Monday, May 20, 2013 – Harrowing Travel Day to Bristol Fields Horse Camp

Having left several messages with the National Forest Service, who has yet to return my calls, we packed up early and headed out to the Nantahala NF. We grabbed some breakfast at a Dunkin Donuts at lunchtime, stopped off to get fuel and at a Wal-mart to shop, before finally reaching someone at the NF who said that there was no longer water spigots at the horse camp. Not that they weren’t there, but that they had been shut off because of some new, ridiculous state law about how watered needed to be treated in order to avoid litigation. Unbelievable, they couldn’t just put up a sign say “non-potable” and leave it at that? We are getting so sick of the stupid laws designed for the sole purpose of litigation avoidance, meanwhile whole-heartedly infringing on our constitutional rights to the pursuit of happiness. Anyway, we had to stop twice more just to find someplace to pick up water, then had to drag 800 more pounds of weight up a mountain, which certainly burned more fuel, thus causing more carbon pollution, which the same stupid government keeps claiming it wants to reduce. Speaking of dragging up the mountain, as we got closer, there were numerous signs that the road was closed, and we were afraid we were going to get stuck someplace we couldn’t turned around, but then we finally reached where a bridge was out, and our turn off was just before the bridge. We then traveled six miles of the most harrowing, cliff-hugging, hair-raising, white knuckle dirt road driving we’ve ever done. With very few turnouts, we were delighted we didn’t run into any traffic on the way up, but are already concerned about the drive out, which could pose some serious problems, and certainly some scary moments. We finally arrived at the clearing that is the Bristol Fields Horse Camp. With six sites, it had tall posts with hooks for putting up a highline. With the several spigots turned off, we looked for a spot nearest the creek, which fortunately runs the length of the campground, albeit on the opposite side of where the campsites were, we finally decided on site 6, which was the furthest west site, and the only one on the right side of the driveway in. It’s a double site, and provided a good opportunity for us to “circle the wagons” and provide some privacy from the rest of the campground. There was one tent in another field beyond the horse camp area, which frankly surprised us, this place is so remote we didn’t think many other people would trek all this way, but not so. We didn’t see any people, just a tent. Having arrived much later than we had hoped, nearly 5:00, we hurried to get set up, led the horses down to the creek for a drink before putting them on the highline, got the satellite dish set up (another plus for site 6, though we had to stretch the cable quite a ways), and settled in for the evening. No cell service here, that’s for sure! Actually, it’s a beautiful spot, I hope the trails turn out to be pretty good, in order to make all the aggravation associated with getting here, and getting water, worth the trip.