I saw When I woke up it was to the beautiful music of the river, the smell of the morning was on the mountain air! The trees were moving with a light breeze and the day promised to be hot and it kept that promise! Ask Abilene how hot it got! 91 degrees! With the sun bearing down on us when we were not in the woods!
We had our breakfast and started packing up our things.
We had a very nice Mule person with us “Dave” and he brought two nice mules one he rode a nice sorrel molly mule and Sarge a really nice dun mule. He used Sarge as the pack animal and I was glad he had him! Packing is an art and takes some doing! It is a fine thing to see it done correctly and a disaster when not! Dave knows the art! We all had some of our things on his mule I believe. It made saddling and riding our horses so much easier!
After we broke camp and cleaned up we left our site as close to undisturbed as we possibly could. I was very happy with everyone’s understanding and effort to achieve that. You had to look really close to see we had been there, and even then I doubt you would know we camped there! We Left No Trace! We took leaves and scattered back like natural where we had disturbed, we did not leave fire wood, and all our waste was disposed of properly!
We hit the trail for the 4 hour ride back and what a treat I was in for! This was a real trail “my kind” narrow and windy and crossed water, climbed and climbed, and had views! Did I mention narrow? I loved it! It was called Squirrel Gap Trail. We ended up on a ridge that had awesome views of the Pisgah National Forest. We passed rattle snake dens (no snakes out)! Thank you Lord! And on back towards the Wolf Ford Horse Camp we traveled.
I saw Pink Lady Slipper flowers! And Lots of ferns!
It was a very interesting fun ride with no excitement! The horses did good and we all learned about Leave No Trace!
I got to the trailer unpacked and loaded up and headed home!
On my way out of the Forest I saw beautiful waterfalls! (This area is known as the land of the waterfalls!) So many folk were along the side of the road having a picnic. There were fly fishermen in the streams fishing! I met bicyclists! There was a sliding rock where folk were having a great time! Families grandparents, children and grand children were stopped taking in the views, Lovers holding hands doing the same. My what a wonderful place with so many different uses ! How lucky we are to have such places available for our pleasure! Yes Blessed is what we are!
How in the world could we Not take care of such a wonderful natural place for the folks that come after us?
