Sunday before Thanksgiving

Another beautiful Sunday, I got up earlier than usual, fed the gang out back and headed to the grocery. Got gasoline and coffee, too. I was back by 8. I can't get over how nice the weather has been, for November. September was a lousy month; rained almost every single day. November is trying to make up for September's shortcomings.

After breakfast we headed out to Elton Farm Road, a trail head to the Patuxent River State Park. This park also borders our own place, but we like starting out at different trail heads. We hadn't been there in well over two years, maybe three.

Elton Farm Road is off of Howard Chapel Road. It not only dead ends, the roadway diminishes into a rutted single gravel lane. There are horse farms and McMansions, an old Manse and bungalows from the 30's on these roads. A few are for sale, too. The same run of power lines goes through here.

We passed no one on these roads but when we got to the end of the lane the parking lot was full, no horse trailers. There were field trials for Search & Rescue dog teams, even the police with their K-9s were there. We did see other riders, and several mules, but no riders parked at this trail head.

While we were tacking up at the trailer a large group of riders came near. They also had a dog with them. The dog came over for a visit. Several of the riders were on Mules. We were surprised by the number of Mules in the group. For some reason Skip thought KC had joined the group and proceeded to have a melt-down. He tried to break his halter, which he's been known to do at will. He also treated Tom like a marionette. Skip was vibrating and calling out. I dragged KC over to the trailer door and Skip immediately calmed down, exhaling loudly. Tom got a little skinned up while being air-lifted by Skip.

We saw an eight-point buck, several woodpeckers, and flocking bluebirds in the bean field. The buck was so top heavy he ran from us with his head way down so his crown wouldn't get stuck in the brush. The doe he was with ran straight away with her head held high. The corn is in but the soy beans are still in the fields. There are few leaves left on any of the trees.

One of the Horsey Clubs that we belong to recently had an organized ride on these trails. We did not participate but figured the trails would be in good shape, wide open with minimal trees down. We were mostly right and had a great ride. We both brought clippers and hand-saws and did some minimal trail clearing and moving of dead wood off the trails. We saw evidence of Beaver damage, too.

We ended up criss-crossing trails we'd previously been on years ago and discovering new single track trails, open meadows and crop fields.

While we were getting them ready to get on the trailer I noticed a tick crawling on Skip's leg. Turns out he had 45 ticks on him. KC had some, but not like Skip. Plus he had thorns imbedded on his face and nose. Ouch.

The rain held off until we were in the truck heading back down Elton Farm Road. Perfect timing.