Hi Babe!
Ride Day at last. Seemed like a short week, but we managed to get everything done! I didn't have any specific jobs today, but got a lot done nevertheless! After chores (just feeding the horses here!) and breakfast, I finished cutting Meg's metal signs, put her truck's battery on charge, sewed up the bag I use for collecting ribbons, and fixed a stall grate that's had some screws loose. Then I drove over to the start at the park and helped there for awhile. Once the 50's were all done with their first loop, I saddled up Flash and headed up the road to clear the ribbons from the true blue section. Unfortunately, after I left Lola behind without tying her up (I didn't think she'd follow me!), I was a good ways up the road when I heard her behind me. Meg and another gal that's been helping with water met me later and brought her home. I'd love to take her, but we had a long ride and she just wouldn't have been able to keep up. I finished doing the north section, the first part around fields and the second into a beautiful preserve, then went back to the start. Once we knew that most of the pink trail riders were done, I set out to pull the ribbons out there. Got back to camp again, and was set to help with the orange trail, but there were still too many riders out, so we had to wait. I finally decided to bring Flash home after having ridden nineteen miles, a good workout for him! Then I drove back, and shortly thereafter I went out with John to do the orange trail in reverse, expecting to meet up with Richard and Jack along the way, but they quit a bit early. We finally hit a spot they had cleared, but then we spoke to Richard, and they did all but what is referred to as the Church section, but by now it was so late we had to quit, as we wouldn't have time to finish before dark, and we were all exhaused. Tried to get as much done today as possible, as the forecast if very rainy for tomorrow, though it's hard to believe in the weatherfolks anymore, they seem to get it wrong so much of the time these days. Anyway, drove back to the farm and settled in for the evening, giving Flash an extra bunch of feed considering how much work he did today. What a good boy! As far as I know, the ride went well, but I was so busy I could hardly pay attention! Settled down to a nice dinner and an hour of Farscape, ready for shower and bed again! Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hey Babe,
As promised, today was a busy day! Started out going over to Horseshoe Bend Park with Richard, and spent about an hour working on the Trail Crew to clean up a few areas that needed some TLC. Got back around 10:00, tacked up Flash and was soon out on the trail, marking with ribbons, and doing the occasional trimming. Covered most of the 18 mile blue trail, though I only did about 13.5 miles. John and Meg covered the north loops, so no need for me to go over that. It was a lovely day, the weather was great, the trails were good, and Flash was raring to go! He was ready to gallop when we hit some open fields, even after already going ten miles. Hard work, but very productive. Got back around 4:00, worked on the computer cleaning up the GPS data files, had some dinner, finished watching a movie I started the other day, and am ready for shower and bed and another fulfilling day tomorrow! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Had a good night sleep, woke up before the alarm, got my quick and easy chores done, feeling so spoiled here! What a luxury to have electric and water, and to not have to pick up manure in the morning! Feeding the horses takes no time at all, so I was raring to go to the Farmers Market. We headed out about 9:45, it only took about 15 minutes to get there. Patsy had some specific things she wanted to get, I wandered around a bit. The only thing that really caught my attention was a booth that had authentic looking British savory pastries, and I ended up getting a pasty and a beef and veg pie. I was hoping for a pork pie like they make in your home town of Nottingham, but they didn't have any. The guy there said he might make some at Christmas, but that won't do may any good. The pasty was still warm and tempting, but I resisted since I had just eaten breakfast, and both will make a great dinner one day this weekend. Got back just before 11:00, Wendy arrived moments later, and we got saddled up and headed out for what Patsy said would be a 8-10 mile ride. At first we went down a trail that led to a swampy area, and had to stop and let an ATVer and his dog go by, then we reached the swampy area, and the ATV was stuck. Exactly why I prefer my original four-wheel drive, aka Flash! Riders used to go through the swampy area, but then some logs and other windrow made it too treacherous, and they've been going around it, through a rather dangerously muddy and rooted area, and both Patsy and Wendy actually got off their horses and walked them through. We waited a bit to see if the ATVer could free himself, but in the end, I tied up Flash and went back to help until he was free. I rode Flash through the bypass area, because I trust him to find his own way, and we made it safely without any problems. Then we did a bit of road riding, but it didn't last too long, then we got into the woods where there was a lot of trails, though not very used, so there were a lot of branches hanging over the trail and several logs to cross over or go around. Lots of spider webs, too, so I had to find a spidey stick. Of course, Flash had to be in the lead, which worked out fine because it made their horses move a little quicker. As it was, we were going much slower than I normally would, and it took us nearly four and a half hours just to go under ten miles, so quite a slow ride. Of course, we had several stops along the way that slowed us down even more. When we got back to the swamp, Patsy wanted to have me lead so they could follow Flash's path, since we made it through fine under saddle on the way out (and they were tired of getting down and walking them), but as it turned out, it was a moot point. As we got there, there were a bunch of guys who had parked their ATVs at the other end, and they told us they had just cleaned out that whole stretch in the swamp of all the obstacles and that it was clear to come through. Not being afraid of a little water, Flash and I went through that stretch, with only one little trip, though the water did get up to belly high and even a bit more. I'm sure he would have been happy to swim it! I was so grateful I didn't lose my boots in that swamp! I had one come off earlier, but they stayed on after that, thank goodness! It was such a gorgeous day, and as always, it was great to be out riding. We did get back kind of late, and by the time I got Flash put away, it was almost too late to run my errands, but I had to go, so I hopped in my truck and drove down to Queensbury, stopped for fuel, went to Tractor Supply for feed, then Lowes for flooring for the bathroom. After considerable thought, I ended up buying one big piece of linoleum rather than the squares, I figured that would hold up better, though the one piece would have some challenges of its own. Didn't get back until nearly 7:00, but my hosts were kind enough to keep dinner warm (they've been graciously feeding me every night!) so I enjoyed that before settling in for the night. Nice not having to cook and clean, even nicer to have a variety in my dinners! Anyway, busy day planned for tomorrow! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Had my usual night and morning chores, then decided to take Apollo on a short ride, probably the shortest ride I've ever done! I just wanted him and Lola to stretch there legs a bit, and there was one trail near camp that I'd somehow never managed to include in any other ride, Glenwood Trail, so we did a tiny loop down Hiawatha to Glenwood then up to Twin Ponds. We could have gone another mile if we had turned right, but I decided to leave it up to Apollo, and not surprisingly, he turned left, the shortest way home. We were gone less than an hour and did less than two miles, but since I had so much packing to do, I didn't really mind. At least it gave them a little exercise. Once I put him away, I got busy packing. Since I had unpacked more than usual here, i.e. the screen room, the grill, the skirting around the gooseneck, I figured I could pace it out over the day, and I did. When I took one break, I went over to my neighbors (with the generator) and had a nice chat with the two ladies there, sisters name Connie and Kate. Turns out they winter at Goethe State Forest!! Small world, or at least, small horse camping community. I'm sure I'll be seeing them again in a few months. Still haven't been able to get a good enough signal for TV, and I almost didn't have enough to download a new book, which would have been a disaster! All set now, though. Patsy has sent me a route that she says is the easiest to her house from here, so I'm hoping for an uneventful drive tomorrow. Still haven't heard from my RV repair guy, very disappointing. Don't know how I'm going to travel with a spare toilet! Not like I have a lot of extra space to store it! Now that would be a disaster if I have to wait months to get it fixed. Ugh. Anyway, heading for shower and bed, want to make it an early night if I can! Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Another day at Otter Creek, another fabulous ride! This place is truly magnificent! As you know, my goal is always to ride every trail on the map whenever I go to a trailhead, and even though this is my third time here, there were still plenty of trails I hadn't done yet. Today's ride was to try to reach as many of those trails as I could, and I ended up doing a very wide loop to cover most of it. I had a GPS trail from back in 2015 which I rode with a woman named Marsha, and it took a renegade trail to the south to reach Otter Creek Trail the quickest way, so I followed that today. I did what I think was called the Mohawk trail, then the Otter Creek Trail, then the Eatonville trail, all gorgeous trails in the southwest section of the park. Then I hit Catspaw (which isn't named on the map) to Erie Canal, fording back over the creek, up to Shortcut Road, onto Pitcher Pond, Florence, Aspen, Fletcher, Cow Trail, and finally Homeward Bound back to Blue Jog and camp. In total, it was about 17.75 miles. I started out without boots, and wished I had put them on because we did some gravel roads at the start, but finally I put them on, and was glad I did! We hit a lot of stony areas after that, though most of it was good foot, except for the many roots. Once we crossed the creek, though, I took them off again. He had started limping, because he had stones in the boots, and when I took them off, he was a happy camper! Most of the trails from then on were sand or dirt, so he sped along them just fine. We left at 10:45 and got back just before 4:00, which was the plan because the weatherman said it was going to start raining at 4:00. Of course, that was wrong, it was about 7:00, just when I started feeding the horses, when it started to rain. It's been like that all week with the weather! Regardless, it was a magnificent ride, I am so loving it here at Otter Creek! And other than a few short sections, I have now ridden all of the mapped (though not on this trip, only the accumulation of three visits here!) and a couple of the unmapped renegade trails, though there are a lot more out there if I was so inclined. I gave Flash a nice bath with shampoo, he's been laying down in his standing stall and was absolutely filthy when I got him out today, I had to give him a good brushing before saddling him, and he deserved a nice bath when we got back. He worked hard, but I think he enjoyed himself as much as I did! Settled down for the evening, finally got a signal good enough for streaming, though it's been a tough slog with that. I have two bars, but I think there are so many other people taking up bandwidth on the weekends that it really slows it down. Anyway, started a new binge on Prime, Bonekickers, a British series about a team of archeologists discoving all kinds of weird stuff. Listening to the lovely rain, having dinner, watching TV, a fitting end to a lovely day of riding! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie!
Got woken up by my new neighbor's generator, which came on at precisely the allowable time, 8:00. Sigh... Read for a bit, finally got up and took care of the morning chores and breakfast, then saddled up Apollo for a nice ride. Since I've been riding him quite a bit and he's been getting fitter, I planned a somewhat longer ride, which I estimated at about 6.5 miles, and turned out to be 7.5, but fortunately, most of the trails were fairly flat, so it wasn't any strain on him. We took Fletcher trail, which took us down do a nice lake where Lola was able to get a drink, though Apollo wasn't interested. Nice trails all around, though the map was a bit off. It looked on the map like there was an earlier turn, but on the trail it was mostly blocked off intentionally, so apparently they changed the trail but didn't change the map. Not the first time I've seen that happen! It was quite a bit warmer today, but it's always cooler in the woods, so it was no problem. Beautiful weather! My neighbors Jane and Neil left this morning, then this afternoon a woman I met on the trail down at Brookfield, Beth arrived with her husband and her Rocky Mountain horse. She recognized me and called over, so later I went over to chat for a little bit before settling down for the evening. My neighbors with the generator brought in a big stack of firewood as well as hay, so I guess there here for awhile. Guess I better get used to getting up at 8:00! Sweating a bit from the day so I'm looking forward to my shower and bed! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Woke up before the alarm this morning, which I had set because I had an appointment to pick up hay this morning. Thanks to Karen, who I picked up first, we went to a hay barn behind the Tractor Supply run by Mennonites and picked up 20 bales at $4.00 a bale, best price I've seen yet! Looks like nice hay. I only needed 12 bales, but Karen needed the rest, so we picked that up and headed home, with a stop at Millers, which is a nice little farm store and meat market, with their own processing plant next door. Karen made my buy a donut, and the proprietress threw in a little cruller kind of thing, and OMG, they were fantastic! I only took one bite of each and decided to save the rest until later when I would make some coffee, just because they go so well together! Dropped off Karen and her hay, then put my hay away, including some under the gooseneck, so I had to get the skirting out since we have so much rain in the forecast. All that was done by 10:30 (see how much I can get done when I get up early?), then I did a few things on the computer before I finally saddled up Apollo for a 4.6 mile ride with Lola. We stayed mostly on the wide trails, but was sorry so much of it was on Confusion Flats, which is where they've laid down a lay of pea gravel, which I learned they just did about a year ago. At one point, just to get off the gravel, we took one of the renegade trails, and it took us exactly where we wanted to go without adding nearly the mileage if we had diverted the way I was going to. Anyway, it was a lovely ride, Apollo seems to really be getting fitter, he's walking faster, and at one point, when he got frustrated with a little mud bog we were going through, he actually broke into a canter to escape it faster! That's the second time this weeks he's gone into a canter, he's acting younger all the time! Good horse! It was another beautiful day as well, the weather has been just perfect. Once we got back to camp, I spent some time re-sanding their stalls to freshen them up a bit, then made my pot of coffee and enjoyed my donuts. It wasn't long before it was suppertime, and just as I was finishing feeding my horses, my neighbor Jane (and Neil) came over to ask me about my solar panel, and we ended up chatting for a bit. After finishing with the horses, I walked over and sat by the fire for awhile and we had a lovely evening socializing. Came back, did my dishes, now I'm ready for shower and bed! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hey Babe!
Another good night sleep, chores, breakfast, the usual routine. Then I saddled up Flash and we were off just after 11:00 on a 16.8 mile ride up to the north end of the forest, to ride some more trails I haven't been on, though I had to take some more familiar trails to get there. I had distinct memories of us in a couple of places, like where we stopped for lunch, and going over several bridges. It really felt like you were there with me today! Our goal was the Burnt Creek trail, which had half a dozen spots where trees were done that needed to be gone around, but most of the trail was just lovely. Flash did great, though it was a bit slow going, and for awhile I thought we would be late getting back to camp, then we hit a long sandy road, and since we were now headed toward camp, he took off, and we did a lovely gait for several miles and made up some time. This is truly a beautiful forest! I have always thought of this place as one of the best in the country, and having come back here now after nine years, I can honestly, it still is! I could be here all summer and not ride every trail out here. There are miles and miles of marked trails, and miles and miles of unmarked "renegade" trails, and there's a tremendous variety from long straight sand stretches to climbing up and down steep and not so steep hills, and half a dozen rivers and creeks, not to mention lakes throughout the area. Truly stunning! Pretty sure I won't wait nine years for my next visit!Actually got back to camp a little earlier than I expected, around 3:45, got Flash put away, changed clothes, and waited for Karen G. to pick me up. I know her from Florida, she has a place near Goethe State Forest, and also a place up here. Turns out she grew up not far from where I did in the suburbs of Rochester, knew well the stable where I first became addicted to horses, and it was like old home week, even though we don't know each other very well. She drove into town to a pizza place and we had a great meal (I so seldom get pizza, it was a real treat!) and even more of a treat was that on the way back she stopped at a little place that served frozen custard! I've been looking for that since I got to NY and hadn't found one, so I was SO glad to finally get some! Of course, that means way more calories today than normal, but then again, I burned a lot riding 16.8 miles! Oddly, we started a conversation with another diner and discovered he was from North Carolina and was here for some dog trials, and we asked him if he had been to H. Cooper Black, and of course he had! So funny, because Karen and I had been talking about that place just a little bit earlier! What a small world! It was a lovely day, with perfect weather, couldn't ask for more. Frankly, I was extremely surprised the camp wasn't full, in fact, we barely had more people here than we did during the week! I was sure the weekend would be busy, but not so! I can only think that maybe with all the bad storms they had two weeks ago, that maybe people figured the trails would be in bad shape, but they actually are pretty good. Karen was showing me all the roads that got partially washed out, and one that was completely washed out, and how high the water level was in some places. In Lowville, she said there were buildings that were under eight feet of water! Well, they've recovered nicely, all the roads are open, the trails are good, couldn't ask for better weather, another fantastic day! Glad I have another week here! Anyway, time for shower and bed. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie!
Had a great night sleep as the temps dipped into the low 50's, then after chores and breakfast and some work on my computer, I saddled up Apollo for a ride, the second this week! Having looked at my diary from earlier trips here, I ended up putting boots on him, since I decided to ride him to the Independence River Trail, and my notes said it was pretty rocky. Thank goodness I've been keeping a diary! The exercise seems to be agreeing with him, as he was quite lively today, trotting and even cantering up the hills despite the rocks! It was a lovely ride, and I brought Lola with us. I've pretty much determined that I can only take her on short rides these days, she just doesn't have the staying power for longer rides anymore. It was a lovely ride, albeit just over four miles, which we did in great time, what with him being more lively and all. We did both Shady Trail and Independence River Trail, both appropriately named, and it was perfectly enjoyable! Perfect weather, a little warmer than yesterday, getting better here all the time! Once we got back and put Apollo away, we took a drive into Glenfield to pick up a couple of packages, then I took a quick run into Lowville to the liquor store, but I didn't want to shop at Walmart on a late Friday afternoon, and got back to camp a little after 4:00. Had a typical evening, dinner and a movie, now heading to bed, a bit later, but getting there nonetheless. I can really feel your presence here, babe, it's alway been one of our favorite places! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!