Folks I have not disappeared or fell off the face of the earth!!!!! I work as a camp host/guide/keep the trails open and a Leave No Trace educator in the summer, for the US Forrest Service. It is more a Volunteer Type Job… But it is in the Virginia Mountains and I get to do all the things I LOVE!!!! So the opportunity came a bit late this year and I will only be there a few more weeks… So bare with me I have so much to tell!!!! It will take MONTHS!!! I will be home after Labor Day Week!
In the mean time, I have been riding my horse daily! His name is Tuff!!! I LOVE HIM!!!!! I still have TEXAS but he has kinda got too old for this kind of riding…Too hard for him….Tuff is Skipper W breding and is a Paint Horse.
It happened like this….
I went in June to teach a Leave No Trace Front Country Trainer Course for The Iron Mountain Back Country Horsemen’s Assocation….
The idea was I would arrive a day early and ride the trails to help identify the areas that the folk need to work on. (PLUS I would get to ride in an area I had not ridden in with folk that knew it like the back of their hand!) WIN WIN!!!
Threw my saddle on my new horse “Goodnight” (after Charlie Goodnight) and rode round a bit and then I felt the horse bowing up under me… Hum… was not going to be a rodeo act for the locals! So I quickly dismounted told Goodnight “they make glue out of horses that buck!” (Clearly he has believed me!) and got Tuff out of the pen! I had NEVER ridden Tuff and only sat on him twice in my life! But I knew he’d ride! Off we went for 5 hours and a real good time! And I have ridden him daily since! He never missed a beat or step! Les lost him to me! He is MINE NOW!!!!! Turns out Goodnight is fine too!!! But not for me!
I will be fencing tomorrow and then back to the mountains!!!!
More to follow!!!! about grouse, black bear, deer, camping, cat holes, PLAN AND PREPARE!!! And the beauty of The Mount Rogers National Recreation Area!!!!!
