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Sep. 14th, 2009 11:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickI was out scouting for the 4-H Not-Competitive Trail Ride that is apparently happening at my house on September 27. See, the State 4-H Competitive Trail Ride (the thing I won in 2007 with Nicknick) was cancelled this year due to not enough entries. So, instead of that, we're having a Not-Competitive Trail Ride. It's at my house. I found this out at the district horse show, which was this past weekend. Actually, they were going to be having it on September 26, which I allowed would be more convenient except that I would be in Devon at the dressage show and thus would not be able to attend the trail ride that I'm supposed to host and route.
Heck, at least I'll be *home* on Sunday. So, today, I went out route planning. I am not a big fan of bushwhacking with a slew of 4-H'ers in tow, so the route needs to be planned and pre-walked (which means lots o' walking for me, because they would like about ten miles of trail ride, here) to ensure lack of surprises. There exist people in this world for whom pre-planning ruins things, but I am not one of them.
The proposed route (which is not going to make sense to very many people besides me but might be somewhat illuminated by this PDF map ) is as follows:
From the football field (which is not used for football) we will head out the road past the burn pile and up the hill, cross the main road and continue rightward up the mountain to the joining with Hull's road (Hull doesn't live there anymore, Cooney does.) whereupon we shall turn RIGHT (DOWNHILL) towards the water tank road. At the water tank road, we will make a LEFT and go on the water tank road until the turn to go down past the water tank. We will make a RIGHT onto the road down past the water tank. It's not very road-like but this is a trail ride. It's more of a trail than a road. It goes to the road that is Hull's Road (again, but a new point on the road, so it looks fresh). At Hull's Road (revisited), we make a LEFT and ride past my house to the main road where we will make a RIGHT on the main road and go back past the Lodge and around to the other side of the lake (with lake scenery) to cross the creek with water for horses and go up the trail to the ATV trail without any bushwhacking. (This adds some distance on damn good footing and also allows us to dump anyone who is whining or has a lame horse or whatever because we'll be going right past where we started at, with minimal trail overlapping, having done two miles to get all the kinks and whiners out.) For those playing along with the PDF map, we are now between #14 and #15 on the map, right where the pointy bit touches the white private property. The road for 14 and 15 is the ATV trail.
On the ATV trail, we make a LEFT and head up hill to Fisher Road. At Fisher Road, we bear RIGHT because the other direction is all Deer Exclusion Fence and it's nasty stuff. Go on Fisher Road until you hit Snowfield Trail (with nice signs) and make a RIGHT down Snowfield (I am going to have to hike this fucking thing to make sure it's OK. It's precipitously steep but doable.) go downhill (a lot) until you hit the ATV trail at the valley floor. Allegedly this thing then has Big Fill going off to the left, but I walked out the valley floor this evening going the other direction and I didn't see any damn Big Fill Trail. Didn't. Was Looking. Was. In-Vis-O-Trail, I say.
I gave up and went bushwhacking across the valley floor from the intersection of "Snowfield" and "Big Fill" according to the neatly-placed sign. There was no trail downhill except that which ran into private property right soon. (It had been timbered, was grown up in sedges and crap so that it was a deathtrap of a thing. I was probably trespassing for parts of the bushwhacking. I saw a couple of state forest blazes so maybe I was too close to the edge of the forest, am not sure what the dealio was. Anyway, it was fucking exhausting.) I went across the creek (Oregon Run -- I walked across a downed tree. Yes, I balance well enough to do this. Even at my age.) whereupon I saw a lovely road (probably the one shown connecting to "Big Fill Trail" that I couldn't fucking well find.) that was not going in a direction I wanted to go (with no sign, natch) so I crossed it and went up to the old turnpike, made a left, and walked to the overpass for Oregon Road b/c that was the closest car-accessible landmark. Then I called for a ride home because I was tired. It was a lot of walking, from my house past Dad's and onto the ATV trail and out past Snowfield and then back and then cross-fucking-country to the turnpike overpass.
Anyway, our intrepid trail riders should head RIGHT on the ATV trail to Big Fill (which is invisible -- I'm going to wind up out "fact-finding" again tomorrow after work... but I'm going to stash a car out on Oregon Road so that I don't have to walk so fucking far to *get* to the scouting portion of the program) and take it across the creek with water for horses. Go up hill to old turnpike (needs to be checked to make sure these transitions are HORSE OK) and then up onto Oregon Road and then up onto Woodridge (which is another alleged trail that will have to be scouted). Make RIGHT onto Woodridge, follow until it crosses Red Bank. Make RIGHT onto Red Bank, go down to Oregon Road, make RIGHT, follow it home. My maps (ATV trail map, USGS map, JB State Forest Use Map) do not agree as to the location and/or navigability of these alleged trails so there is going to be hiking. *sigh*
Anyway, assuming it exists, it's a nice loop. There's no backtracking. It has water available at several points. It's not made entirely of shitty footing. (I'm in the mountains of PA. Shitty footing comes with the territory.) We could do worse. A lot worse.
Additional Scouting:
1. Up to the left on the ATV trail and then out Fisher to Snowfield. Down Snowfield. Come back on bottom-valley ATV trail (already walked but mostly level and should go quickly) and look for the alleged Big Fill trail that was not visible last time. This requires walking up and then down the fucking mountain and none of it is car-accessible for better hallway vision. Bugger. It is a *lot* of walking and a lot of *exercise-ish* walking. Priority Three because I'm pretty solid on everything except the downhill portion of Snowfield and the existence of Big Fill. Also because walking up the mountain is a hell of a lot like work.
2. Drive down Oregon Road, locate Big Fill and follow uphill to Woodridge Road. Walk length of Woodridge Road to Red Bank, walk back on Oregon Road to car (this part should be downhill), drive home. About two miles of walking, with significant uphill component but not an entire mountain. Priority Two.
3. Drive down Oregon Road, locate Big FIll trail (again) and go down it from Oregon to cross Pike to ATV trail, see if it is (a) real and (b) passable for horses and (c) connects to ATV trail as advertised. If so, mark ATV end with survey tape so that it isn't missing next time. Walk back uphill to car. Drive home. Couple of miles, if things go well. This is Priority One for additional scouting because if this isn't workable, I need to know now so that I can re-route.
4. Walk up hill from main road to Hull's road and then down to water tank road and then down to house. Ensure trail is passable for horses (may require a chainsaw in parts. As this is privately owned, it is OK to chainsaw it.) Priority Four. Trail exists and is fairly easy to follow. It's not invisible or anything.
Heck, at least I'll be *home* on Sunday. So, today, I went out route planning. I am not a big fan of bushwhacking with a slew of 4-H'ers in tow, so the route needs to be planned and pre-walked (which means lots o' walking for me, because they would like about ten miles of trail ride, here) to ensure lack of surprises. There exist people in this world for whom pre-planning ruins things, but I am not one of them.
The proposed route (which is not going to make sense to very many people besides me but might be somewhat illuminated by this PDF map ) is as follows:
From the football field (which is not used for football) we will head out the road past the burn pile and up the hill, cross the main road and continue rightward up the mountain to the joining with Hull's road (Hull doesn't live there anymore, Cooney does.) whereupon we shall turn RIGHT (DOWNHILL) towards the water tank road. At the water tank road, we will make a LEFT and go on the water tank road until the turn to go down past the water tank. We will make a RIGHT onto the road down past the water tank. It's not very road-like but this is a trail ride. It's more of a trail than a road. It goes to the road that is Hull's Road (again, but a new point on the road, so it looks fresh). At Hull's Road (revisited), we make a LEFT and ride past my house to the main road where we will make a RIGHT on the main road and go back past the Lodge and around to the other side of the lake (with lake scenery) to cross the creek with water for horses and go up the trail to the ATV trail without any bushwhacking. (This adds some distance on damn good footing and also allows us to dump anyone who is whining or has a lame horse or whatever because we'll be going right past where we started at, with minimal trail overlapping, having done two miles to get all the kinks and whiners out.) For those playing along with the PDF map, we are now between #14 and #15 on the map, right where the pointy bit touches the white private property. The road for 14 and 15 is the ATV trail.
On the ATV trail, we make a LEFT and head up hill to Fisher Road. At Fisher Road, we bear RIGHT because the other direction is all Deer Exclusion Fence and it's nasty stuff. Go on Fisher Road until you hit Snowfield Trail (with nice signs) and make a RIGHT down Snowfield (I am going to have to hike this fucking thing to make sure it's OK. It's precipitously steep but doable.) go downhill (a lot) until you hit the ATV trail at the valley floor. Allegedly this thing then has Big Fill going off to the left, but I walked out the valley floor this evening going the other direction and I didn't see any damn Big Fill Trail. Didn't. Was Looking. Was. In-Vis-O-Trail, I say.
I gave up and went bushwhacking across the valley floor from the intersection of "Snowfield" and "Big Fill" according to the neatly-placed sign. There was no trail downhill except that which ran into private property right soon. (It had been timbered, was grown up in sedges and crap so that it was a deathtrap of a thing. I was probably trespassing for parts of the bushwhacking. I saw a couple of state forest blazes so maybe I was too close to the edge of the forest, am not sure what the dealio was. Anyway, it was fucking exhausting.) I went across the creek (Oregon Run -- I walked across a downed tree. Yes, I balance well enough to do this. Even at my age.) whereupon I saw a lovely road (probably the one shown connecting to "Big Fill Trail" that I couldn't fucking well find.) that was not going in a direction I wanted to go (with no sign, natch) so I crossed it and went up to the old turnpike, made a left, and walked to the overpass for Oregon Road b/c that was the closest car-accessible landmark. Then I called for a ride home because I was tired. It was a lot of walking, from my house past Dad's and onto the ATV trail and out past Snowfield and then back and then cross-fucking-country to the turnpike overpass.
Anyway, our intrepid trail riders should head RIGHT on the ATV trail to Big Fill (which is invisible -- I'm going to wind up out "fact-finding" again tomorrow after work... but I'm going to stash a car out on Oregon Road so that I don't have to walk so fucking far to *get* to the scouting portion of the program) and take it across the creek with water for horses. Go up hill to old turnpike (needs to be checked to make sure these transitions are HORSE OK) and then up onto Oregon Road and then up onto Woodridge (which is another alleged trail that will have to be scouted). Make RIGHT onto Woodridge, follow until it crosses Red Bank. Make RIGHT onto Red Bank, go down to Oregon Road, make RIGHT, follow it home. My maps (ATV trail map, USGS map, JB State Forest Use Map) do not agree as to the location and/or navigability of these alleged trails so there is going to be hiking. *sigh*
Anyway, assuming it exists, it's a nice loop. There's no backtracking. It has water available at several points. It's not made entirely of shitty footing. (I'm in the mountains of PA. Shitty footing comes with the territory.) We could do worse. A lot worse.
Additional Scouting:
1. Up to the left on the ATV trail and then out Fisher to Snowfield. Down Snowfield. Come back on bottom-valley ATV trail (already walked but mostly level and should go quickly) and look for the alleged Big Fill trail that was not visible last time. This requires walking up and then down the fucking mountain and none of it is car-accessible for better hallway vision. Bugger. It is a *lot* of walking and a lot of *exercise-ish* walking. Priority Three because I'm pretty solid on everything except the downhill portion of Snowfield and the existence of Big Fill. Also because walking up the mountain is a hell of a lot like work.
2. Drive down Oregon Road, locate Big Fill and follow uphill to Woodridge Road. Walk length of Woodridge Road to Red Bank, walk back on Oregon Road to car (this part should be downhill), drive home. About two miles of walking, with significant uphill component but not an entire mountain. Priority Two.
3. Drive down Oregon Road, locate Big FIll trail (again) and go down it from Oregon to cross Pike to ATV trail, see if it is (a) real and (b) passable for horses and (c) connects to ATV trail as advertised. If so, mark ATV end with survey tape so that it isn't missing next time. Walk back uphill to car. Drive home. Couple of miles, if things go well. This is Priority One for additional scouting because if this isn't workable, I need to know now so that I can re-route.
4. Walk up hill from main road to Hull's road and then down to water tank road and then down to house. Ensure trail is passable for horses (may require a chainsaw in parts. As this is privately owned, it is OK to chainsaw it.) Priority Four. Trail exists and is fairly easy to follow. It's not invisible or anything.
