DuPont Recreational Forest

The high was predicted to be 100F with humidity of 82% for the holiday weekend. I was looking at a long weekend bereft of any riding when Sheree texted me wanting to hit the trails. I became determined to find somewhere nearby that either had lower temperatures or a lot of water access. Then it hit me. This was the perfect time to explore the massive trail system at DuPont Recreational Forest in the NC mountains only an hour from the barn. A quick look at my Wunderground App showed a high of only 81F and low humidity. Perfect!

Looking pretty darn good after nearly two months off

I met Sheree at a gas station about 15 minutes from the barn and followed her along the winding back roads to one of six different trail heads. She hadn't been to this system in a long time, but it had been a favorite haunt of hers at one time and she still remembered a lot of it.

The parking lot was spacious but nearly full already by the time we got there around 11:30 am. It is a popular spot for mountain bikers and hikers alike and we were the only trailers at the time. By the time we mounted up, two more trailers pulled in and the lot was filled to near capacity.

Probably contemplating what new Hell I was planning for the day. Would we be gone for one hour or 18? You never know what I have up my sleeve, so a nap was in order to prepare.

Sheree and I caught up while we tacked up. Her mare, Riiah, is looking amazing coming back from a long treatment for Lymes that caused both neurological and musculoskeletal symptoms last summer. Riiah is an amazing athlete with a lot of opinions and I really enjoyed riding with them during the summer of 2014 before her decline and eventual diagnosis in 2015. She has a clean bill of health now and is gearing back up for some more endurance rides.

When I swung my leg over Gem and settled down onto her familiar back, I was excited to see what she would be like. This was her first real ride post 100 and I was curious to see if the bravado she showed with no spooks or even attempts to spook for 18 hours would carry over. About 100 yards into the ride she gave a massive sideways spook and I sighed. Nope. No change.

The trail heading away from the parking lot

I really think she just plum hates conditioning. It is hard work and boring at times and she sees no reason for it and tries to get out of work by being an idiot. Take her to a competition and she is brave and forward and willing to go all day and then some. My next horse will be much less complicated I think.

The trail system is massive. DuPont is 10,000+ acres and is cut with multi use trails for hikers, bikers and horses. In fact, an endurance rider in the region helped build most of the trails in a sustainable way hoping to build a relationship to allow for an endurance ride. Unfortunately, while his hard work resulted in beautiful trails, it did not help foster any motivation to allow an endurance ride in the forest.

Enjoying the shade and wide open trail

I bet this place is gorgeous in the fall

Neither of us had any plans for the ride. No set distance or pace with the main goal of just exploring and having fun. We wandered down the main access road to the forest and I was glad for the front shoes as we crunched over large gravel and stones. I was trying to pay attention to the trails for future use, but I never saw any trail markings. It was really odd. At every intersection there were lovely trail signs like street crossing signs with the names of all involved trails, but no additional information like mileage. Once past the intersection there were no markings at all: no ribbons, arrows, colors on the trees. Nothing. You basically kept going until you reached the next intersection. Since we didn't have a map, these intersections were useless to us and we just picked a direction and went hoping to be able to find our way back eventually.

Lots and lots of gravel

Most of the trails were double ride, hard packed dirt with a scattering of gravel, rocks and boulders. I had to laugh at my own sense of "rocky" after being at the Old Dominion ride. Nothing seems rocky after those trails and I didn't even ride them!

We ran across several bikers who were all super polite. Gem hates anything running up behind her at a fast pace. She gets really tense and her ears fling back. At one point we were going down a hill at a trot and she started to get super tense and distracted. I looked back and sure enough two bikers were flying down the hill towards us. We stopped and yelled back asking them to slow down which they did and then went on by us as we waited.

The only other time she had an issue was coming down another hill that had a small creek crossing at the bottom. Two bikers came flying down it towards us and splashed loudly through the water. It caught Gem off guard, but otherwise she didn't seem to mind any bikes coming towards or behind us. Everyone we passed was polite, slowed down or got off and told us to  have a good ride. If we came along someone on an uphill we always told them to stay moving to not lose their momentum. Being polite back to them really helped a lot.

These little speed bumps were a ton of fun a the canter

It felt almost spring like in the shade

Gem trotted and cantered a good bit when we could and we just enjoyed the cooler air and new trails. One really annoying habit she picked up from the 100 was eating on the trail. She was starving from mile 70ish on and I let her stop frequently to graze when grass was around. Well, she took that as approval to eat all the time and I had to battle her constantly stopping to drop her head. It was really annoying and is something I need to put a stop to immediately.

My favorite part was a small, overgrown single track trail with sandy footing that led to the river. We trotted down it dodging the bright green, leaf heavy limbs and I laughed as we weaved along.

My favorite trail of the day

Once we got to the river, Sheree asked if I wanted to switch horses. She rode Gem during a Ride and Tie I convinced her to do in 2014, but I had never had the pleasure of sitting on Ri. I was happy to do so!

I climbed aboard her tall mare. Ok..she isn't that tall but she is taller than Gem and I really like my short little 15H horse quite a bit. The biggest thing I had to get used to was her treeless Freeform saddle. It felt so different than my Advantage. I felt more propped up and tipped a little forward with the dressage seat in place. I am used to having next to nothing between my horse and me and this felt like a lot of padding and saddle between my tush and her back.

Sheree on Gemmie

Riaah wondering who this new person was on her back

Riiah also moves incredibly different than Gem. She has a lot of "boing" in her step whereas Gem moves very flat. Between the boingy motion and the saddle feeling like I was propped seven miles over the horse's back, I was feeling like I was going to get posted right in the air. It took a few tries, but I eventually learned to just relax my pelvis ad go with the flow a bit more and settled in.

We moved along with Sheree and Gem behind and Riaah figuring out what I wanted. She has a great respect for your seat and legs, something Gem does not have, and if I sat down just a little stronger she would immediately halt. I really enjoyed playing around with the buttons she had installed. Sheree for her part enjoyed the laid back Gemmie tailing along behind Riaah. We both laughed that we always ride color coordinated to our mares and now we clashed horribly with my red and black on her pink mare and her pink and grey on my red and black one.

A new set of ears to look through

A very long neck held higher than Gem does

In the end we covered about 6.5 miles in about 2 hours with several stops to let the bikers go by and slowing down for me to get used to my new mount. Both horses looked great at the end and I can't wait to go back up there. I really need to find a detailed map though or I could get very lost. The trails are very different than I am used to with no real loops or end points. They are more like a maze where all the trails intersect at some point and are all fairly short (like less than a mile for most of them) but can be strung together to be riding all day and then some. We didn't even cross the river to get to the trails on the other side and there are still 5 more access points with loads of other trails too. Some even have waterfalls although those are crazy busy with hikers. It was so nice to get out again and be with a good friend on new trails. I think my summer riding will likely be spent up there to escape the oppressive heat and humidity.

The #1 Reason to Own Your Own Business

Wednesday morning I pointed the truck towards Croft State Park instead of work. It felt amazing and liberating to ride instead of stress and worry about paying the bills. Yeah, I will need to work harder to make up for the day off, but so be it. There has to be some benefit from all the added work load and stress and that is the ability to take random days off. 

Croft was the perfect place to try out the Renegades with steeper hills and a ton of rocks on a nice 6 mile loop. I will save all the boot talk for another post to focus on the ride itself.

The morning was cool and overcast with the promise of reaching the low 80s in the afternoon. I had chosen to wear a long sleeve shirt for the first time since spring and the scent of fall was everywhere. Gem looked smashing in her tack, new boots and very rarely ever used cantle bag. I prefer to wear a camelbak myself and keep as much gear off her as possible, but I needed somewhere to put the boots if they decided to come off and not go back on. Her winter coat is already starting to come in and is speckled with black hair. I love it :)

We headed off to the trail head and dived immediately into the heavily treed forest. Gem was eager to move forward, but remained calm and focused on me. The trail began up a nice grade with gravel. It would be the perfect start to trial the boots. 

At the top of the hill is an old graveyard. Every time I pass it, I tell myself to research the family but I never seem to remember to. 

The first 1/2 of a mile was on a double wide gravel path and I let Gem stretch her legs at a forward walk. She was feeling good and strong beneath me and I took a deep breath letting it out slowly as all stress left me. In its place was a deep seated peace at being deep in the woods, far away from the busy hive of life, on the back of my favorite girl. Nothing else can touch that feeling.

The trail began a steep, but short down hill that would end up making a sharp turn onto the lake. I knew the large drain would be waiting blindly around the corner and had been a point of tension for Gem in the past. The summer had been exceptionally dry and the last time I hiked there the drain wasn't flowing at all, but I still worried a bit.

It was a partly self fulfilled prophecy and I really need to get better at not anticipating problems which in the end just creates tension in Gem as she senses my apprehension. As it was though, she just stopped and looked around trying to figure out where the danger was. Once I relaxed and let her know it was ok, she moved forward again.

Once past the drain, we popped out onto a lovely sandy lane that divides Lake Craig from the river/creek it drains into and then down a short hill and back into the woods. I knew this section very well since it is one of our main hiking trails. Gem had only been on it twice before though and so I just let her take her time and look around.

I paid close attention to my Garmin during this section out of curiosity for how long the next uphill climb really was. Having hiked it frequently, I knew it was steep and seemingly un ending and always pegged it as a great training hill for Gem. We began at the base at 0.63 miles and I made a mental note to check it at the top.

It is hard to capture the grade of hills on camera when on horseback, but this single track hill just keeps going with a few really steep sections, but mostly just a continuous climb. Gem stopped a few times to grab some greenery alongside trail and since I wasn't there for speed work, I let her.

Even at a walk, Gem was breathing a little harder as we neared the top. She moved freely, never hesitating except to grab food and really seemed to enjoy the morning as much as I was.

When we finally reached the top the Garmin showed that it was about 3/4 of a mile of continuous climbing. No wonder she was breathing a little harder!

From there the trail flattened out and weaved along becoming a single track and then widening once again. Overhead the trees formed a near sold canopy of leaves blocking out the overcast sky. It was like moving through a fairy tale and I quickly lost track of all thought as I got lost in the moment.

As the trail flattened, I also allowed her to open up and trot short sections. I didn't want to push her too hard and refrained from opening her to a canter even though the combination of great trail and perfect weather was screaming for a run. Gem responded by flowing into an extended trot that reached 8 mph effortlessly.

I slowed her to a walk after 1/4 mile and only let her trot again when the mile changed over and if the trail was flat and not technical. No reason to hurry her return. Gem stayed calm to the point where I dropped the reins for a good mile and just enjoyed the freshly fallen leaves strewed along the trail, cool breeze blowing through the warm early fall air and the pure sense of freedom. While I love wide open spaces and grand vistas, my soul belongs in the forest.

Sadly, the miles flew by and I soon found ourselves nearing the bridge only a mile and a half from the end. Gem notoriously hates bridges, but will cross them. I forced myself to think positively and she marched across snorting in displeasure. Half way across I had to laugh out loud as the wind plus her movement made the metal braces start to creak and her snorting grew louder and more disgusted. She crossed over the creek and I rewarded her with letting her move out once again.

It is such a novel experience for me to reward her with letting her move out. This is the mare who was completely unrideable solo on trails and then turned to careening wildly. Not this day. This day she was calm, forward and eager. It was the icing on the cake.

Of course, this is still Gem I am talking about and as I turned her to head back to the trailer we past by the barn. There was a camper with a boat and I looked at it bracing for her to spook to the right, away from the boat on my left. I'm not sure what the reason and Dusty is prone to believe she did it on purpose (past experience would have to agree with him). Her signature move is a 180 degree spin and  shoulder duck to the right. She very, very rarely goes left. Well, with my weight slightly more in the left stirrup she spun left and off I flew through the air. Fortunately, while the last year has seen me lose practice at it, I have enough in reserve from the last 5 years and I landed on my feet tweaking my right shoulder as I clung to the reins and spun around.

Gem looked at me calmly without so much as a glance back to whatever it was that set her off and not even a tad snorty or tense. Mares.

I climbed back on board refraining from any reaction whatsoever. Getting mad at her, going after her, or hitting her only back fires. Ignoring the bad behavior and carrying on like nothing ever happened to interrupt it is the only way to go, so we made our way past the boat and barn and back toward the trailer.

As we got close to the trailer, I looked over at the gorgeous show ring. It had been nearly 2 years since Gem saw the inside of an arena, so I pointed her inside the gates. The thought of cantering her inside the arena to test the boots a little more flitted through my mind, but the footing was deep, soft sand which is not something her ligaments and tendons are used to, so instead we just made our way around and then exited.

Back at the trailer, I took a look at the boots, snapped a bunch of pictures to send off to Renegade  untacked her. I gave her a huge hug to thank her for such a lovely ride (minus the fall) and brushed her out.

Unfortunately, the ride had a bit of a damper at the end. Pre ride, all the weird filling I had noticed to her hind legs last week was gone. The legs were nice and tight with well defined tendons. It both verified that I hadn't made it up and lessened my worry about the previous existence. However, when I removed her hind boots it was back. We did 6 miles in 2 hours, right at a 3 mph pace, and while we did trot some short sections and walked hills this was by no means a difficult work out. I have no clue when the filling began during the ride, but it was most certainly there at the end. There continued to be no reaction from Gem with prodding or flexing. She weighted it evenly and had no pain with prodding. No heat or pulse was appreciated either. I am not rushing her off to the vet for an evaluation, but I will be keeping an eye on it as we continue to move back into full work. Dusty is under the impression that getting her stronger and back to full work will improve it. I am worried that she might have injured it back in June, but it was missed with the very much more important left front injury.

Front left post ride. Nice and tight.

Hind left post ride. Filling noted above the joint. If she was off on it or it was painful I would be making an appointment immediately. For now I am going to mindfully ignore it. 

            

                     

Brick House Adventure

I'm not sure what has been up with me lately. Well, that is not really true. I do know the cause - or more accurately the many little causes - that have created my anti riding funk of late. This time last year you couldn't keep me off Gem and I was riding 2 weeknights plus the weekend every week without fail. This year? Barely at all.

My eye is set on 75 miles over two days in Sept with hopefully the help of a fellow blogger. It is now nearly June and Gem has basically been a pasture puff all spring with the exception of a few rides here and there. It is high time to get back into some sort of a groove again to get her as ready as possible. With my life right now over conditioning isn't much of a concern, but too little is.

With that in mind I headed out to Brick House this morning for a 9 mile ride. I had wanted 12-15, but the way the trails are set up it is really hard to do that distance without doing an out and back and I really don't like those types of rides.

I had ordered a new pair of stirrups with cages off someone on Facebook and really wanted to try them out. I'll put up a review of these and the Garmin 310xt in the next post.

New endurance stirrups with cages

We started out on the blue and yellow trail which is measured at 5.75 miles per the park service. Gem was annoying at the start. She ping ponged her way down the trail in absolute protest of having to work. It took several deep breaths and a big discussion as to what forward really meant to get her butt moving down the trail without shying from left to right at every stinking branch, twig, lump of dirt and leaf we came across.

Twisting single track with dirt footing. My favorite trail conditions

This type of footing keeps Gem more occupied

Eventually she understood that I wasn't messing about and got down to working. I know the first section of trail super well from hiking as well as riding it before. There is a nice stream crossing which she handled just fine as well as two bridges of doom. She went over both with only a little resistance and I was fine with that.

Creek crossing

Bridge of Doom #1. She balked a bit but went over with minimal fuss

The last time I rode down there was when I did the 20 mile loop and got horribly lost. Yellow/blue dead ends into an intersection of purple and red. The long way around is to take purple, but I didn't have enough time to do that entire loop and Gem doesn't need to be going 20 miles right now anyway. Instead I hooked a left and went on red which cuts it down to the 9 miles. I had never been on red before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I won't be taking it again.

It started out just fine, but the footing became really bad fairly quickly. Remember my annoying rant about trail conditions? This is what I was talking about. The footing was so torn up from people riding when they should't have been and it made for very slow going. I was seriously concerned Gem was going to twist or pull something.

Trail destruction. The clay down here bakes hard and doesn't pack down once it dried like this.  

We were still making fairly good time when she slammed on the brakes at this:

The approach. Just right of the trees was the only safe entry into the water. To the right is a 2 ft drop off over granite. 

To give her credit this was pretty crappy. At the approach I could see many issues right away. On the right hand side is all that crunchy black anti erosion material the trails down here love. Gem hates this stuff. She has gone over this at various water crossings numerous times and hates it every single time. The bright orange fencing laying on top didn't help. To the far right is a 2 foot waterfall over slick granite. To the left is the muddy creek without a visible bottom. It got very deep. Just right of center is the only safe path.

A closer view of the black anti erosion material. It makes a loud noise and caves in when walked on and is like a honeycomb 

To the left is a deep hole that on the edge went up to my knee. It got deeper in the middle. You had to enter just left of the black material and head towards the mud just left of the material on the other side. 

She refused many times and eventually I got off her to lead her over. Better to be safe than to keep arguing over it. Except she wouldn't be led over it either. I accidentally went too far left and sunk to my knees learning how deep of a hole it really was. I didn't get angry with her though. She honestly tried to cross, but the entry was terrible. There was a small section that you had to enter at the correct angle to avoid both the black paper and the deep hole and she went too far right. She stepped on the paper which crunched under foot and she freaked out. I was proud of her though - her freak out was just backing up and planting her feet. She could have spun and run or reared.

We were at an impasse. I don't usually let her win over stuff like this, but this was pretty dangerous to begin with. I didn't mind her refusing much. I was debating on turning around and going back the way we came (there were no other visible places to cross that were safer) when a husband and wife came toward me. The opposite direction had much easier entry and even with that their horses balked significantly. They made it across eventually and the husband asked if I wanted him to go back and lead us. I was very thankful for this and Gem followed with only a few snorts of disgust. Good mare.

After that the trail was kind of crappy for a ways. They had put some gravel down,  but the trail was eaten up like the above for the next 2 miles. It was stop and go for a long time.

I do love riding down there though. You are practically in the middle of nowhere to begin with, but once you get back in the woods a ways all you hear are the birds and little scurrying critters you stir up. I don't run into many people or horses on the trails. It is like I am in my own little world far away from everything. I love it.

After spending the majority of the time in the deep forest with trees close in on both sides, the shock of popping into the logging area was real. The trees had kept the sun out except to speckle the trail in spots of light, but now the sun was full on and very hot. It looked like a war zone.

Logging region. Fairly new given the size of the new growth. I wish I remembered more form my field ecology class. At one point I could have told you pretty closely how old this area was given the types and sizes of the trees. Alas, that information has left my brain. 

It wasn't long before we dove back into the woods again and made it back to the trailer. Per the measured distances on the map we went 9.50 miles, but the Garmin read 8.85. Not that bad given the tight tracks and dense tree cover. Gemmie was sweaty and a little tried at the end, but a soupy mash and sponge bath cured that.

Back into the old growth we go

My favorite tree. It must be at least 100 years old

The branches just beg for climbing

Overall it was super nice to be out and about again. I'm sad that I lost a lot of the conditioning I had on her going into the last 50, but she should gain it back quickly. I can get to the barn Tuesday nights and have a new plan of attack for that plus a weekend morning. With all of June, July and August to go we should be ready.