lone grave

Do you know where we're going? Nope, do you? Nope, do you think they know? I don't think so!

I kept hearing people talk about the trails up at Lone Grave* like they were something special. Then I looked them up, it's the staging area for the midpoint of the Wild West endurance ride! But I'd never ridden there other than that, so on an unseasonably warm February say (yes, the lack of rain this year is awful, but I might as well take advantage while I can) Major and I grabbed friend C and Friday and hit the trails.

clear skies, alfalfa hay net, all is well

Everything said "there's a trail map at the staging area." Well, I'd never seen one, the Skillman area is notoriously difficult to find a map of, we had a sketchy hand-colored piece of paper, that'll do! We headed off towards the deli, it was noted you can ride there and eat your lunch.

not the best map, they tried!

I take awesome photos of my friends

What I didn't note was it was only 2.5 miles to the deli. It was a 1/2 hour ride! Maybe for some folks who walk really slow it's an all day thing? But we weren't even traveling that quickly, and it was 10am when we got there. Oh well, let's explore more trails.

pretty trails

We found a zig-zag downhill trail that Major liked, but wasn't particularly interesting. I was a bit confused by a mountain biker who commented to us at the bottom of the trail that we shouldn't be riding our horses on the trails when they were wet, it ruins trails. I totally understand that, but we weren't leaving any hoofprints, and then shouldn't he also not be riding his bike? I'm great with sharing the trails, but we honestly thought we were being good stewards. Confusion is for sure what creates trail strife.

cut logs need a hard stare

We kept wandering. Let's not take the gray trail turnoff, it goes straight back to the staging area. We took the red trail the opposite way. And still ended up on a trail marked gray. Hmmm. But the trails were pretty, the sun was out, and we even found a tiny bit of snow! Major had seen snow at home, when dumped out of a pickup truck, but not on the trail. He was not impressed.

what's this? not impressed.

After a couple hours meandering we were done. We could have ridden more, and connected with the trails over by Skillman, but the trail parallels the road and isn't very peaceful. I think it would be best to find someone who knows the other trails, and then we could have a real adventure!

*And why is is called Lone Grave? A very sad story about a pioneer child.