I've been tempted to stop when I see people driving out of the gate from their ranch and ask permission to ride but have never been brave enough to do it yet...I'd love to hear from someone who has, too before I dive off and do it : ) There are several huge ranches with great hills just down the road from my house but no names on the mailboxes and short of contacting a local realtor to see if they'll look them up on tax records I don't know how to get in touch with the mystery people that live on the hill.
Suzi and Holly who wants to go play on them thar hills...
----- Original Message -----
From: Tina Hicks
Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2004 3:49 PM
To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [RC] off the beaten path
As I was driving home yesterday I, once again, drooled over the power line trail at the end of the neighborhood. It goes straight up a mountain that would just do a horse's heart good :). Conveniently, there's a church with a big parking lot right at the base of it. The easement to the trail goes behind 3 or 4 houses before it hits the mountain. Almost everyday I think "wonder if they'd let me park in the parking lot so I could ride that mountain" which is almost always followed by "wonder what would happen to me if I just parked there and rode up that mountain" :)
And that made me think about other ridecampers and what means you've gone to in order to get a good ride in. I don't mean anything as mundane as riding around some traffic <g> - I think most of us have to suffer through that. I'm wondering about parking in parking lots in a populated area to get to power line (or other) trails, riding through neighborhoods to get to the riding behind it, etc....
If you have access to millions of miles of trail from your backyard, I don't want to hear from you :).
Tina Hicks tina@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
============================================================ The very essence of our sport is doing the trail as quickly as practicable, while keeping one's horse fit to continue. Taking the clock out of the equation makes it another sport altogether. The challenge is how to keep the sport what it is while honing our skills (both as riders and as those in control roles) in detecting where "the edge" is for each horse so that we don't cross it. ~ Heidi Smith ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/
