Got up at a reasonable hour today, and after breakfast, we saddled the horses up and headed out, with slickers on as it had been raining off and on all morning. We had heard that Pigeon Roost was the favorite trail here, and the footing was mostly sand, so we went without boots today in order not to irritate Clio's abrasion. Headed up Forest Road 4 this time, staying on the tarmac to avoid the big climb on the trail, to the intersection with Pigeon Roost. No traffic at all on the road, thank goodness, and it wasn't far to the trailhead, where we turned left and headed up Pigeon Roost. Thankfully, the rumors were true, the trail was mostly sand. We had a small rise at the beginning, but then it leveled off somewhat, with nice, easy grades up and down as it curled around some hills. Very nice section of trail, except they kind of overdid it with the bulldozer-built berms. Not a big fan of "trails by Bulldozer." We trotted and even managed to canter a couple of times on the occasional straight-away, before crossing the road and arriving at Snake Hollow trail head, which was a trail with a much less "bulldozer" look, some actual one-track trails, albeit brief. Mostly two track. We did fine until Hubby called ahead to tell me one of his lenses had fallen out of his prescription sunglasses! We stopped and searched and searched, with no luck, unfortunately. I swear, "Shawnee" must mean "Lost," we've had such problems with losing things! Anyway, we eventually gave up (too many wet leaves around, all shaped the same way as his lens), and kept going. In just a short way, we came out on Forest Road 6, a gravel road that was our way back to camp. Usually there are a few more trails to take, a connector trail and one called Conley's run, but because they've been doing so much logging in the area, this entire section of the forest is temporarily closed, so we were stuck heading back on the road, not much fun considering we had no boots on. Eventually we reached the cutoff back to the camp, which was one of the better trails we've been on here, actually. A one-track trail, but obviously with lots of traffic, though it was still in good condition. A few steep grades on the way back down to the camp, but not too bad. Let the horses have another drink at the boat ramp, put them up, and was promptly invited to the Scioto County Horse Council's chili dinner. We spent the next few hours chatting with everyone, munching on cornbread, chili and pie. It was great not having to cook for a change! At dusk we headed out to feed the horses and relax for the evening, a very pleasant day all around.
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