As we had decided earlier in our stay, we wanted to explore the northern regions of this wilderness area, so I mapped out a route that would take us to the farthest north trail, the Beach Mill Trail. Once again we would have to use the Chase Creek Trail, though this is the first time we'll be taking it north from the start. We got out of camp by about 11:40, figuring it would take at least 4 ½ hours to do the 14.2 miles that my GPS calculated, which would get us back in plenty of time before sunset at 7:15 or so. Chase Creek took us to Dragline, crossed over the steel bridge we'd heard so much about, then we cut north again on Elbow, which turned into Cleveland Lake Trail, which is one of the most beautiful trails we've been on yet here. Once that trail crossed Beach Mill Road it became Beach Mill Trail, which was a small U-loop, which wasn't as attractive as it had obviously been forested at some point in the more recent past. Once it crossed the same road again it became Payne Lake Trail, which was also pretty open, at least until we hit the lake. We stopped at the "Scenic" point where there was a hitching rail, no picni table or anything, and there wasn't anything very scenic about it, no real views or anything. We had lunch there nevertheless, taking a much needed break. Hubby's back had gotten a little sore from trotting so much the other day, so we decided to walk all the way north, and only started trotting a bit when we came to Payne Lake, where there were a few more opportunities. We got a few canters in after lunch as well, after Payne Lake turned into Frost Pocket Trail, which was also pretty wide open and sandy. Frost Pocket led to Proceeding Trail, where we got turned around momentarily by taking Bailey Road south instead of east, but we corrected that error before going very far. We crossed back on the steel bridge (which thankfully, was planked as opposed to grated), and headed back south, reversing the route from there. We arrived back at camp at just after 5:30, well within our time frame, very happy with the entire ride, dogs were great, horses were great (though tired by that time, we could tell), another perfect ride day! Weather couldn't have been better, partly sunny with highs in the mid 70's, just fabulous! We are going to miss these trails! No doubt we'll be back next year, there are still a few more trails we haven't explored yet, would you believe! Packed away a few more items before settling down for dinner, though we also splurged on a cocktail or two as well, just because!
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