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!

With rain coming in later in the week, we decided to take a longer ride today, so after noon, we saddled up and headed out the horse trail which passes right behind our site. I had again mapped out a route on Google Earth due to the lack of a trail map, and we headed west across a field to a clear trail. We managed to stay right on track for most of the trip, with most of the trail good two track roads, many of which didn't look like it had had any motorized traffic on it for a long time, if at all. Occasionally we would be on a motorized road, and sometimes we had some lovely single tracks that were just perfect. Eventually, we got back to the main road, and I asked Hubby if he wanted to go straight back to camp along the road, or do another small loop I had planned across the road. Since we didn't want to arrive in camp through the front entrance (there's a leash rule we didn't want to break), but Hubby didn't want to take the loop I had planned, we decided to try to find a trail that took us back to camp without going by road. That choice turned out to be misguided. I found a road the looked like it was going back east, but actually ran more north. I thought eventually I would find a trail that crossed southbound (and in fact, Google Earth indicated such a trail), but it was impassable. After going too far east, we turned back and attempted to take what looked like a trail south that we had seen but decided was too impassable. Considering the alternative, we decided to give it a go. Unfortunately, we ran into a number of downed trees (and I forgot to put my camp saw in my saddlebags), so I resorted to jumping up and down on them until they broke enough for me to move them, or go around, which was very difficult. Apollo continued to be a bulldozer, these trails were almost completely overgrown, and only visible because of a small, pine-needle-covered indentation on the ground. After what seemed for forever, we FINALLY came out on an actual two-track trail, where I consulted my GPS and discovered we had, indeed, pushed ourselves southward, but also eastward, and the trail we crossed was the same trail we had come out on. A short mile or so later, we were once again, back at camp, though an hour after my estimated arrival from my original plan. Hubby had acquired some bruising and bleeding from running up against hard limbs, so I had to clean those up. Before putting the horses away, I walked them down to the dump (yes, this place even has a dump!) and rinsed them off with a very short hose there. Got them fed and bedded down for the night, we congratulated ourselves on our persistence (survival of our own dubious choices), and settled down for the evening.

After another decent night sleep and leisurely breakfast, we saddled up and took another route, north of the campground this time. Being the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the place was full of hunters, so we kept off the main trails and tried to follow a GPS route I had created from Google Earth. Dozens of miles of trails here, and no one has a trail map of any kind. Even what I found on the internet was hugely lacking, with nothing comprehensive whatsoever, which is what led me to simply scratching out a route from Google Earth. We wanted to check out a primitive campsite on Trout Lake, as we're hoping to find a place to go tomorrow, when we have to leave Doe Lake, but that is still in the area so we can meet up with a friend of ours who recently moved from PA to Palatka. Trout Lake wasn't really accessible for an RV though, the tree limbs were too low for us to get in, so we had to find an alternative. We swung north around Trout Lake, missed a turn I had planned, but continued to follow trails until we soon came back to camp, barely an hour after leaving. Again, most of the trails were well traveled, though we did get off on one that was pretty overgrown, my Apollo had to push through like a bulldozer to clear the way. Occasionally we came across a downed tree, but I was able to move it or go around it. Overall, the ride was a bit too short for my taste, but it left us time to solve the other logistics problem of where to go tomorrow. After putting the horses away, we headed out in the van to a place marked on a map I had that was supposed represent dispersed campsites that allow horses. Our first stop where called the South Firetower, but when we got to where we thought it should be, there was only a clearing, not a tower, and there were wood posts blocking the entrance for anything wider than a small car, so that was out. I kept heading south to try to find a way back that didn't require us going back over the many miles of potholed dirt road we had just traveled, and came across an official campground known as Big Bass Lake. I drove in to look at the map on the kiosk, hoping it would confirm where we were and if the fire tower site was where we thought it was, and had a lovely chat with the campground hostess, who told me, yes, there USED to be a firetower there, but no more. After a few minutes, I asked if they would allow horses there, and she said, no one had ever asked, and she didn't see why not, but she called her supervisor, and then the top ranger, and they all agreed it would be okay! What a find! Every time I had called the office here, they insisted the only non-primitive horse camping was at Doe Lake, with a group, period! Anyway, we drove around, and Hubby found the perfect site for his satellite signal, plus it had a great little clearing behind it that would make a perfect, concealed paddock for the horses! Fabulous! We told them we'd be back by mid-day tomorrow, and went on our way, happy that we were able to so easily solve our problem of where to go for the next few days! Perfect! We went back to camp, fed the horses, and then I went off to the dining hall to listen to an advocate, named Michelle, for the Great Florida Cattle Drive 2016 that's being held in January, and which Hubby and I have already signed up for. I learned a few things I didn't know before, but mostly it was a repeat of information I already had. Because I wanted to talk with Michelle afterward, I hung around while the club had a meeting, learned a few more rather surprising facts, listened to them discuss the horse slaughter problem that is apparently prevalent in Florida right now, and then run off on some tangents, as most meetings tend to do. I finally had to leave because we hadn't eaten yet, and I knew Hubby would be cranky by now without food, so I asked Julie to ask Michelle is she would stop by for a few minutes before she left. Fixed dinner, and not long after, Michelle and Paula, (the good officer) came by and we ended up chatting for nearly 1 ½ hours! Eventually, they left, Hubby and I watched a quick one-hour TV show and headed off to bed.

Had a decent night sleep, so after a late breakfast we saddled up the horses for a short ride. I've been taking ibuprofen regularly to keep down the swelling, but it's still pretty painful in many regions of my body, but I thought I would be fine for a short ride. We saddled up and headed out to the north along the beach, passing through an open gate and circling the lake itself. At one point, we took a side path that created a large loop that was very nice. That trail was more narrow, and overgrowth brushed against us often, but it was quite passable. Eventually that loop brought us back to the same intersection where we turned in, took the short trail back to the main lake perimeter trail, and completed the loop. Of course, the trails are sand, mostly hard-packed, typical of Florida, and flat, of course, no hills or grades of any note. We came in through the back gate, and attempted to get back down to the lake so as not to go through the campground, and were promptly stopped by one of the club officers, who lit into us about being in an area where the horses aren't allowed (not marked that way from the trail side, but it is on the campground side, so we never saw it), questioned us as to whether we "belonged" there, and even more for the fact that the dogs weren't on a leash (they were sitting next to us, resting peacefully). We apologized with a smile the whole time, despite the fact her attitude was quite harsh, and made our way up the camp driveway, which is apparently okay to pass through the no horses allowed area, and made our way back to our campsite. It was a great ride, though it was a bit spoiled when we were accosted. We put the horses away, and shortly afterward, my friend Julie came by with a friend of hers, and we shared a bottle of wine and a grand tour of our RV (her friend was looking for ideas for her next unit) and generally socialized. Eventually it was close to dinner time, and we gathered our contribution (an apple pie), and headed down to the dining hall, where we enjoyed a lovely evening of fellowship before heading back for the night.

After another good night's sleep, the clouds went away, a cold front came in, with temps overnight in the mid-30's, brrr! The horses were very frisky, especially my Apollo, and unfortunately at one point he spooked and took off, and I almost managed to stay on the whole way, until the very end when I, as I was just regaining my balance, I tried to do a one-rein stop, which threw me off balance again and came down in a tumble, landing right on my tailbone, ouch! After a couple of minutes of recovery, I climbed back into the saddle and continued. I had selected the shortest loop I could find, just under 6 miles around what is marked on the map as "woodland road." Turned out, a lot of those roads were under water, and we spent a lot of time wading. Plus, there was a lot of overgrown trees that we had to fight our way through at a few points as well. I ended up changing the route a bit to get us out of the woods and back on a road, but that made the trip nearly 8 miles. Overall, it was a rather challenging day, I was bruised both front and back (the horn on my saddle beat up my stomach a bit), so Hubby was kind enough to put the horses away while I went inside and took some ibuprofen, find a comfortable position to sit in, and pack on some ice packs, followed by a heating pad, where I spent the rest of the evening until bedtime.

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.

Busy day today! Got up a bit earlier and got to work on my computer, first solving the power button problem (a flat cable had gotten pulled out), and then fixing another problem with the keyboard and mouse (another loose cable), until finally all was well and my computer went back to working again, yeah! Think I better order another one when we get home next month, though, this one is getting a bit old and starting to deteriorate, can't afford to lose anything! Ran out to the Shawnee State Park Lodge, which I found had a free wi-fi signal, and finished off all the work that I didn't complete yesterday. Got back to camp about 1:30, and Hubby and I saddled up the horses and headed out for what was supposed to be a 6 mile ride, which ordinarily would take us 2 hours. I had planned a loop up past the Fire Tower, then down to Hobey Hollow, then a loop back up on Rock Lick. The climb to the Fire Tower was even longer and steeper than I had figured, a long, strenuous uphill stretch that wore the horses out pretty fast. The trails aren't really trails, they're all made by a bulldozer, and there were a lot of rocks, and I was glad I had put boots on the horses. Once we passed the Fire Tower and found the trailhead for Hobey Hollow, we started to go downhill dramatically again, pretty much the whole way down the other side of the mountain, tiring the other half of the horses' muscles! At the bottom of the hill, the trail dramatically shifted, becoming a long, straight road that followed a creek that was almost dry. Eventually, there was a section with less stones, so we decided to trot and canter, and somewhere along that stretch, I noticed I was missing a boot. Now, because we've been having problems with Apollo's boots this summer, I had been checking them regularly, and was sure I had them before we starting trotting, but when we back tracked looking for it, we couldn't find it! Usually we find it in the middle of the trail, or stuck in mud, but we hadn't seen much mud and I had checked each time we went through any to make sure I still had boots. We covered more than half a mile, twice, looking for it, and never could find it. We decided that since it was getting late, and the terrain had slowed us down considerably, we couldn't afford to keep looking, so we continued on our way, making the turn on Forest Road 1, picking up Rock Lick Trail, that was a pretty nice trail, fairly gradual grades, at least until the last section, which once again climbed up the same hill, though it didn't seem quite as steep, and at the top, the trail went sandy, thank goodness! We followed that until we hit the tarmac road, which we followed until we came to an intersection. To the left was Silver Arrow, to the right was Pigeon Roost. I quickly figured out that this section of Silver Arrow would take us back to camp, so we headed down that, which again dropped down the hill even more, and pretty dramatically. Kind of wished we had stayed on the tarmac, at the least the hill was a bit more gradual. Eventually we hit the bottom, then finally merged back onto the trail we started on, taking right back into camp. We took the horses down the boat ramp to get a much needed drink, then put everyone away, and settling down for the evening. Just for fun, I spent a little while playing hide and seek with Lola and an old boot, thinking she might be able to help us find it when we go back to look tomorrow. She did quite well, smart puppy! Whether or not it pays off this time, who knows, but if I keep it up, it might come in real handy in the future!

Waking up to cooler temperatures after that front moved through, we splurged on blueberry pancakes before we saddled up for a quick ride. We had learned there was another trail, the White trail, that isn't even on the map at all, and we wanted to include it on the map I'm making, so we headed out "Gibby's" trail that leaves from the south end of the camp. This, too, was a very nice trail, not quite so steep as some of the others, so a bit more relaxing. We did go by a bee's nest where Lola got stung once, but that was it. Terry had warned us about it, and had put some Sevin dust on it, but they were still buzzing around a bit, so we made a wide berth, but Lola didn't pay attention, thus the sting. After completing the White trail, we headed down the hill to the entrance to the Red north trail again, doing it in reverse, so it seemed like a whole new trail. A beautiful ride, albeit short (less than three miles), but definitely sweet! Spent the day finishing the map, watching football, and putting stuff away in preparation for our departure tomorrow.

Today we had decided to try to finish off as many of the other trails as we could today, with an eye toward putting together a good color-coded map for this place. The one provided by the Forest service is terrible, with no trail colors mentioned, no legend, no trail lengths, not even close to being accurate in terms of where the trails actually were, so I decided I would create a new one and give it to Kathy for their future use. We headed out the red North trail, which we skipped on Wednesday because the day was getting too long, and that was truly a nice trail, mostly wooded, narrow single track, had to be careful not to brush against trees which were really crowding the trail. There was a lesser used shortcut that we got turned around on, going straight when we should have cut right, but we soon got back on track. Again, the trails were much more twisty than usual, and lots of climbs, some quite steep, would have been nice to have a few more switch-backs, but the terrain really makes that difficult. After completing the Red North trail, and took the Blue trail straight out until we hit the Green North trail, which was also quite nice, then finally hitting the Blue Trail again, which we took north so that we could go all the way to the "Dragon's Head." If you look at the map, the park is sort of shaped like a dragon looking east, so the farthest point is the Dragon's Head in the northeast corner. Once we picked up the Blue Trail, it opened right up into a field, and normally we would have done a fabulous gallop through there, but the horses were already pretty tired from all the climbing, so a bit of a canter was the best they could muster. We circled the Dragon's Head, then when the Blue trail hit the Green trail again, we followed that again. We soon met back up with the Blue trail, and stopped for a lunch break, then headed back west again, picking up the Green south trail, which soon became our very favorite trail in the forest, which is saying a lot because they all had a lot of nice qualities. Once we completed the Green trail, we made a beeline home on the Blue trail, with a total of 13 miles today! It was much more of a workout than a typical 13 mile ride, though, this is a GREAT place if you want to really condition your horse, especially if you're running endurance races. Trails had a few rocky sections, but not too bad, not enough for me to put boots on Apollo, though Hubby put them on his mare, mostly because his haven't been falling off like mine have lately. We really like this place, and had it not been for this group ride this week, I doubt we would have had much company here at all, which the ranger Justin said as much. Got the horses back on their lines and dragged ourselves up the hill to the RV, where we all crashed for the evening. The dogs flopped down and didn't move all night! A great workout for all!