Starting out Saturday morning with a comfortable temperature ofabout 60 degrees, 16 riders pulled in for this challenging but fun ride.Sharon, Susan, Arlene, Gayle, Linda, Regine, Chris, Sue, Judy, Jessica,Brandi, Joyce, Kathy, Esther, Donna, and Karen all were ready to rideout at 10:00. So after a group picture, we rode out and headed for thewoods. Joe Budd is such an interesting ride going up and down hills,crossing small streams, and enjoying it’s varying terrain. It’sparticularly pretty overlooking the Little River from the top of theridge. It’s easy to imagine you’re in the mountains. Once we left thewoods, we made our way down to the Education Center and lake,walked over the dam and then headed back on the road to thetrailhead where lunch was waiting for us. Thanks so much Ron forpreparing lunch. What a great day for riding and visiting withfriends. Sharon

The day began quite chilly and I wondered what kind of turnout there would be for this trailride.  As it turned out, the only brave riders were board members.  After I arrived with Quia about 9:30, Sharon was next with General, then came Liz with Majik and Becky with Smoke.  Last to arrive was our president, Joyce with Blue.

I had decided to ride the Yellow Trail since we had just completed a work day to clear large trees off the trail the farthest out it goes because our turn markers could not be seen.  We also cleared other trees at different locations but I was excited to show our members what the club does to provide safe trails for us to enjoy.

In the meantime, while we were preparing to ride, Liz asked if it was safe to ride in the forest now that hunting season is open.  I replied that still hunters are usually out of the woods by 10.  Shortly after that, 3 pickup trucks headed down Rivers Road toward Crawfordville Highway.  I asked Liz if she thought they were still hunters leaving and she said “I hope so”.

We started down the Yellow Trail and were having […]

I want to give a big shout out to the Lake Talquin State Forest staff, for opening up the blockage in the west loop caused by the tornado back in May. I organized a short-notice work day and was joined by Julie, Regine, and two guests of Regine’s who were visiting from Germany.We surveyed the tornado section first (and Regine saw a bear disappear into the woods!). The rangers, headed up by Jai Subramanya, recreation director, had tackled the herculean task of opening up the trail and making it “horse safe”. What used to be complete hardwood canopy is now open sky with only a few scattered trees left. A sad sight but nature will eventually heal itself.We walked the trail, and checked on a short detour Regine and I had flagged back in the summer, and called it good.Our other project was also storm-related, but goes back to Hurricane Michael. There was a reroute put in downhill from the horse camping location, which has suffered numerous changes every time another tree fell down. I had the OK from forestry to re-establish the original trail to match the map. And that’s what we did! We even uncovered the original “Group […]