Candy and I have always wanted to take the horses camping, and the weekend of October 3rd was the weekend our dreams came true. Candy organized a weekend retreat for women & their horses!
Neither one of us wanted to tether our mares all night at the campsite, so we both hauled panels to make pens. Candy some had some brackets welded on her trailer so she could attach the panels to the side. Everyone was jealous they want a set on their trailers too!
We arrived at the Piney Creek Horse Camp around 11a and set up camp really fast so we could hit the trails. There are 54 miles of horse trails in the Davey Crockett National Forest. The woods were so beautiful, and we saw lots of deer. We had ridden 2 hours when the weather started to turn south; when we checked our map we realized we weren’t even half way along the orange trail. That’s when we made the decision to turn back. As soon as we did it started raining on us. For the most part, the forest kept the rain off us, but we still looked like drowned rats when we got back to camp. All in all we spent about four hours trail riding with some pretty amazing scenery and covered approximately 12 miles.
At the horse camp there was a small pavilion, which we had all to ourselves seeing as we were the only ones to brave the weather. Candy brought old smokey and we had hamburgers for dinner. Sheila brought out her fire pit so we could warm ourselves by the fire, and of course, make s’mores. We had our bible lesson & spent the rest of the evening enjoying good company.
When it came time to hit the sack Candy hung her hammock from the pavilion rafters, but Marissa had to help her in that night & Heidi had to unzip her & let her out in the morning!
I was the only one that actually set up a tent, in the rain I might add. I guess some of my husband’s boy scout training rubbed off on me because I managed to set it up without it leaking. It was nice to fall asleep to the sound of the rain on my tent.
Sunday we were up bright and early for breakfast & bible study. We had planned a second trail ride for Sunday, but after checking the weather radar and finding a huge storm heading our way we decided to break camp and head for home.
