Thursday, May 7, 2020 – Double Ride Day At Chickasaw

Hello, darlin’!
Finally, a nice day! It’s been the strangest weather lately! We’ve had wet weather and cold weather, and nothing like the kind of weather you’d expect in May in Tennessee, so unpredictable! But today was wonderful! It started out cool but warmed up nicely, and since more rain is forecast overnight and cold temps to follow, I figured I better take the absolute best chance of riding this week and making the most of it! So after breakfast, I saddled up Apollo first, since he’s my go-to trail horse, and we headed out. Like Brookfield in NYS, the only way out of camp is uphill, so that’s where we started. I decided to try to follow the stable’s horse trail ride, but before long we got off track somewhere. I was glad to have my GPS and a map one of the ladies from last Sunday gave me, it had some hand-made markings of where some horse trails are. This place is really nuts, I have no idea how they get away with it! There are miles of trails interweaving in the wood, yet none of them are marked, nor is there a map that identifies them. The only maps just show the main roads, and though they delineate between a “dirt” road and a “gravel” road, frankly, I couldn’t tell the difference. Apollo didn’t much like being on the gravel, so I ended up following the edge and getting smacked with a lot of branches, including one where I think I got a leaf cut in my eye, so that’s all red and hurts now. We did almost six miles, about half on gravel and the other half on a not too bad single-track trail. The only saving grace was that I could figure out a general direction every time I came to a road intersection, but even then I had to figure out how to read the signs. Apollo was great, though, he’s such a sure-footed old guy I had not trouble letting him pick his way up and down hills. Once we got back to camp, I put him away with a flake of hay and saddled up Flash. I put boots on him because I expected to be on more of the roads, and had GPS’ed a track out to Lake Loop, which also passed by the Owen Cemetery, where I met a caretaker that I spoke to for a few minutes. Flash loved being out on the road, but even with boots, he wasn’t too thrilled with the footing. We got turned around a couple of times, just trying to explore a bit, so now I have a better feel for the place. We passed one group of day riders, but other than that, it was super quiet out here. Lola came with me on both trips, I sincerely hope she’s tuckered out tonight, she woke me up a dozen times last night with her scratching and restless, so much so I’m considering putting her back in the truck so I can get a good night sleep! Since there are storms forecast for tonight, I might just give here a pill to be on the safe side, but we’ll see. She’s been pretty knocked out since we’ve been home. Anyway, it was a really great day, I feel better than I have in a long time. Just something about being on the back of a horse in the wilderness that’s just good for the soul! Both horses seemed to enjoy themselves, small wonder, it’s gotta be better than standing on a highline all way, hay or not! I put their rainsheets on because of the rain coming in, and it’s supposed to get colder so this might be my last chance this week. There was one campsite that was supposed to be reserved for today, but no one came is, maybe the weather scared them off and I’ll see them tomorrow. Anyway, this is the start of a new rhythm in my life, it’s going to take some getting used to, that’s for sure! Meanwhile, another DS9, another shower, and off to bed, hopefully to get a better night sleep than I have been lately! Good night, my love!