best for our convoy, so we moved to site #2, which was a better fit all around. We can see the horses out our door (our favorite view) and all the equipment fits just fine. Apparently it’s going to be a quiet weekend, so it was no problem moving. There are pretty bright lights on adding to the parking lot feel, and it’s just off a pretty major highway so the traffic noise is pretty continuous, I hope it quiets down a bit at night at least. Manure needs to be transported to a nearby dumpster, but the campground provides tubs if you need them (we don’t, as we always carry our own anyway.) Settled everyone in, then headed up the road to a nearby Walmart to go shopping (very near, about 2 miles). Got back, changed our clothes and headed out to a restaurant call Stumpknockers down on the Withlacoochee River to have dinner with some friends we hadn’t seen in years. Had a lovely evening, with lots of challenging debates, just like we like it. Got back about 9:00, wound down a bit before going to bed, hoping the trails here are more interesting than the campground or the map suggest.

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.

Set the alarm so we would be up earlier enough for an extra long ride today, as we get ourselves in shape for our what we hope will be a grand horseback riding vacation in Costa Rica in a few months, if all works out. Still had a few delays, but managed to get out about 11:30 or so, heading out to the long loop across the road on the Yellow Trail. Apollo was plodding along while we were on the same old trail, but started to get interested when we crossed the road to a new trail. He just hates to go on the same trail twice! Having learned our lesson that the trails are only marked going in one direction, we followed the yellow markers religiously, only once did we think we might get turned around, because a road we were on didn’t seem to be on the map we had. We kept following the diamonds though, and were rewarded with landmarks that proved we were still on the map. The only problem with riding in a well-managed Florida forest is that after a while it all starts to look the same, evenly spaced pine trees with scrub palms all around. We only had one short area of old growth forest, which is much more attractive to us, and it was on the trail we thought we might have gotten wrong. On the farthest loop north we did have an encounter with a family of feral pigs that were rooting up the trail we were on. We had seen signs throughout the forest, but this was the first time we actually saw them. Of course, the horses knew they were around before we did, and I had to get down and lead Apollo for a bit to settle him down. There was a big black mama pig and a bunch of multi-colored baby pigs, including one black and white pinto pig that was so cute! When they saw us coming they all scooted away, which made the horses snort even more. After we stopped for our lunch break, we ran across another family of pigs, and the horses snorted and froze again, but this time they kept going with some urging from us. I supposed if we ran into pigs every day they’d eventually get used to them, but for now they appear to be great horse-eating monsters to our guys, so we just have to be patient. A great ride, a lot of walking and jogging, with a few great canters, got back to camp about 4:30, to find it just the way we like it… empty! Everyone had left and we had the place to ourselves, which frankly, after so many weeks parked at stables and busy camps and people’s back yards, it was wonderful. What can I say, Hubby and I are loners for the most part! Weather is supposed to be pretty cold tonight, and even colder tomorrow night, down near 20 degrees, not exactly what we came to Florida for, but it’s only going to last a day or two, be back in the 70’s by the weekend. Found some hay nearby, and have made arrangements to pick some up on our way out on Thursday. Too cold to ride tomorrow, but have a bunch of work to get caught up on anyway.