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 a good ride. After we made the first right turn, Joyce let us know a truck was coming and we needed to get off the trail to let it go by. I watched the truck head down the trail and noticed a vehicle approaching it coming our way and wondered how they were going to pass each other on the narrow trail road. The truck then went over a hill and I lost it. We kept riding and I couldn’t see the trucks at all so I assumed they were gone. Soon we came to a cross road and there were both of the trucks! The drivers started the trucks and took off going north and we went on to the west. We wondered if they knew each other and were just talking and thought they would interfere with our ride.
Soon we were where we had chainsawed and moved four trees that blocked the trail and hid our turn markers. I pointed this out to everyone and we continued on our way, making the necessary right turn. There were more downed trees in this area that we cut and removed and then we made another right turn. We hadn’t gone a long way when we spotted another truck parked in the trail ahead of us. It was not either of the trucks we had already seen. We stopped and talked with the driver and learned he is a dog hunter. His group was running dogs in the Yellow Trail area. He said they knew we were riding in the area and appreciated us wearing orange. We were at the intersection where the Blue Trail crosses the Yellow and I asked if we should take it. He said they would be heading in that direction back toward the transmission line and then got confirmation on his radio so we continued on the Yellow Trail.
We soon got to the trail we came out on and turned left heading toward the Trailhead. A short distance ahead we could see a couple of trucks and two equestrians. By the time we got there, the equestrians had started back to the Trailhead and the hunters were collecting their dogs. We were at the point where the Yellow Trail cuts off toward Crawfordville Highway so we thought that would be the best way back.
When we made the loop and were heading back to the main trail, we were shocked to see a hunting dog looking at us. He was all by himself and we wondered if he had gotten lost. We hoped we would run into the hunters again to let them know where we saw him. Then, we heard some dogs off in the near distance and he took off baying.
When we got back to the main trail, a truck came down it and stopped ahead of us. The guy got out and started loading up the dogs. We shared our encounter with him and he was having trouble getting one of his dogs to load up. I looked at him and said “there’s always one”. He looked at me, smiled and said “yes and this is the one”. We all laughed and wished him well as we left for the Trailhead. When we arrived there were no other equestrians in the parking area and we wondered who else was riding that day! It certainly was a very different 3-hour trail ride. Do you think it is because only board members participated?
Submitted by Sue