Hello my love!
What a day! I’m getting so many trail miles in here, it’s ridiculous! Started off the day with a 14.22 ride with Trish and Sandy, covering a nice mix of the western and central part of the forest, absolutely gorgeous again! Had a lovely lunch, thanks to Trish, when we got back, then Sandy headed home, she’s got a busy weekend planned, then after about an hour and a half’s rest, we saddled up again, though this time I took Apollo, since the poor guy has been left behind when all the gaited horses have gone out, and Trish was happy to keep Breezy nice and slow, and we went for another six plus mile ride, this time covering the whole southeastern section of the forest. I was trying to find the boardwalks that Sandy and I found the other day, we were in a bit of a disagreement as to where they were, and Trish and I found them, right where I thought they would be (sorry, Sandy!). Of course, it was a slower ride, but that section had a lot more hills than we’ve seen before. It’s amazing, every trail has it’s own individual characteristics, so much variety, it never gets boring! I hope the locals appreciate what they have here, I’ve got to put this place near the very top of my list for outstanding trail riding! Once we got back, we walked up to the camp host, who came in for the weekend and is on the board of the local club that keeps this place in order, and we had a nice chat. She gave me a new map which included a couple of new trails, and is helping arrange for me to get a couple of bales of hay to get me through to Sandy’s, I’m running a bit low and don’t want to run out before I get there! Anyway, it was a busy day full of lovely riding, beautiful weather once again, another day of perfect living! Trish has already gone off to bed, it’s supposed to be a bit warmer tomorrow so she wants to get an early start, so I’m heading off to the shower and bed shortly, too. Love you, babe! Good night!

Hi Darlin’!
What a day! It started out slow, but once things started happening, it was non-stop today! Didn’t sleep all that well, Lola was restless, but eventually got around to it. After chores and breakfast, I discovered that I could get a good cell signal two sites up from me, so I did a bit of work on my phone at that table. Eventually, Sandy arrived with her daughter and granddaughters. Sandy had decided that she wasn’t up for riding today after all the miles she did yesterday (she still has to strengthen her horse muscles!), so we saddled up my two horses, and first I took the daughter on about a 30 minute ride, then took the younger granddaughter on a shorter ride, with them riding Apollo, of course. The granddaughter was a bit reluctant, so I ended up having to pony her most of the way, but eventually she gained enough confidence to come into camp on her own. We chatted for awhile, waiting for Trish, who had gotten stuck in horrific construction traffic so was running really late, and Sandy and her brood left, only to return a short while later just behind Trish, who finally found her way here. Sandy left right after to spend the day with her family, and Trish and I got her and her horse Breezy set up on a makeshift highline, which apparently she’s never done before, but I managed to piece together something that would work just fine. Once everyone was settled in, we saddled up and took the twelve plus mile ride I had planned for Sandy, which turned out to stunningly gorgeous. I just can’t say enough about how pleasurable it is to ride here. There is a great variety in the forest, but there isn’t one single trail that I’ve been on that I can complain about. The least attractive trail here would be considered a very acceptable trail anywhere else. As you know, my standards are pretty high when it comes to trails, and I just can’t say enough good things about these! Trish felt the same way, she said it’s been years since she’s been on trails this nice. We got back to camp around 8:00, got everyone fed and put away, I did a little bit of work on my computer while I briefly had a signal, we shared a glass of wine, Trish headed off to bed and I’m just doing my usual evening ritual, though no TV tonight for sure, much too late! Heading off now for my shower and bed, later than I would have liked, but there’s just so little time between daylight and bedtime, it’s so hard to get use to! Anyway, I’m off! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Sweetie!
Well, everything we loved about this place when we came here so many years ago has held up! The trails are spectacular, beautiful footing, fabulous greenery, no extremes, lots of single track trails, even the forest roads don’t have much gravel on them, so it was an absolutely outstanding ride today! Sandy fed the horses while I did my PT this morning, then after breakfast we hit the trails. I had planned a nice, almost 10 mile ride around the eastern half of the park, figured we’d do the western half tomorrow and whatever’s left over the next day. It was wonderful. Flash and her mare got along great, we’d switch leaders intermittently, and her mare was getting more and more calm. In addition to puddles, we crossed a number of small boardwalks with no hesitation on either horses’ part, and just had a fantastic time. Lola came along on this trip today, and she had a great time, too! Got back to camp a bit after noon, rinsed the horses down and settled down for a bit. It’s a bit tough here because there’s no real cell phone signal, but at one point I went up to the other side of camp, which sits a little higher, and managed to get a good enough signal there to check my email and make a few phone calls. Extremely disappointed to learn that the three bags of feed I THOUGHT I ordered last week were not, in fact, ever ordered, and then I heard a bunch of conflicting stuff about whether they carried it or didn’t carry it, but just didn’t have any, yada yada yada. They finally did some checking and said they could get it here by Monday, too late to do me any good. I finally managed to locate some, I can either have Sandy pick some up at Tractor Supply on her way home on Friday in Midland, or I can wait and get it at another place in Standish, wherever that is, though it’s supposed to be fairly close to Sandy’s house. Anyway, I’m not going to have any before I run out, probably. I might scrape through, but it’s going to be mighty close. Then I got a text from Trish who’s desperate for someplace to ride, but apparently the forecast in Indiana is not good, but here it’s fantastic (even chilly at night!), so in the end, she succumbed to temptation and is packing up to drive up tomorrow. Should be quite the reunion! Later Sandy said she didn’t think she’d be up to riding tomorrow (I guess ten miles was too much for her, needs to get her horse muscles back in shape!), but is bringing her family out in the morning to meet the mare. That’s fine, I’m sure Trish will want to ride in the afternoon, especially after such a disappointing trip to Wranglers a few weeks ago. Anyway, it was a gorgeous day, perfect weather, perfect trails, one of those miraculously fantastic days that makes me happy to be alive and doing what we always loved to do! Heading now for shower and bed, it only just got dark at nearly 10:00, so hard to think about bed when it’s still light outside! Makes me feel like a kid! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe!
Woke up early, once again (like yesterday) opted for no breakfast except a protein bar for later on (I’ve been losing a little weight, thank goodness!), and it took less than an hour to get everything put away and the horses all loaded up and cleaned up after. I was just getting ready to pull out when a park guy showed up about the breaker, well, to ask if anyone had helped me with it, which, of course, they had not. We chatted briefly, then he went off and I pulled out. Another beautiful morning, though about a half hour into the drive, just when I was coming off the first U.S. Hwy onto the interstate, which happened to be under construction so less lanes, when the first downpour hit. Not my favorite driving, but I was super careful and got through it okay. It tapered off, but stayed with me more gently for a long time, until we finally shook it off shortly before reaching camp, which was around 12:30. Made good time because of all the freeway driving. I parked in the same spot we parked last time we were here, near the water source. I considered a couple of areas that were more wide open for my solar panel, but proximity to water won out. It took me a couple of hours to get everything set up, horses on the highline (though I let Apollo and Flash graze a bit, until Apollo got bored with grass and decided to try to break into the feed bins that were in the back of the truck!), chairs out, even got the solar panel out, though it was cloudy and occasionally rainy throughout the afternoon. Sandy had a late start and finally got here late in the afternoon, and after she fixed up her bridle with her new Argentine snaffle, decided she wanted to get a ride in, do we saddled up and took about a four mile ride. Her mare behaved reasonably well, certainly a lot better than our ride on Sunday, so it’s good that I worked out some of her energy then, and Flash was excellent, as usual, back to his old self. Footing and trails are great here, markings easy to follow, so it was easy to plot a route short enough to get us back well before dark. Everyone behaved, everything went well, Sandy and her mare started communicating, and that’s the most important thing. Got back around 8:30 (it bugs me that it’s still so light outside at that hour!), got everyone fed, then I heated up some soup (at 9:15 for heaven’s sake!), then we sat out until the mosquitoes started after us. Apollo and the mare (Sandy’s started calling her Mocha now), got into a kicking match for a bit, those two just can’t be close to each other without starting a fight!. Nothing serious, but Mocha has shoes with cleats of some kind on them, and Apollo is barefoot, so NO FAIR! Well, they’ll work it out, or not, it’s a horse things. Anyway, time for shower and bed, I’m sure Sandy’s ready to bed down in one of my recliners (she didn’t bring her cot-tent this time, worried about the rain, not in the mood for a tent), so considering the late hour, I’m ready! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Sweetie!
Once again we had rain overnight, but by morning it started to clear out. I spent some time putting a few things away this morning, since I’ve decided to leave for my next stop tomorrow, for only one night, then on to Hungerford so Sandy can finally meet up with her horse. Once those chores were done, I saddled up Coco/Scarlett with my western saddle with a big thick pad, and tried her out with that old bitless bridle you used to use on Clio, but she didn’t respond very well to that, too much energy, so I ended up putting Flash’s bridle on her since it would be the nearest fit I had. I moved her around a bit in camp before heading out on the trail. Normally I would want to do some ground work a horse before riding, but I’ve run out of time for that, and I do want to get at least one ride on her before I turn her over to Sandy. She has a lot of energy, just like Flash did when we first got him, but that will settle down once she gets a lot more riding on her. It took her awhile to start listening to me, but eventually I was able to keep her in a nice gait, equivalent to a fast walk, which was very nice and smooth. One step up from that, however, is a whole other story! She gets very choppy, worse than a quarter horse trot, in my opinion. My stirrups are a bit long to be posting, so I was bouncing all over the place once she hit that speed. I kept slowing her down to her slow gait or a walk, which she does just fine. On one hill, we even did a decent canter, which was okay, not as smooth as Flash’s, but not too bad. We did a lot of fields at first, just getting acquainted, but eventually I took her on to some of the single track dirt trails, she did a great job of following the trail (unlike Flash when I first got him, he’d go straight no matter where the trail was going, even if it was off into the woods!), had no trouble with creek crossings, and was pretty sure-footed going up and down hills, though he kept wanting to go a bit faster than I would like through the woods. Good thing there aren’t many knee-knockers on these narrow trails! It was a good ride, though, seven miles in two hours, and by the end we had reached an understanding, which is all you can ask for on a first (and probably, only) ride. She settled down nicely once she ran some of the energy off, and she seemed to start listening a bit better. Sandy had better be prepared to do a lot of riding to burn off some of that energy and get here settled down! Like Flash, she’s not the kind of horse you can just pull out of the pasture after a couple of months and ride safely. She should make a nice horse though, very sturdy, didn’t have any heat or swelling anywhere afterwards. I do have one concern, and that is that she doesn’t seem to lift her tail to poop, she tends to squat instead. Never seen that before. She also a bit sensitive about her hindquarters, not really physically sensitive when I try to prod it, but skittish when you first approach it. Don’t know if it’s just behavioral or physical, will need further examination by someone with more knowledge than me! Anyway, after we got back I rinsed her down and let her eat some clover for awhile while I did some more prep work for our departure tomorrow, in between reading and resting. Finally settled down for the evening, just in time for the rain to come in, perfect timing again! Had my shower, so now I’m heading to bed, going to try to get an early start in the morning. They have a dump here at Middle Fork, so I’m going to do all that in the morning, but everything else except the horse stuff is packed. That said, I’ll say good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Darlin’!
Slept through all the overnight rain (thank you, earplugs!), got up bright at early at 7:00 for the arranged delivery of 10 bales of hay at 8:00. When I went to bed last night the forecast said the all-day rain would start at 9:00, when I got up this morning, that had moved to 3:00! Perfect! Tyler Moews, a very nice young man, arrived around 8:15 with my hay, and helped me load it up into the trailer, worth the extra dollar a bale just for that! Brand new hay, just cut last week, smells scrumptious! He was in and out in no time. Had already fed the horses and Lola, so I had breakfast now. Wasn’t long before I was saddling up Flash for a planned 14+ mile perimeter ride, really looking forward to seeing how he does on this mostly wonderful footing. We were out by 9:30, cognizant of the time frame for the rain (yeah, right!), wanting to be back in plenty of time. He was WONDERFUL! He’s been such a slug the last few weeks, obviously because of all the gravel and boot problems he’s been having, but today, he had all the same old energy he used to have. A lot of the trails are around fields of crops and wildflowers, and many of them are beautiful grass that even with all the rain are in excellent shape. Some were dirt with very little gravel, and were hard enough not to have turned to mud. Well, my plan didn’t exactly work out, because my original perimeter called for crossing the river over and back, but with all the rain, it had swollen to the point where I wouldn’t dare even CONSIDER crossing it, it was like the rush just before Niagara Falls. Very wide, probably deep, and moving so fast with so much flotsam it would have been taking our lives in my hands, no thank you! As it was, we had to cross what was probably just an irrigation ditch, and it took me three tries to get him across that five yards because I kept having to grab for my electronics to keep them above water. There was just one step he didn’t want to take, but he finally did it, just a fraction away from swimming. Of course, I was soaked through up above my knees and my Ariats were soaked through, so I had trench foot by the time we got back to camp! It was a wonderful ride, though, we got in a nice long canter, and spent a lot of time, especially heading back to camp, gaiting nicely. The last section of trail in the south was more single track, but for the most part it wasn’t too bad. He was great, though, very sure-footed, even on the most slippery parts. A couple of times he had to really to sit down on his haunches as we slid down a hill, but he did GREAT! We had one five minute sun shower around noon, but we just stayed under a copse of trees until it passed, hardly got wet at all. We got back to camp just as we reached fourteen miles, so even with all the variations, it worked out perfectly. And I have to say, I LOVE this trail marking style here! Very logical, very easy to follow, I never felt anxious about where I was, except at one intersection near the ranger station that didn’t have a good sign, but all the rest, brilliant! It’s wonderful to ride without the anxiety of getting lost, especially when my GPS programmed route becomes moot. It was just lovely! When we got back I let him graze in the clover for awhile on the anchor as a reward, which he appreciated, but before I knew it, he was standing by his place on the highline snuggling with Apollo as usual! By the time we got back, the weather forecast changed to rain coming in at 4:00, and finally, after all that hooplah (and several hours of unexpected sunshine), a band of rain came through at 6:55 and was gone by 7:30. It’s a darn good thing I don’t rely on the weatherman to decide when I’m going to ride, or I’d never be on the trail! Anyway, I settled down for the afternoon and evening, reading and watching a little TV, now I’m ready for shower and bed. A great day, my love! I felt you with me all the way! And by the way, the cicadas are here! Remember that year in Cincinnati when they all came out? Well, those red-eyed bugs are out again, they keep showing up on my stairs for some reason! Already buzzing in the forest! Wonder what they wait 17 years for? Oh, well, good night, my darlin’!

Hi Sweetheart!
Woke up early this morning, but slept deeply, because I had to put earplugs in, what with all the rain that came and went last night. Got up and did the chores, and while I was eating breakfast, a trailer went by me, and it turned out to be the gals that I was supposed to ride with this morning. Seems they must have seen the radar and the weather forecast, it looked pretty gloomy. Of course, not for the first time, the rain stopped just after 9:30, so I saddled up Apollo and went out on my own (with Lola, of course!) Anyway! There seemed to be a break in the rain, I figured I could get a ride in. About a half hour in it started to rain a bit, but I just slipped on my slicker, and before I even had it fully on the rain slowed down a lot. Just a little spit or two after that, then it stopped for the rest of the ride. We just did a short four miles, mostly around the edge of fields and clearing, but it was a lot of nice grass footing, so it was good, especially for Apollo, who’s been such a drama queen about his feet lately. I took one wrong turn (what’s a ride without at least one!), and ended up on what would usually be my favorite kind of trail, single track with dirt footing, but with all the rain and the type of dirt they had here, it was a slippery as ice. Apollo really was being extra careful, almost slipping a couple of times, but we made it. Guess we’ll stick to the wide grassy trails for awhile! It was a nice ride, though, and the skies kept gradually clearing most of the afternoon, until we actually had some blue sky and sunshine for a little bit before it started clouding up again. Once we got back, I headed into town, wanted to top of a couple of propane tanks (since it doesn’t seem like I’m going to get much energy from the sun any time soon!), and a bit of shopping and to fill up with fuel. Spent some time searching for hay, but I can’t seem to get anyone to get back to me, either by phone or messenger, and I’m getting desperate, only have a couple of meals left so I may have to either drive a long way or try to find a feed store in the morning, though the ones I already called don’t have any. Finally settled down for the evening, had to move Coco to a different highline, she’s been doing a lot of stomping and it’s been making it a real mud bog under her, hopefully she won’t keep doing that. There’s no special treatment under the highlines, just dirt and not mud, so nothing more I can do. No one else came in tonight, I suspect the weather forecast is keeping everyone away, but I’m not convinced it’s going to be that bad. Today the radar showed a mass of rain coming my way, but then it suddenly all dissipated before it got here. Fingers crossed for tomorrow, I was hoping to get a long ride in on Flash, but I also have to find some hay, so we’ll see what happens! Anyway, time for shower and bed. Good night, my love!

Hi Darlin’!
Took awhile to fall asleep but ending up sleeping later than I planned this morning, but no matter. The horses did fine overnight, everyone was in their right place this morning. As soon as I fed them, I headed out to the post office to pick up my package (pads for my Cavallo horse boots), and got back in no time. Got Lola and myself breakfast, and before long, was saddling up Flash for our one and only ride here. What a lovely ride it was! We went along the edges of corn and soy fields, through deep woods, past picnic areas, small ponds, and of course, went right along the side of the big lake. Saw a strange white bird floating in the water, had a beak like a pelican but swam like a swan! Have to do some research on that one! Saw quite a few deer, with very young fawns as well. Just lovely! And the weather was absolutely perfect! These are the days I live for, a nice long ride (12.25 miles) on good footing with lots of variety. Flash even forgot to be “ouchy” on his feet today, the footing was mostly dirt with just a few patches of gravel. He even had a lot of energy on the grass stretches we did! Just perfect! Got back to camp and rinsed him off, but naturally he immediately rolled in the dirt. I started to put stuff away so that I will have the least amount to do in the morning, got their feed ready for tonight and the morning, hooked the truck up though haven’t dropped it all the way so it will stay level. Did one last water fill up on everything and put the hoses away. Did my third load of laundry. Everything’s done except the very last minute stuff I can’t do until the morning. Finally settled down for the evening, but then my signal started acting up so I couldn’t finish watching my program, so I’ve taken my shower and will soon be heading to bed. Unfortunately the weather forecast for where I’m going doesn’t look too good, they’re callling for rain starting tomorrow night and going all the way into next week, but then again, how often has the weatherman been right? Besides, I have a slicker if I need it. At least it will be dry when I get there, and the drive should be dry, so that’s something. Anyway, off to bed as soon as all my pix get loaded on this slow signal. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Darlin’!
Had a wonderful quiet night sleep without earplugs, so lovely! The temps cooled down just as I thought it would, so I slept like a baby. Got up and did my chores, had breakfast, then saddled up Flash for our first ride here. There aren’t a lot of trails, but I did manage to plot out one loop, plus a litte extra just for fun. Just before I left a man came and parked in the lot here, I thought he was just having lunch but evidently he was doing some kind of bible study. We started off on a short linear road down to one of the parking lots. The first part had some small gravel on it, not enough for me to worry about boots yet, then it changed to a nice grass road that didn’t bother Flash too much. It was only half a mile, so we were back to camp in no time. We passed through and followed the horse trail, and it was a bit gravelly at times, enough for me to put the boots on, then about 100 feet later it turned into grass again, so I took them off again. Really, it’s tiny gravel anyway, and I thought it would be worse to put the boots on and irritate his bulbs, which are still healing from last week. It was fairly straight forward for awhile, then it started getting much more challenging as we started to climb. It reminded me of the “extreme” trail at Hocking Hills in Ohio, with some slippery rock (even though it was dry!), and some fairly steep and narrow sections. I kept having to push trees away from my knees again, not a fan of trails with trees practically growing in them! Then we had one wrong turn that gave us pause. The real trail switchbacked off to the right, but the trail we were on appeared to go straight ahead, so I never saw it. We didn’t get very far, lots of fallen trees, and the trail kept getting narrower, so I finally dismounted and tied Flash up and walked back to see where we must have gone wrong. I found the turn, not too far back, fortunately, so I went back and walked Flash out of that mess. He was slipping on rock like crazy! Finally it got flat enough to mount back up and we carried on, and weren’t far off from the top where it smoothed out again. Think this is one of those “one and done” trails, not sure I want to go back on that one! It was nice and wide for awhile, then the final turn home was along the creek, where it got more narrow and trickier, but not as bad as the earlier section. Met up with a church group on a hike, so naturally they all wanted to say hi to Lola and Flash, so I stopped for a minute. Got back to camp just before two, the bible study guy was STILL there, but he left shortly afterward. I had to fix the hose again before rinsing off Flash, then finally settled down for the afternoon to some computer work and reading. It was evening when the camphost came by to collect the fee, just $8 a night here, not bad! There’s a manure bin, there’s good access to water, and I managed to get a couple of hours of sun on my solar panel. I did run the generator for about thirty minutes to charge the battery and my electronics, and put the AC on just to blow the hot air out. Took my shower, too, so I’m all settled in for the evening. All this quiet and fresh air are lulling me back into earlier bed times, which is just fine with me! One more show on TV and I’ll be off to bed, so good night, my sweet! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Had a good night sleep, then did chores. Maggie and Sandy both decided not to ride today, Sandy had a brief dizzy spell which we attributed to a bit of dehydration from the ride yesterday, so ended up riding Socks again today. Pat decided not to come along on her other horse, and the two new girls, Joyce and Sean came along, so it was just the four of us. They wanted to do the lake trail, so we took that one. I tried to figure out where I lost the trail last time, and still managed to miss it somehow, but it was a very nice ride, much more relaxing because my two slowpokes weren’t holding us back, which made it a much faster ride as well. We were back in camp just after noon, though Sandy and Maggie had gone off somewhere to find a wifi signal. I went looking for them, and they were just coming, back to camp, so we ended up deciding to find a place where we could have lunch, a wifi signal and air-conditioning for a few hours. We ended up with an additional bonus, waterfront, because we went to Cindy’s on the Barge, down by the Marina. A nice little, inexpensive grill with a gift shop where Sandy bought a T-shirt for her husband. After lunch they drove down to the barn so they could get another look at the horse Sandy is considering buying, I stayed behind to do a bunch of overdue work on my computer, including uploading this week’s worth of diary entries. When I finished that, I called the ladies to see if they were still at the barn, but neither answered, so I thought maybe they had already got back to camp so I drove there. They weren’t there, so I went and visited Trish and her group for a bit, and we all decided to take a run out to the Bison and Elk sanctuaries they have here. Once everyone got organized, we headed to the north on first, where there was an unexpected $5 entry fee, but we paid and drove around about a two mile (if that) loop where we saw one tiny herd of about 10 bison at the top of a hill, barely visible. Not exactly worth it, but hey, we did it! Then we headed south to the other bison viewing area, but we got about six miles or so south when we learned the ladies in the other truck were running low on fuel. Rather than head back north (which would have been shorter), we kept going south, all the way down to Dover, TN to find fuel. Trish knew of an ice cream place in town so we drove there, only to discover they were “closed for maintenance” at 5:00! Crazy! So then we went back to the McDonalds, because now I was really in the mood for something sweet, and when I asked for ice cream or a milkshake, I was told they weren’t available at the moment! REALLY?? Oh, well, I managed to get a Caramel Frappe which satisfied my sweet tooth and need for something cool on my tongue. We headed back towards camp, and saw a single rogue Bison on the south viewing range by some corrals, then another herd further up a hill, actually more than we saw in the paid viewing area, so I guess we got our money’s worth. By the time we got back to camp (and I went the back way to show them the crazy road I drove in on with the trailer and ran into a short, heavy downpour) Sandy and Maggie were back. We chatted for a bit, exchanging stories about our adventures, and all the new information Sandy learned about the horse she’s looking at, sounds very promising for her! We even are considering that I bring her up to her when she’s visiting her daughter and granddaughter in central Michigan, if we can get the timing to work out. Then just as we were settling down to watch Silver Streak, all the ladies showed up for a tour of the trailer (those who hadn’t seen it yet) and to chat about tomorrow. They’re getting bummed out by the heat and are considering leaving in the morning rather than riding, which kind of changes all our plans, but nothing too serious. They’ll make a final decision in the morning. I mean, yeah, it’s hot, and really humid with all the rain, but it’s a lot cooler in the woods so for me it’s no big deal when you’re riding, but I guess it matters to some folks. We’ll see. Anyway, after they left, we watched a little more of the movie while Sandy’s pillow was in the dryer, then they both headed out to their respective tents. Now it’s my turn for a shower and bed, at least I downloaded my next two books while I was out, I ran out of reading last night, horror of horrors! So I’ll say good-night now, my darling! Love you!