After another good night sleep and a leisurely morning, I finally saddled up Flash around 11:00 and headed out on the trail to do a long loop I had originally planned earlier in our stay here at Honey Creek. Heading out on the trail to St. Helen, we enjoyed a lovely trail most of the way, except that one little rocky section going down to Gun Rock, and went several miles on single and double track trails until we got to the #3 intersection, when we turned right and headed down to Groom's Branch. That's when we started heading down hill, and the trail got more and more rocky. It wasn't terribly steep, but it did seem to last a long, long time, and at one point Flash planted his feet and wouldn't go any further for a while. I let him rest, as I'm sure it's just as tough for him to go downhill on that kind of terrain as it is uphill, and eventually we got going again. Before long we reached the bottom, and the ford across the river. I thought Flash might give me a hard time, but he walked right in, took a drink, and when he started to turn around, I managed to easily divert him into the stream and we crossed with no problem! Thankful for that, he was quite willing. On the other side, we went down a long, wide dirt road that followed the river, that went on for quite some time, until we reached Coyle's Branch, where things got a little confusing. The only signs were for Cumberland Trailhead, which I couldn't even find on my map, one trail said 10 miles to it, and the one we just came in on said 5.8 miles to it, and nothing else that corresponded to anything on my map. After a couple of false starts, I finally figured out which way to go (thank goodness it was clear skies today, it was purely astronomical reckoning that put me on the right track) and we followed that section of the river for a while, until we came to the turnoff that would take us up to the Panther Creek loop, which we took the other day. Well, it turned out that the trail was really a creekbed, large rocks and practically straight up! Not a happy camper with that trail! We started up, and Flash started trying to go faster, as horses do when they're climbing, and after a bit, I was thinking to myself, now this is a good reason to have a martingale. Of course, I didn't have one, and just a moment later, my saddle slipped so far back toward his rump that when he leapt over a rock, the saddle turned sideways, and there was no stopping it. Grrrr! He was antsy, so I had to tie him to a tree on this steep slope with rocky footing, undo his saddle and resaddle him. Not an easy task under the circumstances! When I finally got that done, and struggled to mount because he wouldn't stand still, we finally started back up the "trail." We didn't get far when the saddle slid again. It was so steep and his saddle pad was now soaking wet with sweat, and it didn't seem to matter how tight I made his girth, it simply slipped again. I got down and moved it and tightened it again, climbed back up, and still only managed to get a short ways before the saddle was back on his rump. I must have saddled him half a dozen times going up that hill, until we finally reached the top. There I tied him up again, loosened his saddle so he could breathe, and rested for a bit while we both recovered. Eventually, we got on our way again, this time the trail was more moderate as we were now on top of the plateau. I followed Panther Creek around to the overlook and decided to take a run out there. I'm still trying to find a trail I think Hubby can handle in his weakened state, but so far, even the best trail has some sections that I would worry about with him, so it's looking like he may not get a ride in here. Anyway, we arrived at the overlook, but I had to tie Flash up about 20 or 30 yards away and go on foot the rest of the way. It's a nice overlook, but for someone who has a spectacular view right off their own bluff, I wasn't overly impressed. I managed to climb back on Flash without too much trouble, and we headed off again. We eventually came to an area where they had clearcut the forest, so it was very hot in the sun, and we came around to the trail that led directly back to camp, which was the one I had avoided the other day because I thought it would be too hard on Flash, but after the rough stuff he tackled coming up the mountain today, it seemed a lot easier. The only other choice was to climb up the logging road another quarter mile to the "new" trail, which would have been a lot longer, but by this time, we had been out over four hours, so I figured shorter was better. We made it back to camp about 3:30, and all I had the energy for was to take off Flash's saddle and bridle and tie him to the trailer while I crashed in my lounger with a beer. Once I rested a bit, I was able to put Flash and all the gear away, but I was quite exhausted by then. I made burritos for dinner and we crashed watching a couple of old classic movies, which did much to rejuvenate me. I love happy endings! Tomorrow will be busy, I need to start packing, Hubby needs to be dialyzed, and I would really like to take Apollo out for a short loop, he's been missing out on all the fun. Then, it's all hands on deck to get ready to leave on Monday, heading for our next stop, White Sulphur Horse Camp in the Daniel Boone National Forest! Off to bed, I need plenty of rest for tomorrow!
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