New Discovery

A group of us decided to go riding at the beach yesterday. It was cold but we were determined to ride. Barbara was going to ride my horse so I'd get both my kids out. Low tide was a 11:00 am so we planned to meet at 10:30am. I was up at 7:30am so had plenty of time to get ready. I went out, fed, watered and mucked out stalls. Then hooked up the trailer. I then went back out to make sure the electric fence was working. For some reason it wasn't Friday when I went riding with Rocky and Bonnie's mule, River, was leaning all over the fence and bent the gate. I had fiddled around with the fence unit and had it working Friday night. But, I wanted to double check as that mule was going to come out if it wasn't. Glad I checked as it was NOT working again!!!! And I couldn't get it working. AGH. I would have to put River up in my horses turn out as I felt the corral panels would hold him. I headed inside to have some breakfast. When I got in I looked at the clock and it was 9:15am. !!! I had an hour drive to get to the beach!!!! So much for breakfast. I threw together a sandwich, grabbed a snack bar and a to go cup of coffe and flew out the door praying Louie would not fuss about loading into the trailer. Luckily eveyone cooperated. River went right into Marie's turnout when I opened the gate. And Marie and Louie came right to the barn when I called them up. And Louie, bless his little mule heart, jumped right into the trailer without so much as a thought. I got to the beach right on time with Barbara right behind me. About 15 min. later Susie and Rocky arrived. We were all tacked up and ready to ride when Amy Beem, her daughter Sierra and Judy arrived. We told them we'd meet them down on the beach. It was COLD!!! low 20's. But thankfully only a light breeze. We rode straight out to the rock islands first, then back and headed down the beach towards the fort. Just a little way down, I asked Barbara if she'd mind heading back to pick up Amy. Everytime Amy and I ride in the same place we never seem to actually ride together. Barbara said fine and Susie and Rocky were glad to go on alone as both their horses were feeling a bit overexcited so the fewer the better for them. When we got back to the parking lot, we met up with Mary Batt and a friend that had come with her. Louise Townsend had also arrived. Mary and her friend went down on the beach while the rest of us waited for Louie to finish tacking up. When we got back down on the beach, we headed right down towards the fort. The breeze was in our face in that direction so it was quite chilly. I tried to ride with Amy but her horses were walking too slow for Louie and I kept getting ahead. So, I rode with Mary and her friend for a bit, but then got ahead and Barbara and I ended up with Louise who's horse was trucking right along pretty quickly. At the corner where the beach takes a turn, we passed Susie and Rocky heading back. When Louise, Barbara and I got to the fort, we looked back and realized no one else was in sight. We thought they must have gone back due to the cold. That is when Louise asked us if we wanted to try to ride to the other fort. Other fort? What other fort? She then told us that nearby was another fort that we had never know about. Louise said it was not that far down the road from Fort Popham. Barbara and I were game for an adventure! So, we went up onto the road at Fort Popham and off we went. Just 1/4 mile down the road there was a road on the right named Fort Baldwin Rd. Well what do you know!!! We headed down this road and soon came to a sign indicating a trail on the left to Fort Baldwin. It did indicate no horses but since I was riding a mule, I was ok....... Actually, there were no tourists or sight seers out likely due to the cold and the trail was frozen so we would not do any damage so we decided to ride up to the fort. The trail went up hill and was a bit icy but we all had winter shoes with borium on our equines so we had not trouble. It was not very far to the fort and it was really neat. There are 3 or 4 bunkers and a tower. What a fun discovery! We we got back down on the road, we noticed there was a small clearing right across from the path to the fort that had placard telling the history of the fort. We rode up to them. Louie was cute as he initially was suspicious and cautious approaching them, but once up to them, he stuck his nose right on them like he was reading them. On the way back down the beach toward the parking lot, the wind was at our backs so it was quite comfortable riding. We did some nice stretches of trotting. Back at the island, we met up with Amy, Seirra and Judy as well as Mary and her friend. Amy's group hadn't followed us because of the wind in our faces going in the direction of the fort. Sierra had gotten cold. Susie and Rocky had already left. I'm glad we braved the cold as we had a wonderful ride.