Hey Babe!
Another good night sleep, chores, breakfast, the usual routine. Then I saddled up Flash and we were off just after 11:00 on a 16.8 mile ride up to the north end of the forest, to ride some more trails I haven't been on, though I had to take some more familiar trails to get there. I had distinct memories of us in a couple of places, like where we stopped for lunch, and going over several bridges. It really felt like you were there with me today! Our goal was the Burnt Creek trail, which had half a dozen spots where trees were done that needed to be gone around, but most of the trail was just lovely. Flash did great, though it was a bit slow going, and for awhile I thought we would be late getting back to camp, then we hit a long sandy road, and since we were now headed toward camp, he took off, and we did a lovely gait for several miles and made up some time. This is truly a beautiful forest! I have always thought of this place as one of the best in the country, and having come back here now after nine years, I can honestly, it still is! I could be here all summer and not ride every trail out here. There are miles and miles of marked trails, and miles and miles of unmarked "renegade" trails, and there's a tremendous variety from long straight sand stretches to climbing up and down steep and not so steep hills, and half a dozen rivers and creeks, not to mention lakes throughout the area. Truly stunning! Pretty sure I won't wait nine years for my next visit!Actually got back to camp a little earlier than I expected, around 3:45, got Flash put away, changed clothes, and waited for Karen G. to pick me up. I know her from Florida, she has a place near Goethe State Forest, and also a place up here. Turns out she grew up not far from where I did in the suburbs of Rochester, knew well the stable where I first became addicted to horses, and it was like old home week, even though we don't know each other very well. She drove into town to a pizza place and we had a great meal (I so seldom get pizza, it was a real treat!) and even more of a treat was that on the way back she stopped at a little place that served frozen custard! I've been looking for that since I got to NY and hadn't found one, so I was SO glad to finally get some! Of course, that means way more calories today than normal, but then again, I burned a lot riding 16.8 miles! Oddly, we started a conversation with another diner and discovered he was from North Carolina and was here for some dog trials, and we asked him if he had been to H. Cooper Black, and of course he had! So funny, because Karen and I had been talking about that place just a little bit earlier! What a small world! It was a lovely day, with perfect weather, couldn't ask for more. Frankly, I was extremely surprised the camp wasn't full, in fact, we barely had more people here than we did during the week! I was sure the weekend would be busy, but not so! I can only think that maybe with all the bad storms they had two weeks ago, that maybe people figured the trails would be in bad shape, but they actually are pretty good. Karen was showing me all the roads that got partially washed out, and one that was completely washed out, and how high the water level was in some places. In Lowville, she said there were buildings that were under eight feet of water! Well, they've recovered nicely, all the roads are open, the trails are good, couldn't ask for better weather, another fantastic day! Glad I have another week here! Anyway, time for shower and bed. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie!
Had a great night sleep as the temps dipped into the low 50's, then after chores and breakfast and some work on my computer, I saddled up Apollo for a ride, the second this week! Having looked at my diary from earlier trips here, I ended up putting boots on him, since I decided to ride him to the Independence River Trail, and my notes said it was pretty rocky. Thank goodness I've been keeping a diary! The exercise seems to be agreeing with him, as he was quite lively today, trotting and even cantering up the hills despite the rocks! It was a lovely ride, and I brought Lola with us. I've pretty much determined that I can only take her on short rides these days, she just doesn't have the staying power for longer rides anymore. It was a lovely ride, albeit just over four miles, which we did in great time, what with him being more lively and all. We did both Shady Trail and Independence River Trail, both appropriately named, and it was perfectly enjoyable! Perfect weather, a little warmer than yesterday, getting better here all the time! Once we got back and put Apollo away, we took a drive into Glenfield to pick up a couple of packages, then I took a quick run into Lowville to the liquor store, but I didn't want to shop at Walmart on a late Friday afternoon, and got back to camp a little after 4:00. Had a typical evening, dinner and a movie, now heading to bed, a bit later, but getting there nonetheless. I can really feel your presence here, babe, it's alway been one of our favorite places! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hey Babe!
Had yet another storm come through just before bedtime last night, so dust will definitely not be a problem here at Otter Creek for awhile! It was a beautiful morning, though, and it seemed like it was going to clear up, though it actually stayed cloudy most of the day. I only took one of the light fishing shirts with me on my ride, and was wishing I had worn my denim Red Rock Ride jacket instead! Anyway, after spending the morning doing some computer work, trying to work out my routes for the next month and straightening out my health insurance, I finally saddled up Flash and headed out around 12:30. I had planned a ride and downloaded it onto my GPS, which I have to keep comparing to the Avenza map just to make sense out of it, since there are SO many trails out here that just keep crisscrossing each other, but eventually had to abandon it and reconfigure my route on the fly. That's because I had planned on taking Erie Canal trail down to Blueberry trail, and the map seemed to indicate a bridge, but in fact, there was no bridge, though there were pylons for a bridge that was long gone. Considering all the rain, you can imagine that the "creek" was not a raging river, dark and deep, and there was no way I was going to attempt to ford it! I may be brave, but I'm not stupid! I remember fording this stream another time, and it was clear as a bell, you could see every rock, but not today! So we had to turn back and invent another route, which is really made so much easier with this Avenza program, and thanks to the Geotagged map I was able to download from the DEC website. They had some terrible storms come through about a week ago, and there were a lot of trees down, which I photographed and pin-dropped so I can send it on to the DEC. Only a couple of trails were a problem, most of them were great. The route was a bit loop that included Streamside, which was gorgeous, and Ridgetop, Erie Canal, Icicle and a whole bunch more. It ended up being close to fourteen miles, which was almost as long as my original plan anyway, so it was all good! Other than feeling a bit chilled, we had a wonderful ride. Even with all the rain, there wasn't too much mud, the sand here drains quickly enough, at there's no dust or bugs at the moment! I've always considered Otter Creek one of the best horse camps and trail systems in the country, and this visit has reinforced that opinion. There are still a lot of trails out there I haven't ridden on yet, though this is the third time I've been here! Thoroughly enjoyable ride, and Flash seemed to enjoy the challenge, too! Got back around 4:00, hooked up my hose and rinsed him off, filled up my trailer tank as well as my neighbors, then settled down for the evening. Another fantastic day in the life! The only spoiler was coming home and finding Lola had crawled up into my bedroom (I didn't fully puppy-proof before I left, and she took advantage!), so I'm expecting I'll find sand in my sheets tonight. Anyway, time to go. Good night, my love!

Hey Darlin'!
Last night when I went to bed, the weather forecast was showing a short break in rain around 11:00, so I figured I could get a short ride on Apollo, since it's his turn to get some exercise. Then this morning, the forecast showed no rain today until 5:00. Then it started raining at breakfast, twice. Sigh. It finally started to look like it might clear up around 12:30, so I figured I better get going while the getting was good, and saddled up Apollo. Lola and I headed out on trail just before one, and took a short 3.6 mile ride around the Hiawatha and Twin Lakes trails, which only took about an hour and ten minutes, which was a faster pace than usual! Back to wonderful footing, which helps a lot. The weather was perfect at that point. The first part of the trail was nice and easy, letting Apollo warm up and stretch his legs a bit, the second part was a bit more technical, with a bit more mud and some hills and stair-climbing, giving him some good exercise. I didn't want to tax either him or Lola, so it worked out perfectly. After we got back I got to work on some more repairs, the most major one being the front exterior panel on the trailer. I've tried every adhesive, sealant and tape that I could find. but every time I move from one location to another, the aluminum panel pops out from the upper frame, so I decided the only thing for it was screws. I popped it back into position and used my handy-dandy impact wrench to pin it down, which will keep it under the frame (I hope!), and used some silicone sealant around the edge. I'm sorry to say that the inside wood was wet from the rain, and I considered waiting for it to dry, but with so much more rain in the forecast (yeah, if you believe the weatherman), I thought it safer to just go ahead and close it off. At least no more rain will get in at this location. I only hope that will finally solve the problem. May not look that great, but at least it won't pop out any more. I also re-velcroed my sponge frog and washed my placemat and potholders. Finally settled down for the evening, made a big pot of homemade dirty rice and watched an innocent little movie. Just another day in the life! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe!
What perfect weather today! At last, I've found 70 during the day with upper 50's at night! Seems like a long time coming! I had trouble sleeping last night, though, I stayed up late to watch Trump's convention speech, which went past midnight, at least on CSPAN, and had trouble falling asleep afterwards, read until almost 2:00 before I finally nodded off. Don't know why, I was tired enough when I went to bed! Anyway, got up, did my usual chores and breakfast, sent a few emails and texts, and eventually saddled and booted Flash for at planned 17 mile ride. We started off nicely, he seemed to have a lot of energy, but he got more tired as the day went on. The worst part was Trail 16. It started off well, looked great, but at the southern end of it, it had been seriously logged some years ago, and was never cleaned up properly. He balked at going into a bad bog (I couldn't blame him!), and my GPS said I was a ways off the trail, so we tried to find another way around and ended up going cross country until we were way off course. Finally went back to the bog, which was the only trail around, and the only way to get around it was over stacks of fallen trees all bunched up together. It was quite the nightmare. We finally got through it, with some additional technical challenges along the way, until the trail finally resumed to it's original condition. Then I made a wrong turn when we reached the end (well, actually, the trail markers were unclear, the number on the trail wasn't on the map, so how was I to know?), and got a little turned around, ended up going back out the way we came. We finally made it over to Woodland Pond, which was my main point of interest anyway. There was a group of riders there just getting ready to leave. Flash finally had a drink, and I tightened his boots, which fortunately, we haven't lost today, and carried on. He was going quite slow by this time, so I decided to cut the ride a little shorter than I had planned, didn't want to get back to camp that late. It was after 5:00 anyway when we got back. Put Apollo on his line for a bit, gave Flash two extra scoops of feed. finally fixed dinner for myself, and later, walked over to Sheila's trailer for a chat with the group. Judy's horse lost a shoe so Skip ran out and picked up their Amish farrier and brought him back to fix it. Finally came back to camp after 8:30, tonight I'm having Sleepytime tea in the hopes of a good night sleep! A beautiful, tiring day, just the way I like them! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Babe,
Had my usual morning before saddling up Flash for a twelve plus mile ride today. Just as I was about to leave, Sheila, one of the ladies I spoke with last night, and the only one that camped overnight, came by to see if we could ride together, so I finished up and met her at her campsite, and left from there around 11:00. She typically only does about two hours, but I told here I was planning on going on a longer ride, and she understood, but managed to stay with me almost the entire way. I took a bunch of trails and truck roads that I mostly hadn't been on before, doing more gravel than I normally like, but had to if I want to ride all the trails here. It was a gorgeous day, and most of the trails were in good shape, and once again, we managed to not lose a boot along the way. She rides a Morgan, who reputedly was a fast walker, and Flash did his best at the beginning to go slow for her on the gravel roads, then when we went onto the smaller trails, the terrain helped keep him slower without me having to fight him too much, but eventually he wanted to run up hills, which Sheila wasn't comfortable with, and once we started heading north back to camp, I had to let Flash go a bit faster, and she kept up by trotting occasionally. We stayed together until the last turns for camp, with her cutting over on Trail 29 and me going straight because I wanted to come in on 30, and as soon as she turned off, Flash started moving a lot faster. We only got about 100 yards or so, though, when I spotted two riders coming our way, so I moved over to the other side of the road at speed, until I was close enough where I felt it was necessary for me to slow down, only to discover the two riders, were two of the other gals I was speaking with last night! Seems they came out again for another day ride, hoping to run into us, but they got a very late start. It was amazing we ran into each other, though I would have recognized their trailer once I got back to camp. Of course, we stopped and chatted for a bit before I headed back to camp, moving along as Flash is wont to do. We caught up to Sheila at the assembly area (group camp), where she was chatting with another friend, and walking her horse Mimi back to our camp. After putting Flash away and rinsing off his boots at the hand pump, I walked back over to Sheila's trailer, where her husband Skip was just arriving, and we sat and chatted. Eventually, the other two gals, Carla and Jane, got back and joined us, and we ended up socializing until nearly 7:00! I finally had to come back and feed the horses, and of course, the gals needed to get home, but it was a very enjoyable day. They're going to try to come back again during the week, but Carla's got a foal due any minute, and Jane is haying as weather permits, so we'll have to see. They are planning to come here next weekend, and then the following weekend at Otter Creek, so it looks like I'll be seeing more of these gals! Anyway, enough chatting about chatting, it's time for shower and bed! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hiya Darlin'!
Had a lovely quiet night last night, only one other couple camping in a tent (and who's campfire is unfortunately blowing right in my direction), but I still had a good night sleep. Got my chores and breakfast done, let the horses graze for awhile before finally saddling up Flash and headed out on the trails with Lola. Today was another hot day, but according the forecast, the last hot day for awhile, hopefully. We did a nice twelve mile loop, with trails that were both rocky and muddy, like Sugar Hill, though the mud wasn't as deep, and varied between gravel roads, stony two-tracks, and the occasional single track. The biting flies were pretty bad, and the bug spray only seemed to help a little, so after awhile, Flash decided to try to outrun them, so we got some speed up whenever the trail allowed. Fortunately, there were enough creeks and mud puddles for Lola to stay cool in, and the forest was cooler than in camp, of course. I stopped at the Cherry Ridge campground, just a little tent camping place not far from our camp, because it had another well pump, though this one had a wheel that you turned instead of a hand pump. I spun the wheel about twenty times and nothing happened, so that certainly isn't going to solve my water problem as I had hoped! It was a pretty nice ride, very quiet out in these woods. I figured I better get a ride in today since the forecast is call for rain tomorrow. I've arranged every bucket around the awning, hoping I'll catch enough rain to put off having to drive into town to find a water spigot, and I've even put out the canvas tarp over the truck bed to catch some more. Hopefully we'll get a lot of rain tomorrow! It will cool things off as well. Anyway, it was a lovely day, a nice ride, and I'm hoping I can solve the water problem fairly easily, because I really would like to spent two weeks here. Heading to the shower and bed, my love! Good night!

Hi Darlin!
So, the day I've been planning for has come and gone! What a lovely day! Slept in a bit, did my chores and breakfast, read awhile, then saddled up Apollo for a nice 4.74 mile ride with Lola. It was a bit warmer today, but as usual, it was cooler in the woods. We decided to go down on the Mohawk Trail and back up on the C Trail, since Mohawk wasn't as muddy as I expected the other day. Apollo did brilliantly, as always! Lola was able to flatten herself in enough puddles to keep her cool, so she was fine today, especially with the shorter distance. Got back to camp, gave Apollo a nice rinse off, then chatted with several campers that wanted to come say hello to him, and another that was interested in my spigot "adapter" when he saw me using a hose. I let Apollo munch on the nice clover grass they have here for a bit before putting him back on the line. I'm sorry to say that my noisy neighbors outdid themselves today, it was non-stop loud talking, yelling at kids and dogs, and just generally not the quiet atmosphere that everyone else in the campground was enjoying. Sigh. I'm hoping they're not staying the whole weekend, but not much I can do about it anyway. Spent the rest of the day mostly reading until dinner, then waited until just about sunset to climb up the fire tower. I was astonished to discover that the trap door up into the cabin at the top was actually open! You remember how it was usually locked before, but that nice new ranger opened it up just for us the last time we were here? Well, evidently, they leave it open all the time now, at least during the season. Even the windows were unlocked, but I didn't have a prop to keep them open, so all my viewing was through the glass. Several people came and went, barely staying more than a few minutes, but I was up there for the duration. Once again, the little lake to the west, Lamoka I think, had a whole lot of individual fireworks, but I stayed long enough for the Watkins Glen municipal fireworks, which was a bit later, but it was a good show. Worth the effort to get here for July 4, as I had planned! It's been a good stay here, seeing Lorna and Donna, and Steve is coming by tomorrow for lunch, so it's been like a mini high school reunion already. More to come, I'm sure! Anyway, it's a bit later than usual to bed, and I still have my shower to do. Good night, baby! Love you!

Hey Sweetie!
A bit of a fitful night, but ended up sleeping okay, though it was an absolutely perfect morning weather-wise. After chores and breakfast, I eventually saddled up Flash and headed out on the trail. My original plan changed somewhat, after a rider came into camp and we chatted for a bit. She told me a certain section of trail was in really bad shape, so I decided to avoid it, but my goal was to do a section of Trail A that I hadn't done before, and managed to get that done anyway. It was absolutely miraculous that during our entire fifteen mile ride, Flash didn't lose his boots once, despite the fact that he sank in the mud almost up to his knees a couple of times! Amazing! A lot of that trail was quite nice, but there were still both muddy and rocky sections, so the boots were essential, so glad they stayed on! Lola came along, and managed to stay with us, though she was flagging a bit at the end. Lots of water and puddles on the trails, so she was able to stay hydrated, thank goodness. Just a bit long for her these days, but she managed! When we got back to camp, I was a bit disappointed to see a whole family with noisy kids and a barking dog with multiple grownups setting up tents right next to me. I knew it would be busy this weekend, just didn't expect a whole herd of kids right next door. I hope they have enough sense to stay away from my horses! I'll obviously had to suffer through the screaming and the campfire smoke, but oh well! I rinsed off Flash and his boots and got him put away, filled up my trailer and truck tank, figuring it would be better to do it this evening than tomorrow, when the place is liable to really get busy, and finally settled down for the evening. A gorgeous day, perfect temps, exactly the kind of day we love! Heading to bed early, as we have an early appointment for the truck in the morning. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!