After a busy couple of days, we set aside today to map out yet another section of the Skymont Trails, and learned from Ranger Dave's wife Ellen that Ike and Rebecca, the organizers of the SERA endurance race for which I had volunteered a few weeks ago were actually camping in the back, so I was looking forward to introducing Hubby to them when we passed by. After getting saddled up and riding through their camp, it became obvious they were all out on a trail ride, naturally, as it was a beautiful day. We headed out over the dam, this time heading north to mostly follow part of the orange trail. I had mapped out about 6.75 miles of riding, but got a little turned around, as most of the flags near where the buildings and other scout facilities were had been removed, and since they had the most roads and options because it was the most used and populated area, it made it a bit more confusing. Following my GPS, though, we managed to get on track after awhile. Once again it was a gorgeous ride. The leaves are starting to change color, adding to an already gorgeous experience. After about 4 miles, however, after cantering up a hill, we looked back and realized that our little dog Billy was missing! I asked Hubby when was the last time he had seen him, and he couldn't really remember, because he had been running lines of a one-man show he's getting ready to perform next month. So we turned around and headed back to see if we could find him, and after about half a mile and lots of yelling, Billy finally came bounding up the trail towards us. We figured he must have gotten distracted or tired somewhere, and because he's getting a little deaf in his old age, he couldn't hear us well enough to track us down again. Once he caught back up with us, though, we headed back on up the trail, as it was longer to go back than to continue forward, even with the extra mile of backtracking. My horse Apollo wasn't exactly thrilled at going back and forth (he tends to get bored easily, and retracing his steps is boring for him, he always wants a new trail!), so he got a little ornery for a few minutes, but settled down again once we got going. We were afraid Billy would have trouble keeping up (he is over 12 years old, and has tiny little dachshund size legs, after all!), so we slowed down and waited for him more often, which made what should have been a 2.5 hour ride into more of a 4 hour ride. But, of course, any time on the back of my horse is a good time! We finally reached camp, and by then, the other campers were back, and we stopped and chatted with them for a while, comparing notes. We knew from the fresh manure on the trail that they had been on many of the same trails as us, so we talked mostly about the orange trail What a great ride, though! Perfect weather, a gorgeous day! Got back and got everyone put away, gave Billy a baby aspirin because I knew he was going to need it, and settled down for the evening. Wonderful!

Finally got a ride in today! Can't believe our last ride was way back in June! The weather has finally become perfect for riding, low 70's, clear skies, gorgeous! After having met the new Ranger at local Skymont Boy Scout Reservation during the SERA Endurance Race ten days ago, we got permission to come and ride, and we volunteered to help GPS the trails to help build an accurate trail map, though the one SERA was really good. Anyway, we packed up the horses into the trailer and drove the quick 5 miles down to the camp, checking in with the Ranger and heading back to where the riders had camped during the race. We got the horses saddled up in no time. Frankly, I was a bit nervous about how the horses would behave after such along layoff, but they were perfect! Everything about the ride was perfect! We've had no rain here for a few weeks, so the trails were perfect. Mostly flat through woods, but with several hillocks that provided some challenge. Hubby got a lot of canters in to keep up with Apollo's fast walk, and we got both got some nice trots in as well. Fabulous, fabulous day, can't wait to come back! Hopefully, later in the week, we'll get another chance, while the weather continues to be perfect!

After another busy week of cleaning and repairing and running around, Hubby and I decided to take a ride around the "neighborhood," having been reassured by our nearest neighbor (whose trails we need to cross to get to other trails) that permission was given, we headed out the end of the driveway, through the gate, and off into the woods! We were pleased that the trails were all in pretty good shape, just a couple of limbs down, obviously newly fallen after a serious storm last week, where we had a fierce straightline wind gust that didn't last long, but was VERY strong for a few moments as a front came through. It knocked down a dead tree in our front yard, which I had to clear during the week because it crossed over the driveway, and several smaller trees were bent nearly parallel to the ground. I had also done some other chainsawing over the weekend as well, on trees that had come down since our last trip home and before. Anyway, we haven't ridden back here in such a long time, the trails all seemed new to us, which was wonderful! One trail we followed skirted the edge of an area that had been horribly clear cut a few years ago, but we were happy to see that a lot of new young trees were quickly filling it in. That, unfortunately, ended when we came across a log that was too high to get over, and too thickly shrubbed to get around, so we turned around, with plans to bring a saw to cut it or a rope to move it by horsepower enough to get by next time. We followed a few more trails, some of which looked familiar, some we had completely forgotten, and noted lots of side trails for another day. With perfect weather, it was a fabulous ride, everyone behaved themselves, the dogs loved being out in the woods, the horses were great (with only one unexpected hop from Apollo which was quickly corrected), and we had a wonderful time! First time I've ridden here and GPS mapped it, so it was quite a treat to see exactly where on the mountain we traveled. We most definitely have to clear that log, because that trail leads to the western edge of the plateau, where the views into the Nashville basin are stunning, and there's a place known locally as Sunset Point, which describes it perfectly, an overhanging rock that looks due west, with a creek/waterfall nearby. A gorgeous point I want to find again! Anyway, it was a great ride, we were out about two hours, just right for our first time out in nearly 3 weeks!

After a quiet breakfast and chores, the horses got saddled up and out by about noon, to finish off the final trail here at AH Stephens SP, the Orange trail. They have just about finished adding an extra mile to the Blue Trail that I rode yesterday, but I didn't want to risk getting lost, since it still didn't have markings, so I stayed on the main trail. The Orange trail requires you to go out the Red trail for a ways, but instead of going the long way to the right, I knew it joined at a closer intersection out to the left, so that's where we headed. It meant essentially going "backward" on the trail, so many of the markings were only on one side of the tree (opposite from the direction we were headed), but every intersection is well-marked, so it's kind of hard to get lost here. This was another pretty trail, but it did get closer to civilization, at one point paralleling the busy Hwy. 22, you could hear and occasionally see traffic through the trees, past a couple of park buildings, and you could hear lawn mowers on the move. It also had a couple of historical sites, including a baptismal pool from 1866 and a CCC outhouse from the 1930's, which they pointed out with signs. Nowhere near as pretty as the Blue trail, but still worth the ride. It was almost exactly 5 miles, so not a long ride, but pleasant, with perfect weather, just enough breeze to keep the real heat away, and, of course, the shade was excellent. Got back around 2:30, had lunch, then I took Lola out to the trail near the boat launch and she did some more swimming (again, we didn't take the dogs on the trail because I knew this one went near a road, and didn't know how close, so better safe than sorry!) After her exercise session, relaxed the rest of the afternoon, had dinner, took the dogs for a quick walk (I'm trying to get more exercise in order to lose some weight!) before settling in for the evening.

After a quiet day yesterday, and with only a couple of days left here, I decided to take the longer, Blue Trail, this time ponying Clio along just to see how that would go. I pulled out a long lunge-line I seldom use and once I had Apollo all saddled up, hooked her up and away we went! She was brilliant, staying up with us extremely well, jogging and trotting to keep up without being asked, at least until we got near the end, when she was clearly ready to get home. I had no trouble, except the lunge-line was so long I ended up stuffing a lot of it into one side of my saddle bags, and that helped. Towards the end I decided to try using Lola's retractible dog leash, and that actually worked wonderfully! I'll need to see if they make a horse version of a retractible lead, what a great idea! Meanwhile, the trail was magnificent! Big trees, great brooks, a couple of stream crossings, ravines, uphills and downhills, not to steep but enough to make if really interesting! We even got a few canters in! The weather was perfect, hardly any bugs, just spectacular! We were gone about 2.5 hours, a perfect length for an afternoon ride. I didn't bring the dogs, as I didn't want to try to handle two dogs and two horses, and there's a leash law here anyway, but I didn't get the impression it's enforced too dramatically (but don't quote me on that!) I did take Lola for a walk yesterday and found access to a lake next to one of the cottages, so she got her swimming. Also I took a drive around and found a boat launch and public fishing spot at the end of one of roads, next to a nature trail, so after lunch I drove down there with Lola and let her fetch and swim for about 45 minutes before coming back to camp and settling down for the evening. A great day!

Several storms came in during the evening yesterday, and one of the rangers came by and told us there was bad hail coming in, so just before midnight we put the horses in the trailer just to be on the safe side. Had a bit of rain, thunder and lightning, but not much else, but it fortunately dropped the temps down to a comfortable level. Slept well, then after breakfast got the horses saddle up and headed out to finish off as many of the trails as we could. I planned a trip out River Trail, a 4 mile linear trail to the northwest boundary of the park, with a return on the Yellow Jacket, then Pink trail, about 7.5 miles total. Wound through some marvelous woods, then along a stretch of sandy trail until we reached a long wooden bridge over some swampland. Our horses have no trouble with a long bridge like that, but if you're not that confident, the park folks have put in a nice mounting block at each end of the bridge if you want to walk your horse over it. There's really no way to get around it, just too mucky. At the far side of the bridge, there a loop you can take that meets up again on the other side, so we went straight on the way out, and came back on the other half of the loop. Where they merge on the other side, there trail continues all the way to the park boundary. We had one tricky bit, where there was a culvert pipe across the trail, but most of the trail had washed out, so there was a creek and a big corrugated pipe which gave the horses some pause. I got down and managed to get both horses across with only a little hesitation, fortunately. At the end of the official trail, I was expecting a fence, but there wasn't one. We were clued in by a couple of large logs that criss-crossed the trail, and the trail rather dramatically deteriorating (though that had been happening during the last half mile or so anyway), then when I turned around I saw the Park Boundary sign, so we headed back, talking the alternate River Trail loop, and found our way home. A very nice ride, though Hubby slipped on the culvert and hurt his shoulder a bit again, but only slightly, so hopefully it won't put him out of commission again. The dogs had a great time, with Lola doing her whirling dervish routine a couple of times, where she suddenly goes into some crazed mode and starts running circles around like a mad dog, usually in and out of puddles or water. The weather was perfect, temps in the low 70's in the shade, so Billy had no trouble keeping up either. Got back to camp, did a quick final load of laundry to get our muddy jeans clean, started packing up for our departure tomorrow, and settled down for the evening. A great day! Again, SO GLAD TO BE BACK ON THE ROAD AGAIN!!! YEAH!!!

After a weekend of doing laundry and resting Hubby's hurt shoulder, plus a short trip down to the trading post to extend out stay until Thursday, we decided Hubby was fit enough to try a short ride today, so we saddled up the horses and headed out on the trails with both dogs, with temps in the mid-80's and a bit humid. They really do have nice trails here!. Pretty thick woods but a nice, well-used trail that's mostly wide enough for two, but still mostly in the shade, which was greatly appreciated today! Sand and leaves for footing, and there are a number of good places to trot and canter, though we did neither because it jarred Hubby's shoulder too much. He's thinking now that maybe he actually bruised the bone, rather than just muscles, so we're going to put him back in a brace when we get back to camp. Two hours and five miles later, we arrived back at camp, where crazy Lola tried to get into the horses' water bucket to cool off. Little Billy had found a nice dirty puddle someplace, so I had to rinse him off at the faucet before letting him in the RV. Had some lunch, and then some rain came in a few minutes later, so great timing! Put the horses out on their anchors so they could graze in the field next to us. One thing I have to say about this place, no one has fussed at us about anything, not the dogs, not the horses, nothing, making it a very pleasant stay so far! This place really is a well-kept secret, there's very little evidence that it's being used very often, so it quite peaceful, though we are just off a highway so we can hear traffic occasionally, and the sites have a slight slope to them, but otherwise, it's all great!

As is my wont, I planned to ride as many of the trails here as possible, so today's ride was designed to map out nearly all of the remaining trails, which estimated to be just under 13 miles. We set the alarm in order to get out early, as the temps were forecast for the low 90's. Managed to get on the trail by 9:30, but this time we left little Billy home, which he didn't like, but he had trouble keeping up with us on the last ride, mostly because of the heat, and we knew that this would be too much for him today. We headed south to the first intersection, then made our way north and eventually to the east side of the park, which opened up into a lot of fallow fields, many with some gorgeous wildflowers, not to mention the occasional cactus in bloom. When we got close to the road, I stopped to put a leash on Lola, didn't want to be too far out of compliance here, anyway. 🙂 The trails that went around the edges of fields gave us a good opportunity to trot and canter, but got a little boring after a while, and then hot as there was no shade and the temps rose. At one point, near the farthest point from the camp, of course, Hubby's mare Clio shied at some approaching hikers, which she seldom does but we hadn't seen anyone else on the trails here at all, so I guess it startled her, and she went sideways unexpectedly. Hubby couldn't hang on (his hands just aren't as strong as they used to be), he lost his balance and took a slow motion fall, landing a bit on his shoulder. Clio didn't go anywhere, she just stood there wondering what happened. The hikers were very apologetic, though it wasn't anything they did, but we appreciated their concern. After a few minutes of rest and recovery, Hubby got back up in the saddle with the help of a nearby fallen log, and we were on our way. We took a couple of rests on the way back, especially at the bridge where Lola and I tossed a stick in the water, which had quite a good current going, and she got some swimming in. Hubby was too sore to do anything but walk all the way back, so it was nearly 3:30 by the time we got to camp. Fortunately, the west side of the park is mostly wooded, so the shade helped, but it was still hot. Can't wait to get back north in 70 degrees!! Anyway, Hubby helped a little, but his shoulder hurt him too much, so I sent him in and finished up with the chores. We put ice packs on his shoulder during the evening, and that helped some, so hopefully he'll recover without too much fuss. In any event, it was a very nice ride, 13 miles in all, and I managed to get a great GPS map out of it, which I've passed along to Trailmeister (along with the one from earlier in the week), and have both available if anyone wants them!

What a very nice ride at Lake Louisa today! We got up a little early to try to beat the heat, but still didn't manage to get out until 11:00 (we got so lazy hanging around in one place all winter! 🙂 Over the weekend I had taken the trail map and marked off two routes that would allow us to cover as many of the park trails as possible, and downloaded Day One into the GPS to make sure, which ran just under 9 miles, saving the longer 12+ mile one for later in the week. We headed south through the youth camp, down to Dude's Loop, then north for a bit to the link to the east side of the park, which let us cross over a creek where the dogs had a great time splashing around, even little Billy took a voluntary swim across the creek to cool off, even though there's a bridge! Went north over the Sandhill Loop, then came back over the bridge where we rested a few minutes at the picnic table and hitching rail there, then did a sort of figure 8 along a bunch more trails that ended up taking us to the loop around the north side of Bear Lake and south back into the campground, all told, just over 3 hours. The weather was pretty hot (in the mid-upper 80's) but not too humid, cloudy enough to keep it from getting too bad, there was a tiny breeze occasionally that helped, and at one point, a few drops came out of a cloud, just enough to subdue the increasing heat. Hubby had a lot of great canters, as his mare Clio was walking slower than usual, and he had to keep up. She's starting to get a bit of arthritis in one of her knees, so we'll have to keep an eye on that, though he's been spraying it with Absorbine everyday. But a gorgeous day all around! The trails were marked brilliantly, and the map corresponded perfectly (a rare combination!), and we never felt lost, making the day even more enjoyable! Looking forward to our next ride here, probably Wednesday. A great start to our re-kindled journey!

For some time now, we've known about the nearby Loxahatchee Slough, but have only ever reached it's trailhead after a long ride from brother Jeff's house, so we had never actually been on those trails. At Dupuis a few months ago, I met a woman named Valerie who was kind enough to invite me to ride with her today, so we packed up the horses early and headed over to another one of her friend's house named Nancy. From there we quickly saddled up and headed west along the canal at a nice easy walk so the horses could get used to each other and the surroundings, and of course they had issues with a pig in someone's back yard, but it wasn't long before we all settled down. Just as we reached the trailhead we were joined by another rider, Bob, who decided to tag along with us. We took a very nice loop of about 4 miles, part of which went along one of the big canals, and there was one stretch that had standing water we had to wade through for a bit. Otherwise it was a lovely day, a very nice trail and a very nice ride, and we all took turns chatting amongst ourselves. We mostly walked and jogged, though Hubby got in a couple of canters catching up several times, as our pace was a bit quicker than normal for us (their horses are younger :-). We passed one property that had a rather emaciated looking horse in the yard, I took note and looked it up later, passing the address and owner along to Val in case she wanted to report it. With us leaving in a few days, it doesn't make sense for us to get involved, hopefully the ladies here will follow up on it. In any event, it was a lovely ride, about 7.3 miles all told, just over two hours, just right for the busy day we all still had left in front of us. Hubby and I expressed our thanks and goodbyes, made short stop at Publix for a few things before heading back to the "ranch," did some chores before settling down for the evening.