Archives for February 2010

Our new back yard. Was determined to work in the morning and ride in the afternoon, as the temps were expected to get near 60 today, but I had to find a cell phone signal, plus we needed to get our gas tanks for the generator filled, so I drove to the nearest town, about 15 miles away and got gas. I looked for a cell phone signal the whole way, and couldn’t find anything good enough for broadband, so I ended up back at the campsite without finding anything. I decided to head in the other direction (the way we came in) because I knew I had a signal before we arrived, and fortunately found a good spot off the road, at the quail area, where I could get some work done. I then spent HOURS trying to get everything done I needed to get done, watching the time slip away in frustration, until I concluded we weren’t going to have time to ride today, so I better just finish up everything I could and ride tomorrow. At least our got our travel plans confirmed for a flight to DC in a few weeks. Aaargh! Got back frustrated, by Hubby and spent the time productively, fixing a light on the trailer and doing some much needed spring cleaning like the windows. It was a beautiful day weatherwise, but fortunately, the forecast calls for more sunny and warmer days. Yeah!

Pretty frosty, though sunny today, though we decided it was to cold to go riding. Had a hard time getting a cell phone signal, which always make life a little more complicated. Did some housekeeping and bookkeeping, otherwise laid low today.

Managed to struggle our way out of Brushy Creek, though by now the vehicles are covered with mud with all the potholes splashing and a few soft spots my wheels started spinning in. Scary! Glad to get out of there, crossing that one off the list!
Had a peaceful drive to Cane Camp, though I had several different sets of directions that didn’t seem to correlate with each other. Fortunately we ran into a large horse trailer at a stop sign, and I yelled out the window, “Which way to the horse camp”, and he pointed up a road that I hadn’t planned on turning on, so more confusion reigned. I turned where he said, then traveled for miles, sure we were going to far. I finally stopped and pulled out my computer and looked at a map I had downloaded before, found where we were and confirmed we were headed in the right direction. At last we reached it. What a lovely place! A nice loop, numerous campsites, every one has a water spigot and posts for a highline or a picket line, flush toilets, a nice grassy area all around, even a clear shot for a satellite signal, and best of all, no one else was here! All for 3 bucks a day, or in our case, with Hubby’s Golden Age Passport, $1.50! Quite a few horse and multi-use trails around, it seems, over 600,000 acres in the Kisatchie National Forest. I think we’ll be staying here for quite a while! Will get a picture of our new back yard tomorrow!

Packed up and headed out to our next stop, Brushy Creek in Homochitto National Forest, Mississippi. We had enjoyed Big Foot, I’m sure we’ll be back to that one, it’s so close to I-10, it’s very convenient. Cut cross country to Brushy Creek, had some trouble finding water in the town nearby, ended up poaching some from a local lumberyard that was closed. As we reached the turnoff, Hubby and I became very concerned. The road was steep, curvey and looked muddy, and neither of us liked the look of it, but it was 4:00 and we didn’t really have a Plan “B”, so we decided he should go first and scout it out with the pickup truck before I tried to get in with the big rig. Once he hit the top of the hill, he radioed back that he thought I could make it, but to take a run at it just in case (very reassuring!) So I did, and managed to make it. The road was narrow, barely one lane with very soft shoulders in some places, and it got worse the further we got back. Potholes big enough to swallow up a St. Bernard. We finally reached the “campground.” To call is “primitive” is generous. It’s not even a campground. There are a few turnouts, but you have to go into a ditch or up a slope to get to any of them. A few have a very narrow entries, but it’s almost impossible to navigate. Whatever you do, don’t go past the “no horse trailers” sign, that becomes the trail down to the creek, which is much farther away than any camper would want to lug water from, or even walk your horse to, unless you’re heading out on the trail. The worst thing was, there was no loop, no place for a big rig to turn around. After much discussion, we finally settled on trying to back into one spot far enough to turn around, but when we tried it, we couldn’t quite get far enough up the slope before the wheels started spinning. We opted for another spot where I could drive forward over the hump, then back up to turn around. We had just enough room to do that, but came very close to hitting bottom. All the while, we had a man who was spending the night in his truck nearby trying to “help”. Once we got turned around, we found a semi-graveled area by the side of the road that had been occupied by a horse trailer when we arrived, but the owners had ridden by while we were discussing our options, so we took that spot once they left. At least now we were headed in the right direction. We quickly made the decision not to stay more than the night, it was just too ugly and unmanaged. Naturally, after dark it started to rain, then started to pour, and since we knew the forecast was calling for below freezing temps, I ran out and put the horses in the trailer, getting soaked in the process. It stopped a bit later, but since the horses were wet at this point as well, I left them in to stay warm. A really crummy place. I don’t know what the trails were like (other than wet, of course), but frankly, I wasn’t really interested after seeing the sad shape of the campground. It’s a pity, too, because it wouldn’t take much to fix it up nicely, a few truckloads of gravel and a little TLC. Very disappointing…

Rained most of the night, particularly hard around 4 am, then at about 9 am it started to snow big fat wet flakes for about ten minutes. Naturally, nothing stuck, but it was so cold we made it a snow day instead of a ride day. Spent the day on the computer revamping my business website and getting caught up on paperwork. Even on the road with horses, regular life must go on!

Here’s our new back yard today. I always like it best when we can see horses right outside our door! Here at Big Foot, there are a couple of folks in tents and cars, unfortunately they’re camped in the area where the horse stalls and tie-ups are, so the only way to stay private (which is always our desire 🙂 is to be parked in an area where there are no pipe stalls. Frankly, that’s fine with me, as a high-line gives the horses a lot more freedom to move around, even lay down when they want. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that the no-fee areas attact that sort, though there are other campgrounds nearby they could stay for free without interfering with the horse campers use of the area.

Hubby went up to the nearby town of Wiggins to shop at the Wal-mart, also picked up a few other things we needed, and managed to track down a Forest Service office with a trail map. Seems they’re hard to come by! I’ll be scanning it and keeping it for posterity should anyone need it. Just email me at horsecampers@gmail.com, for this and any other trail map of the places we’ve been, I’ve been saving them all.

Will probably put the horses in the trailer tonight, it’s too cold and wet for them to be comfortable outside. Did some bookkeeping today while Hubby was gone, but he’s back now, so cocktails, dinner and a movie are next!

Whew! Another busy day. Packed up and left Coldwater by about 9:30, a bit later than usual, but we didn’t feel a huge hurry because our trip was just a little over three hours, with a stop for hay along the way… at least that’s what we THOUGHT was going to happen. That’s what we get for thinking! Made our way to the place where I had scheduled to pick up some hay, only to be sorely disappointed in the quality. Frankly, it was the worst hay I had ever seen short of something I might use to mulch my garden. Yuck! So I quickly got on the phone and called another man who had returned my call the night before, and asked if we could arrange to get hay from him. He managed to swing it so that I could go to his mother-in-law’s where the hay was kept and pick it up ourselves and pay her. Fortunately, this was much better hay (though no quite as good as the hay we got in Blackstone, VA, but that was EXCEPTIONAL). Apparently, he’s a vet who’s taken over his father-in-law’s farm, so he did all the soil testing, fertilizing and nutritional testing to prove it’s worthy of being horse hay. Glad he was able to work us in, we’re set now for another three weeks.
It was nearly 3:00 by the time we finished, WAY behind schedule, and then, because all my maps were from the south, and we were now coming from the north, and Gracie (my Verizon GPS) couldn’t get a bead on the address, so I had to program her for the nearest town (Saucier, MS). We ended up getting lost a few times anyway, till we got close enough for her to find the road we were looking for. Then I missed the turn for the road to the horse camp, and ended up at the Airey Tower Forest station, which was just as well, we filled up with water while we were there. Got into the campground just as the sun was setting, set up during twilight, and was just finishing as it got dark. But we made it!