Stewart and I went on a nice Ride Saturday. We were supposed to meet up with Jim Blanks and Zane Britton….We had a malfunction of the GPS and Dorothy took us into a dead end gravel road where we had a heck of a time turning Stewarts gooseneck trailer around in a small fishing trailer parking lot. The lot was access to abeautiful lake but it was steep and small….we finally got turned around and got out but all confidence in Dorthy was gone….We finally found an equestrian parking lot with a picnic shelter and corral and we stopped there….Blanks and Zane were in a different part of the park and when we talked to them all agreed to just ride out and perhaps we would meet on the trail….

Stewart took my camera and took a couple of photos of the suffering that Perkins must endure. One is a good photo of Perkins and one is a better photo of me…..

this is a shot of one of the trails….this park evidently gets less use than many we ride at….which appealed to me…Holiday Lake State Park is located within the Appomattox Buckingham State Forest….my analysis is the park has better trails but the forest has more trails….but sometimes the trails in the forest become a gravel road. In fact one ended on a paved road with no signage. Fortunately my GPS pointed the direction back to the parking lot and there were good wide grassy shoulders to ride along the road.

Perkins and Loretta always take turns leading….When Loretta leads she walks out but when Perkins leads she just ambles along behind him….Loretta still admires Perkins and nickers for him when ever he is out of sight….turn them loose and they walk around side by side….I think Perkins likes Loretta better than old bossy back home too…(Star Baby)

Another shot of the trails

In the state forest there are all kinds of tree management….these were some very tall pines we rode along beside….

Stewart and Loretta

Stewart and Loretta leading out…

my GPS map of the area we rode….11.3 miles most of it beautiful but one pretty good stretch of gravelled logging road….and we had not put the boots on so the ponies had to go slow and we tried to put them off the road as much as possible……all in all we want to go back….it is a little more than a two hour haul and a little long for a day trip. But now that we have been there we found a better way in than that lying Dorothy took us..does not seem to be any equine camping down there but we think we have a plan for that. Something like thirty miles of trails all together including one all the way around holiday lake which we have not been on yet….