Caney Mountain Day 6 The Cave

I got up at 7:00 am this morning and it was cold and drizzling. I fed Lily, cleaned her pen and switched her wool blanket for a rain sheet. At breakfast (where they served sweet rice along with all the usual, yummmmm) we checked the weather again and talked with JoJo and pretty much decided we'd leave Friday morning.  Some people were already pulling out today. There were quite a few people at the nerd table this morning. We'd actually had company pretty regular after the first day. I think it was Amy's Maine accent drawing them in. It was like having my owner personal sideshow!
It was starting to rain a bit harder and there was much talk about whether to ride or not. None of the guides was very eager to go out other than Coon Ass Thomas. Amy kind of wanted to ride. I definitely did not so we didn't join Thomas's group when the rode out a little after 9:30 am. The one thing Amy and I did want to see before we left was the big cave. That is not all that far from camp and maybe only 1/4 to 1/2 mile off the road. JoJo was heading into town this morning so we grabbed our rain gear and had her drop us off at the corner where the start of the trail is. It was a steep hike up to the cave but well worth the effort. It was a beautiful hike up and the cave is huge!

We decided to keep hiking up and see if we could get on top of the cave. The trail did lead there and it was well worth the effort for the view. Being a cold rainy day actually made the view really neat as there were pockets of fog between all the mountain peaks that just looked really cool. Amy and I headed back down the trail and then took a side trail towards camp. We followed that until it started to turn away from camp and made our way out to the road. We saw the tracks of a wild pig and hoped we would not meet up with it.

Just as we were getting back near camp, we passed Anthony heading out with a small group.
Amy was now wishing we'd gone riding. I was still not interested as it was still raining.
We met up with Cathy M and the Lee's on the front porch of the dining hall and chatted for a bit. Then we went with Cathy to visit Ruth Reynolds and Jonica in their cabin. The rooms with the private baths were NICE! When I saw it, I was kind of wishing I'd spent the extra money for one. I'll sure keep it in mind for my next trip. We had a nice visit and finally left to go raid JoJo's trailer for snacks for lunch. Not really a raid I guess since it was our food. Amy was REALLY wanting to ride but it was still raining and I really did not want to go. She was starting to get a bit disgusted with me. We hung out in our room for a short time. Amy read and I uploaded some pictures of our rides. Finally Amy left the room. I was not sure where she was going but stayed in the room just a bit longer. I finally went out to use the bathroom and it had stopped raining finally. And I just happened to meet up with one of the guides, John. I told him Amy had really wanted to ride today but I was the party pooper. He told me to saddle up and he would take us out.  I told him I'd find Amy and meet him in front of the dining hall. I spotted Amy walking away from JoJo's trailer and yelled for her to saddle up! She stopped and just stared at me for a minute, I shouted to "saddle up" one again and now she is glaring at me like she want's to rip my head off. It turned out that she had left the room to go up to Anthony's camp and get all her tack to put away in JoJo's trailer. Amy has been riding Anthony's mules all week and it's quite a hike from his camp to where JoJo was parked. JoJo saved the day by offering to let Amy rider her mule, Sinbad.

The funnel

We quickly saddled up and Lily seemed very happy to get out of her pen and was eager to hit the trail. She was STILL not tired! We met John and headed out. I told him he had quite possibly salvaged Amy and my friendship. He had to retrieve a shovel along the trail that he had left when doing some trail maintenance. He then took us by the Funnel, then to Caney Rim to I Do rock, a popular spot for people to proposed and be married. There was a neat ledge you can ride around at Caney Rim and I did this with John while Amy took pictures. From there we rode to the Bee Hive. We asked John why it was called the Bee Hive. He said because they had to name it something. Hummmmmm. John took a couple pictures of Amy and me at the Bee Hive. Amy took a picture of John carrying his shovel while riding his mule. We told him we were going to post it on Facebook and say that the guides here carry shovels so they can bury the horse riders that don't make it on these trails. He got a kick out of that.

John and me on Caney Rim

John and me riding around Caney Rim

Caney Rim looking towards I Do rock

Looking at I Do rock

Amy on Sinbad and Cindy on Lily at the Bee Hive

John with his shovel

We made it back right around 4:30 pm. I took care of Lily and we had some time to relax before supper. Though we did start packing what items we could pack. Tonight's supper featured brisket, warm potato salad that was delicious, scalloped potatoes, and a fantastic jambalaya and rice. Though I did have to pick out the shrimp.... nasty things, as well as the usual biscuits and salad. Tonight's desert choices were a spice cake with cream cheese frosting, an apple strawberry dump cake and a blueberry cobbler with ice cream. I'm pretty sure I have not lost any weight this week. We had live music with supper tonight. Anthony made a farewell speech and there were also door prizes. But, apparently not only are Amy and I nerds, we were losers too. We stayed and listened to the music for a while then headed to bed.

Cindy with two of the guides, Lynn and John.

Amy and Cindy with one of the guides, Lynn