Saturday, April 6, 2019
One of my favorite events of the year is here! The McAllister's and Friends mule ride at High Knob camp. Four of my friends are coming down to the ride from Maine. I have the week off work. Life is good. Well, I came down the flu last week but I'm well on the road to recovery other than a lingering cough so... yes, life is good. My Maine friends were all arriving at High Knob today. Tracy and Eric arrived fairly early this morning. They had arranged to stop for the night at Boone County Fairgrounds. Unfortunately for them, it was Boone County Illinois they had made arrangements NOT Boone County Kentucky where they thought they had made the arrangements for. After a bit of confusion and several phone calls, the police allowed Eric and Tracy to stop and stay in the fairgrounds parking area though they had to leave the mules loaded and sleep in their truck.
I knew all my Maine friends would be tired so I didn't rush over to High Knob Camp. I spent the morning mowing my lawn. First mowing of the season. Then I packed up my trailer with food, tack and clothes for Lily and I. When I went to put my things in my trailer, I found it absolutely filled with Asian Lady Beetles. UGH. I vacuumed out as many as I could find. They will bite and I didn't want to be sleeping with them. When I went over to pick up Lily, she was eager for an adventure and came right to me when I called her and loaded right into the trailer without hesitation. When I got to camp, I had a reserved spot in Burke's field. That is where Tracy and Eric were also camped. I got Lily settled into her stall and she seemed fine with it as the stalls in Burke's field are open. I visited with Eric and Tracy for a while. I had to borrow a short plank from Kathy Lawless as I'd forgotten mine to put under my jack stand. I visited with Amy and Donna once they had time to settle in. I called Fred and told him to bring over some pork burgers I had thawed
out and a vegetable to go with them. We cooked supper at Tracy and
Eric's camp. Amy and Donna came down. Bill and Gail Dillion were also
camped in Burke's field and they came over also to visit and chat. Amy
had brought some of her Blueberry wine which is wonderful. Bill and Gail
shared some mead wine which was also very good. We had a very pleasant
evening. I went home with Fred that night. Lily was being pretty good so I wasn't too worried about leaving and her causing problems. I did tell Tracy where her food was in case I didn't get to camp in the morning early enough to keep her from fussing if others started to feed their mules around her.
Sunday April 7, 2019
It was cool and raining off and on this morning. I'm glad I told Tracy where Lily's food was because sure enough I overslept and Tracy said Lily got pretty unhappy when others started feeding their mules. I got to camp around 8:00 am. The weather was supposed to improve later in the day. Amy and Donna wanted to get right out and ride so they went on their own before noon time. Eric, Tracy and I waited until after lunch and the weather did get better. We just did a short ride to Coulter Spring, out to the blue mail box and took the trail at the end of that driveway that goes over to the River to River trail and back to camp. Lily was pretty excited to be on the trail but only had just one small brain fart going down one hill. She did walk out fast but was otherwise very good. When I got back, I took care of Lily and then went to visit Kathy Lawless and her friends for a while. She made me a couple adult drinks that were yummy. I then headed up to see what Amy and Donna where doing. They were staying at the High Knob Hilton and quite a hike from Burke's field. Sandy Costello was camped about 1/2 way between so I stopped and visited her a while. She did offer me a Margarita but I thought it best to hold off on that. I then wandered up to the Hilton. Amy and Donna were making Hobo packets for supper and let me make one for myself. Amy and I polished off a bottle of her blueberry wine aka truth serum.
Monday April 8, 2019
I did much better this morning. I was up early and got to camp just a little after 6:00 am. Before Lily started fussing to be fed so I was able to take care of her and keep her happy. She was good but she sure was ready to get out on the trail. She nickered to me every time she saw me. Donna had purchased a new mule from Max Bishop. She's seen a video of the mule on his facebook page and liked the looks of her. This was before she realized he had somewhat of a questionable reputation. He said he would deliver the mule to Double M Campground at the "beginning of the week" That is where he was camping as he has been banned from High Knob Campground, which Donna was also unaware of. We were very worried for Donna. We know that not all mules sold by Max are bad but there have been more than enough sold by him that people have been hurt by to be worried. And he would not give us any more definite time of arrival other than, "the beginning of the week".
We took our time again as the weather was quite overcast early but the day was going to improve. Lily was very excited to get out on the trail so I chose a trail that would NOT take us in the direction of home. My Maine group decided to trust me to guide them through the forest. Amy was riding Ruthie, Donna was on Annabelle. Tracy and Eric on Ellie Mae and Prize were my group today. We headed out to Buzzard's Roost, then to Knight's of the Golden Circle, to Whiskey Cave, Through Rice Hollow, up to the little Tee Pee, by Hollywood Rock. I don't know what, if any, that rock really has but we all like to pose there for pictures and it's a good beginner rock hopping spot. Lily was forward and walking out fast again today. She had just one mental overload again today. It was fairly minor one when I jumped her up on Hollywood rock with Amy and Donna and she swung around and nearly knocked Donna on Annabelle off the rock. There was a group of other riders at the rock and Lily just got a little over excited. She was otherwise very good today. All the mules were good. Eric's mule Prize has not been ridden in 2 years and he was being wonderful. We had a great ride. Camp owner, JoJo Moomey, had put piles of sand in spots around the campsite for the mules to roll in. This made Lily a very, very happy mule! I hosed Lily off in the wash station. I took her up to the community building where Toby of Crooked Creek Saddlery was set up. He did a saddle fitting on Lily with the bare trees he had brought and I ordered a new saddle to be made for Lily.
Eric and Tracy needed to pick up a few things at a store so we all piled into their truck and went into Harrisburg. We had supper at Morello's, one of my favorite places to eat. I decided to go home tonight after we got back to camp and I did a final check on Lily.
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| Cindy on Lily at Buzzard's Roost |
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| Cindy on Lily at Knight's of the Golden Circle |
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| Cindy on Lily, Eric on Prize and Tracy on Ellie Mae at Knight's of the Golden Circle |
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| Donna on Annabelle and Amy on Ruthie at Knight's of the Golden Circle |
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| Cindy and Eric under the arch at Knight's of the Golden Circle |
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| Our mules on the high line at Knight's of the Golden Circle |
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| The Red Buds are in bloom |
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| Cindy on Lily at Whiskey Cave |
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| Cindy on Lily, Eric on Prize and Tracy on Ellie Mae at the Tee Pee |
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| Donna on Annabelle |
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| Tracy on Ellie Mae hopping off Hollywood Rock |
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| Eric and Prize hopping off Hollywood Rock |
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
I did good again today making sure I got to camp just a little after 6:00 am to take care of Lily. My friends again trusted me to be their guide. Bill and Gail Dillon also decided to join us as well as Sandy Costello. Today Donna was riding one of Anthony's mules, Evie. Some of the group wanted to just do a short ride and others longer. So, I planned a loop where we could split from the riders who wanted a short ride that would be an easy trail back to camp for them and I could do a longer loop with the others. I consulted with Ross Bird to make sure I had the trails I wanted correct. We headed out and did the trail right up along the base of Hurricane Bluff. This is a gorgeous but tough trail. I'll admit I was a little worried about Bill but shouldn't have. He did just fine. He was riding one of Anthony's mules, Elwood. When we came through the gap, I stopped Lily and turned her around so I could get pictures of everyone coming through. This did NOT make Lily happy. But, to her credit, she did stand still and let all the mules go by her. I turned her to follow just ahead of Tracy and Eric. We were at this point heading down a hill that was pretty open ground and the combination of making her stand and letting most of the mules pass and now the change in our line up sent Lily into a mental overload. She hopped her way off the trail down the hill. I pulled her head around and we went into a depression in the ground and slammed up against a tree, not hard but enough to stop her. I thought she was going to go down for a second when she went into the depression but she didn't and all was well. I rode back up onto the trail and headed out and she was a good girl the rest of the day. And had been good before that incident. We came around to NoNo Rock. Donna had been in contact with Max during the morning and he said he's be in camp soon. She told him she was riding and would be over late afternoon to pick her mule up. From NoNo Rock, Donna, Sandy and I headed off on a longer loop, Bill, Gail, Tracy, Eric and Amy headed back to camp.
I took Donna and Sandy to Initial Tree by way of the Mule Rider Memorial going up over Buck's Ridge and then into Initial Tree. We then took trail 150 going by the Memorial high line, then took a trail I wasn't sure about but was sure was the right direction and it was and we looped back to NoNo Rock and we rode back into camp by way of the River to River trail.
Once we got back and got the mules taken care of, we headed over to Double M Camp to pick up Donna's mule. When we got there Max was no where to be found. One of the other campers said that a rig that matched the description of Max's rig had stopped and dropped a mule off in the last stall in the row of stalls across from the restaurant and had taken off. Sure enough, there was a mule in the last stall with no hay, no water and wearing a rope halter with a lead rope attached and dragging. The mule was alone and freaking out as any mule or horse in that situation would be. Donna was sure it was her mule but without Max there, and no papers or bill of sale or anything for proof, we were uneasy about taking the mule. We finally found the campground owner, Heath, who confirmed it was Max that had left the mule there. Max hadn't wanted to wait for Donna to arrive as he wanted to go riding so he just left the mule then trailered out to another camp to go riding. So, not knowing what else to do but wanting to make sure the mule was ok, we loaded her onto Amy's trailer and hauled her back to High Knob camp. The mule loaded well and wasn't hard to handle. She was very cute though a little thin. She sure was happy to get some water once we got back to camp. First impression was she seemed to be a nice mule. We were all keeping our fingers crossed that Donna was going to be one of the lucky ones. And we sure were not at all impressed with how Max was conducting business. Donna had wanted him to ride the mule first so she could see how the mule did under saddle and Max had said he would do that. Since he wasn't there when we picked up the mule, he could not do that and since he was banned from High Knob, he would not be able to do that once the mule was there either. Max did finally say he would come over to High Knob in the morning and give her a bill of sale and a coggins paper. The mule did settle right into her stall at High Knob and seemed content and was very sweet.
I had supper at the cook shack tonight. The special was 2 soft shell tacos for $5. How could I resist that! It was pretty warm today and I got quite a sunburn on my face and arms.
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| Mule Rider Memorial |
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| Donna on Evie and Sandy on Duck coming into Initial Tree |
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| Donna on Evie and Sandy on Duck coming into Initial Tree |
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| Sandy and Duck at Initial Tree |
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| Sandy on Duck and Donna on Evie at the Memorial on trail 150 |
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
I was at camp early again this morning to take care of Lily. It was another warm day so I wore a light long sleeve shirt to avoid making my sunburn any worse. Today we decided to join Ross Bird and let him guide us through Dead Horse Canyon. Tracy and Eric had decided to just do a short ride on their own. Donna was going to spend the day with her new mule. Dara, a friend she made last year that was also staying in the Hilton was going to help her out. So it was Ross, Susanne, Amy, me, Bill, Gail, Michelle Myers and others I didn't get the names off. There were 14 that started out together. We rode to the cemetery then on to Sand Cave where we stopped to have lunch. From there Ross asked if anyone wanted to ride up through the canyon. This is a tough but fun trail. There were 3 of us that wanted to go up through the canyon, Amy, me and Michelle. So, Susanne took the rest of the group around the other way and the three of us rode through the canyon. We all met up at the top. When we got to the top, Amy's mule Annabelle was panting very hard but not sweating. We were a little concerned so we stopped and let the mules rest until Annabelle wasn't panting so hard. We then rode onto the Little Tee Pee. When we got there, Annabelle was panting hard again and not sweating at all and she should have been. Now we were quite concerned. My first thought was anhidrosis. I'd never seen it happen but had heard of it. And Tracy had it happen to her mule Ellie a few years back when they went to FL for the winter. So, we stopped again and stripped Annabelle's tack off. There were a few riders that had electrolytes with them but Amy and I didn't really think this was a metabolic crash nor had Annabelle had much to drink as we rode so we didn't want to take a chance of causing colic. I checked her pulse and that was not unusually high. We figured we'd just give her a long break so I told Ross that I could get Amy back to camp and he could take the rest of the group back to camp so they wouldn't all have to wait. He and Susanne really did not want to leave us. Another group rode into our area and the rest of our group joined up with them and headed back to camp. Ross, Susanne, Gail and Bill wanted to stay with us. We stayed there more than 45 min. We fed Annabelle what green stuff we could find and used what water we had to wet her down on her neck. It seemed to help. Her apatite was fine. Amy finally saddled up and we slowly headed back to camp. Amy was still concerned so when we were still a mile or so out of camp, she got off and led Annabelle back. Once back to camp, Ross let us use his clippers and we clipped Annabelle's neck and chest. Then Amy got her into the mule wash station and hosed her off good. That made all the difference and she finally stopped panting. We called my vet and he confirmed it was anhidrosis. He said we did the right and only thing we could have done and that was to stop and let Annabelle recover along the trail and carefully get her back to camp. He said they don't really know why it happens but there was a product he suggested Amy use on Annabelle if she brings her back next year. He said for this trip to give her a day off and to go out and get cheap lager beer to poor over her grain each night. He said that sometimes resets their system.
When I saw Donna, I was extremely pleased to hear that her ride with her new mule had gone very well. She and Dara had gone to Garden of the Gods. Dara rode the mule out with no troubles at all. So, Donna rode her back and just loved her. They ironically ran into Max at Garden of the Gods tie area. Donna had gotten in contact with her new mules former owner and the back story was good and indicated she has a very nice mule. She found out her mule's name was Ruth, but decided to rename her Telos after a lake in Maine and a former dog who she loved very much. I can't say how happy I am for Donna.
We had to go get some beer for Annabelle so Amy, Donna and I squished into my Ranger and headed to the Mitchellsville Country Store. We had supper there and headed back to camp with the beer. Annabelle wasn't overly impressed with the beer but did eat some beer drenched grain. There was a beautiful sunset tonight. After doing one last check on Lily, I headed home for the night.
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| Riata beside stuffed pony in Sand Cave |
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| Lunch stop at Sand Cave |
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| Looking up at the ceiling of Sand Cave |
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| Interesting and curious patterns on the rocks in Sand Cave |
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| Horse skull on tree entering Dead Horse Canyon |
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| Riata at the Little Tee Pee |
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| Gail Dillon's mule Asster at the Little Tee Pee |
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| Susanne's mule Bandit and Lily at the Little Tee Pee high line |
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| Amy with Annabelle and Riata and Ross sitting at tree |
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| Susanne keeping an eye on the mules |
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| The blossomed Red Buds were so beautiful throughout the woods |
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| Sunset |
Thursday April 11, 2019
It rained pretty hard overnight but had stopped by the time I headed to camp. I got half way there when I remembered I needed more hay for Lily. So, I had to turn around and go back to the barn to get a few more bales. I was still to camp early enough to satisfy Lily and get her fed. Today my Maine group was trusting me to guide them to Garden of the Gods and back. I know how to get there via the River to River trail but my plan was to take them out a different way and include Mushroom Rock also. Amy was riding Ruthie today and Donna was with us on her new mule Telos. As well as Tracy and Eric with Prize and Ellie Mae.
We headed out and took the Twin Tower and Silver Mine trail. That trail comes out just west of Buzzards Roost. Then I rode towards Night's of the Golden Circle but when I got to the old forest service road, I circled around to Mushroom rock and over to the top of Buzzard's Roost where we came upon Anthony's group having lunch. We stopped to have a short snack break there. The wind had really picked up by now and it was cooler today than it has been. Good weather for riding. From The top of Buzzard's Roost we circled around and rode through Knight's of the Golden Circle and continued on following the signs for Garden of the Gods. We made it there with no trouble. We tied up and had lunch at the picnic tables. Then walked the observatory trail which is always beautiful. It was crazy windy out in the open on the rocks. We headed back the slightly more direct route looping around to the River to River trail and back to camp that way. We did a bit over 16 miles and it was a great ride. All the mules did great. Donna's new mule never took a wrong step and we were all so pleased and happy for her. Lily was wonderful all day.
When we got back and had taken care of our mules, we headed up towards the office to watch the mule sale. I had supper at the Cook Shack tonight. Everyone else had the same idea as the wait for my order was LONG. The poor cook was doing the best she could and managed to get everyone fed. There were many nice mules for sale but the gaited mules were the money mules. Several of the gaited mules brought $7,000 and $8,000. High dollar mule, Harley D (that Anthony rides) went for $20,000. A big John mule out of a Racking mare. And that mule sure can rack! I hung out for a while in camp with Amy then headed home after a final check on Lily.
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| Twin Towers |
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| Cindy on Lily on the Silver Mine Trail |
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| Amy on Ruthie on the Silver Mine Trail |
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| Amy on Ruthie under Mushroom Rock |
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| Cindy on Lily under Mushroom Rock |
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| Anthony's group having lunch on top of Buzzard's Roost. |
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| Handsome Prize |
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| Tracy on Ellie Mae |
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| Eric on Prize |
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| The famous camel's head at Garden of the Gods |
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| Lily and Ruthie having a little spat... LOL |
Friday, April 12, 2019
I was at camp at the usual time just a little after 6:00 am to get Lily fed. So far Lily was showing no signs of getting tired or not wanting to hit the trail yet again. Tracy and Eric decided to take a day off from riding and went hiking instead. Amy, Donna, Sandy, Gail and Bill all just wanted to do a shorter ride and that was fine with me. Amy and I wanted to see if we could find the Short Grave by Coulter Spring. Coulter Spring was named after Jonas Coulter who had a cabin in the area sometime after the Grindstaff's moved out of the area. Two grindstones at the spring were the only remains of the pioneer Robin Grindstaff's mule powered gristmill and home that once stood adjacent to the spring. The Short Grave is the grave site of his wife, Liz Grindstaff. Her neighbor used a stalk to measure her body to build her coffin. However the coffin was too short. With the effect of the heat on her body, they did not want to take time to build another coffin. Her husband, Robin Grindstaff, used a sledge hammer to fold his wife's legs under so she would fit in the coffin. I'm not sure of the year this happened but sometime around the turn of the century. I have a history book that has a map of where the grave site is. We knew it was on top of a bluff north of Coulter Spring. We got to the spring and easily identified the bluff. Amy and I rode around it to get on top. We tied up Annabelle and Lily and started searching. We took long enough that Bill and Gail rode on ahead of us. Sandy and Donna finally rode up to get us. Amy and I failed to find the grave site so we mounted up and continued on our ride. We dropped off the bluff and headed down the trail in the opposite direction we had planned to go. But, we still made a very nice loop and had a great ride. Lily was wonderful all day today. Donna's mule Telos did fantastic!! We had yet another wonderful ride. When we got back we took care of the mules. Then we just relaxed in camp and enjoyed each other's company knowing our week was soon coming to an end. Everyone had wanted to ride to Double M for lunch but with mules getting tired from the long week, we decided we didn't want to make an all day ride of it. So, we decided to trailer over to my place, or rather my neighbors home where Lily lives, and ride to Double M Camp from there. That way everyone would get to see new trails and have lunch at Double M. I sent a message to another neighbor, Sally, to see if she wanted to join us for our ride. Much to my delight, she was going to be able to join us. Now, the issues was how to get everyone to Lily's barn. Sandy Costello also wanted to join us so we'd need to trailer 6 mule but only had room for 5. So, I decided if I wasn't going to be riding the last day from High Knob, I would just take Lily home tonight and come back with my trailer. My Ranger was still at High Knob. So, I brought Lily home and took the trailer back to High Knob and drove my Ranger to go home for the evening.
Saturday April 13, 2019
I was able to sleep a bit later this morning as I didn't have to be at camp in time to feed Lily. We had planned to be pulling out of camp by 9:00 am. I arrived in camp around 8:15 am. Sandy decided not to go with us. I hauled Tracy and Eric's mules, Prize and Ellie Mae. We loaded Ellie Mae in first. Prize had never been in a slant load trailer and being in the last slot meant he had to load himself. He had to think about it for a bit but it didn't really take long for him to load up. I was very impressed with how well he did. He was actually more worried about backing out of my trailer once we got to the barn. Eric drove my Ranger over to the barn. Ruth and Delbert came out and I made introductions to those they had not already met. I went out to get Lily and wondered how she would feel about going out again for the 7th day in a row. I stood at the barn door, held up her halter and called her. She was down by the pasture gate. She normally trots right up to me ready for any adventure. She just stood and looked at me for a minute, then wandered up but not really towards me. Stopped and thought about it some more, than she did come to me. Good girl. I had been telling Eric and Tracy how there are a lot of much easier trails between my house and Double M than most of the trail around High Knob. So, they were expecting a much easier ride today. I quickly saddled up Lily who was very good and quiet despite all the equines out in the driveway. Sally arrived and we headed out and I let Sally lead the way. Sally took us on a great ride but not at all by any of the easier trails I had told Eric and Tracy about. Sally did however, hit all the best points. We rode down into Thacker Hollow and out to Initial Tree. From there we took Indian Paint Wall trail and crossed Black Ridge Rd and rode down the hill to the trail along Pounds Hollow Lake. That is a challenging trail at any time. But, there is a tree that has recently come down across the trail in a steep, muddy spot. The scramble up and around it was a little butt puckery. Sally's little gelding almost went down. He lost his footing for a moment but managed to scramble his way back up and though the spot. Everyone else managed to get through safely also. We stopped for a short break at the Pounds Hollow overlook. Then rode Little hurricane Bluff and to Double M for Lunch. We tied up the mules at the hitching rail out front.
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| Tracy on Ellie Mae, Cindy on Lily, Amy on Ruthie at Black's Cabin |
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| Initial Tree |
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| Indian Paint Wall trail |
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| Cindy on Lily at Wolf's Den cave |
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| Amy on Ruthie, Cindy on Lily and Sally on ChiChi at Wolf's Den cave |
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| Double M Campground and Restaurant |
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| Mules on the tie rail at Double M Camp |
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It was a nice day so we had our lunch out on the porch of Double M. We took trail 184 back to Black Ridge Rd. That is one of the easier trails I had been telling Tracy and Eric about. I didn't want them to think I was crazy after all. It was along this trail that Lily nearly stepped on a large snake. I never saw it but Amy did. And Amy also found some morale mushrooms that Sally took home.
Once back to the barn, I turned Lily out and then drove my Ranger over to my house and walked back to the barn. Eric and Tracy had gone over to Sally's to see the big boys, Rory and Major, her Percheron driving team. I trailered Tracy and Eric's mules back to High Knob. Tonight was the hog roast, pot luck supper and dance at High Knob in the community building. Amy had needed some cooking utensils to make her frogs eye salad, most of which I had in my trailer. There was SOOOO much food as usual. After loading up my plate, I retreated to the deck of the Hilton. Soon the others showed up also as it has started to rain so we all huddled under the small section of the deck that was roofed over and enjoyed our meal and each other's company. I decided not to stay for the dance.
Donna had left a bucket she needed over at the barn. So, rather than saying our goodbyes in camp, I tole them I'd meet them in the morning at the corner of Leamington Rd and Black Ridge Rd to give them their water bucket. I was already missing my friends.
We did quickly say our goodbye's Sunday morning on the road. It was a wonderful week full of wonderful rides and time spent with wonderful mule people. Donna is going home with a wonderful new mule and I hope they are all my Maine friends are able to return for the ride next year.
