Archives for December 2015

Bound and determined to plan a route that doesn't take us into the brush today, I mapped out a route that appeared on Google Earth to be sand roads almost the entire way. I always try to map as much of an area as possible, which gives us ample opportunity to see many different parts of the forest, and today was no exception. We headed south out of the camp, then east, and within a mile we were on a new road heading due east for a ways. Then we turned north for about 50 feet, then east again, along the back of some rather trashy homesteads with lots of junk, dogs in kennels and cows and horses in pastures along the way. That eventually turned north, and we were doing great so far, every trail more like a road, which made us both happy. Then despite a forecast with NO rain in it, it began to drizzle, though very lightly at first, then it stopped, then it started again, until it was hard enough for me to put on my poncho (Hubby decided he was already too wet to worry, though I'd asked him several times earlier if he wanted one.) Finally, we had to turn west again, and the road I chose, which looked perfect from the satellite, had evidently overgrown some since that picture was taken, because we quickly started running into overgrowth again, which by now was quite wet overgrowth. Much less than our previous encounters, at least, but still enough to cause us some concern for half a mile or so. Apollo once again turned into a bulldozer, picking up his pace and literally plowing through, and my only recourse was to grab my hat and lean over his neck, letting the branches skim my back as we went by, getting me drenched in the process. Hubby only caught a bad branch once, when the stampede strap on his hat broke, but otherwise we made it through, once again bursting onto a two-track trail, covered with pine needles. Whew! Happily, the rest of the trip was clear sailing, and we even got a bunch of canters in on the way back. I've been holding back since my fall two weeks ago, but we can't ignore the need, so we worked on cantering, trying to get him to slow down, as his habit is to start to canter, then get faster and faster, then catch something out of the corner of his eye and sidestep, which doesn't always end well for me. We managed half a dozen canters, with me doing my best to slow him down, and eventually he relaxed and was more cooperative. I hope when we get to my brother's house we can trailer them over to a nearby public arena and run them to death for a while, until they learn there is such a thing as a slow lope! Anyway, completed another 7.5 miles in good time, got the horses settled in, filled the RV with water for showers and hopefully a couple more loads of laundry tomorrow (drying weather permitting), then settled down with a nice bottle of wine and a barbecue chicken dinner.

After a nice rest day yesterday, and having played bulldozer a bit too much on our last ride, I did my best this time to plan a trip on roads I could actually see well on Google Earth, not paying any attention to what GE has marked as a trail. This proved to be a bit easier, but we still ran into overgrowth that had apparently sprung up significantly since the last GE picture was taken of the area. This time we circled the perimeter of the campground to the north, then crossed the road early and barely found the trailhead on the other side. There was a pretty big ditch on the side of the road that had been made by heavy equipment, but my big guy just stepped over it and hauled himself (and me) over it. Hubby and Clio followed, and we stayed on a two track trail for quite a ways. Even so, there was a lot of lumber that had fallen over the road, really amazed at how little maintenance goes on at this forest Fortunately this section was a lot more open, so getting around them was pretty easy. We turned north, still following a rather nice track, getting a bit concerned when a road that should have been on the left wasn't there, but as we continued on, the road eventually turned west, and I realized that when drawing the map, I had taken a shortcut because I couldn't actually see the road at that point. In any event, we stayed on the road, which stayed on track, and circled back east again, crossing the main road, missing a fork to the south, which, thanks to my GPS, we quickly realized, and got back on track. Then we came to a section that had a big berm, and several large trees blocking the way. We had to climb over trees to reach the top, then over a tree that laid across the berm and dropped directly downward. A bit tricky, but my guy managed it okay. Clio hesitated a bit, being the smaller of the two, but Hubby managed to move her to where the tree was slightly lower, and made it down okay. We followed that to a T, then turned left. That part of the trail, unfortunately, began to be overgrown again, not quite as bad as Monday, because there weren't any trees down that we couldn't get around, but lots of branches that were horse-head high, which meant lots of ducking and scraping for us, and a lot of bulldozing for Apollo. One time Hubby lost his hat and almost lost his glasses as the brush became too thick. Fortunately, that didn't last too long, and we soon came back out on a two track road, much to our relief. The rest of the way was pretty uneventful, thankfully, and we made it back to camp after completing our seven mile loop in relatively good condition. The weather was perfect, low 70's and sunny, with just a light breeze, just what we come to Florida for! Settled down to a drink and dinner and relaxed in this beautiful, live oak, mossy-covered park!