Sunday, May 3, 2015

First Sunday in May

Beautiful, soft morning. A great weekend to camp out, but we're not. We're going riding!

Because there is an event at the horsey club we parked at McKeldin Park ($6) and tacked up in the horse trailer parking area. While there a woman pulled up with a Bay Paint. She dawdled for quite a bit so we thought she was waiting for someone to join her. Another truck and trailer came in; it was the Volunteer Mounted Patrol (VMP) and we'd seen them in the past. She has a palomino and he has a chestnut. Both are gaited.

The first rider didn't know them, so we took off. While coming upon the VMP trailer he was getting ready to fling horse manure. I interrupted his pitch.

We were starting out earlier than usual and closer than usual to our destination, so we opted for trails that we hadn't been on in years. The fork in the trail to the left is for foot traffic only. Horses have feet, right? We went right and it was a delightful path. We came upon a man with his young daughter. KC walked right up to them, even though they were now off the trail. They both petted him and the man thanked me for the opportunity. He had a European accent.

The man and his daughter didn't have any trouble keeping up with us, seeing them over and over on this switchbacked trail. We passed other riders, riders I know by name who were going the other way. When we crossed the river we saw the man and his daughter for the last time. They waved again and we were gone from their sight.

Heading up the trail from the river a deer stood up from their nap. If she had stayed down I would not have even seen her. And then there were two! We came up onto the pipeline and circled left from there so that we could see the progress of the farm on the park border. They've installed a new barn and clear-cut lots more of their forest for pasture. We continued on and ran into the VMPs, chatting with them for a short while, then following them for even shorter. Skip doesn't like gaited horses, and surely riding him at this point was like being on a paint-mixer, rough ride!

We stopped and allowed the VMP to get a good ways up the trail before we continued and we meandered around, taking trails we rarely have a chance to take, and decided to explore a little bit around the Fox Rock quarry. We headed left instead of right around this quarry and came upon the riders we
Fox Rock Quarry

saw earlier in the day in McKeldin Park and the VMPs. We did not intrude on their chat, but explored further out from there, looking for the other quarries. We did find a couple, but they are unnamed. He saw an otter that quickly dove for deeper water to escape our gaze. I kept hearing a rustling noise and thought it might be a deer or the otter, but couldn't see anything. Finally a snake came into view, sliding through the foliage and rock face.

We've seen lots of hikers, bikers and dogs. One biker said he didn't know what was expected of him, I told him technically he should yield to us but I invited him to pass and thanked him for asking first. We came across other bikers that had to give us the right of way because the trail was that slim and there was no where to pull off except straight down or up.

One of several smaller granite quarries near The Woodstock. A snake and an otter showed up for us there today (in two adjacent quarries) but did not sit still for a portrait!

A cast-off quarry stone, with chisel marks showing. The woods are full of big and small pieces of stone that has been sitting exactly were it originally landed, century and half ago. The granite that was quarried here was used in Baltimore, Annapolis, and DC for curbing, steps, along with brick work, and cobblestones.

After clearing the trail of downed tree debris and exploring we continued on to the Woodstock Inn. We ran into the rider on the Bay Paint who claimed to have ridden 15 miles so she was heading back. She alerted us to other park users that would be in the direction we were heading. He then thought he saw friends riding near the river so we hurried up to catch them. He was right!
Prince & Becky

We ran into our friends and joined them for lunch. They also were with two other riders from the barn where they now board and another friend that rides their third horse. While they were trying to get situated their third horse rubbed up against the hitching post and broke the stirrup leather and the strap and iron fell to the ground in the mulch. If I hadn't noticed that it would have been an hour and half later that it would have been noticed. And they didn't hitch up there, they moved their horses.

Because the leather strap was broken they called their barn manager and she came with a replacement to the Woodstock Inn with her dad and we all had lunch together. We shared horse training advice and strategy for helping their young Appaloosa with bikes and trains, which the park can have plenty of.

On the way back we passed a family group, the first on the trail was holding her nose. I could smell their laundered clothing and soap, so I didn't think she could have actually smelled us, the breeze going in the wrong direction for that. I did not stop and I made sure that KC kept walking, no visiting. Having parked at McKeldin instead of the horsey club we got back to the trailer sooner, finding that the other riders were gone. We arrived home more than an hour earlier than our usual time, he spent the extra time pressure washing the saddle blankets and girths. They needed it!

2 comments:

  1. Isn't it funny - what you can smell sometimes? I find it interesting that the family that you came upon had a scent of laundered clothes and soap.

    Sounds like a decent ride.

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  2. Thank you for stopping by to visit on my home turf! One of these days I will get a third horse and invite you for a ride. Bring your camera!

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