The Highest Point

Despite a lifetime in West Virginia gallivanting through it's wild places on foot, horses, bikes, and skis, I have never combined my most favorite of those wild places - the boulder field atop Spruce Knob, the state's highest point - with horses. Last week, I finally did!

My friends Sonya and Jeanne were camping about 45 minutes away at Wrangler Meadow Horse Camp, so I loaded up Grif and met them there at 9 a.m. After unloading and tacking him up, we loaded all three horses onto a shuttle trailer for a short ride up the road to our starting point. (It’s possible to ride out from camp, but that route climbs steeply on trails littered with loose, rolly rock. Passable, yes - but on this day we opted for the luxury of a shuttle.)

From our drop off point, we headed up FS road 274 until it met with Huckleberry Trail, which then took us to the summit of Spruce Knob. All in all, it wasn't a very technical ride. There were a fair number of roots and some intermittent rocky sections, but compared to Dolly Sods riding it was a walk in the park. 

For me, the joy of the ride was traveling through an area I'd previously done only on foot. And I hadn't been on Huckleberry since 2007! Traveling through thick red spruce forest is such a delight for me. The sweet smell of the trees coupled with the quiet whisper of the gentle breeze through their boughs is one of my favorite things in the world. The mossy understory is ethereal, and the lack of crunchy leaves makes for a very quiet environment. It's easy to become lost in your daydreams in a place like that. (It also makes for a great night's sleep; one of the best night's of sleep of my entire life was along that trail in 2007.)

Huckleberry is a fairly well-traveled trail in the Spruce-Seneca backcountry area, second only to Seneca Creek for foot traffic, if I had to venture a guess. We saw a handful of people as we headed to the summit before running into a large multiple-family group about a ½-mile from the trail's end. 

The summit terminus of Huckleberry trail is at a parking lot where both hikers and those seeking only to visit the summit can park to enjoy the area. For those just looking to enjoy the view from West Virginia's highest point, there is a short, flat, gravel trail from part of the parking lot to a lookout tower. 

We emerged from the trail into the parking lot and immediately headed down the road for a ways before cutting up another trail to the boulder field. I'd never pondered riding a horse up that trail in all my years traveling it! 

The boulder field was a little busy (it was a weekend) with two other families. My dogs greeted both (and Gidget made quick friends with everyone - I have yet to meet someone who doesn't adore her) while the ladies and I dismounted. We snacked on lunch, snapped photos of the view, and generally enjoyed the incredible environment we are lucky to call home and ride to. All the while, the horses chowed down on the ample grass.

After 30 minutes or so in the boulder field, we remounted and retraced our steps all the way back to the shuttle drop off. At that point, we walked down the road a ½-mile or so to a point where we were able to take a "trail" to the horse camp. I put trail in quotations here because it was mostly just a flagged path through the woods all the way down the hill. Passable, but rugged due to the incline and unseen cobble rock beneath the fallen leaves. The horses handled it fine, but I was grateful we hadn't climbed up it!

Back at the camp, I untacked Grif and rinsed him off before tying him to the trailer with his hay for a bit while I chatted with Sonya and Jeanne. I didn't linger too long, however, because I wanted to head home before I got sleepy - plus I had evening horse chores to tend to!

It was a fantastic day. I'm so glad I finally made it to the boulder field on horseback! I will absolutely be doing it again, be it this fall or next spring. 

The Great Griffin Getaway

The next ride Grif and I enjoyed was a quick jaunt to the West Fork rail trail outside Glady. I park on a USFS road in a wide place I can turn the trailer around. It means I've got 0.6 miles of riding on the road to get to a connector trail to the rail trail, but I rarely see cars so it isn't a big deal. 

As with our other fall rides, the weather was perfect. Low humidity, lovely breeze, sun and clouds. The drought sucks for many reasons (and I'll be grateful for precipitation if/when we ever get it again), but the reliability of such stunning weather for riding is lovely. 

Grif and I set out from the trailer and made quick work of the road section. When we reached the connector trail, I turned on my audiobook and we walked along toward the rail trail. I took a moment to ponder how Grif would be with the small stream crossing, but didn't dwell on it much. I knew I could lead him over if he was having an I-hate-small-stream-crossings moment - something he does entirely too frequently for a trail horse with the miles and experience he has. 

Unfortunately for me, this was an I-hate-small-stream-crossings day for Grif. First, he eyed the bridge that he hates more than all bridges - a bridge we don't cross anymore due to it's slickness wet or dry. I don't wholly know if it was the presence of the bridge (about 15-feet from where we'd cross the stream) or something else entirely, but Grif plum refused to walk within 15-20 feet of the stream crossing. It was like an invisible forcefield propelled us away. Each time I'd ask him to walk forward, he'd hit the invisible barrier and spin around. I executed Kate Little's 4-second rule with my asks so he could think, but it didn't result in a different outcome. 

With exasperation, I dismounted. I unclipped his reins from the bit and clipped one end to his halter and took the other end and led him forward. I trudged into the water and Grif planted his feet firmly on the side of the creek. Cue more 4-second asks and nothing but firm "NO" answers from Grif. Around the third ask and tug on the rein, Grif did his signature head toss of defiance (always his go-to refusal move in ground work) and my reins broke. 

Cool.

Cool, cool, cool. 

Griffin and I shared a split second of staring at one another in disbelief before he whirled and trotted away from me. 

COOL. 

COOL, COOL, COOL.

I called the dogs to come with and swiftly set off after Griffin, calling him intermittently, but not trying too hard because I knew he wouldn't listen. 

Fortunately, he quit trotting after 200 feet or so and picked up a brisk walk. He maintained this bubble of distance from me as I trudged after him muttering under my breath and pondering how this was going to play out. 

Where the trail met the road, he paused for a moment and let me get within 8 feet of him before darting away at a trot again. -_-

At this point, all I could do was hope he had the wherewithal to stop at the trailer. The treats were in there! And that's where the saddle went to live so he could be done with "work"! And it was the magical vessel back to his friends!

I trudged along after Griffin - who was now a solid 500 feet or more ahead of me - continuing to mutter under my breath while I pondered how this would play out. The way I figured, if he didn't stop at the trailer, the dogs and I would hop in the truck and drive after him. Once we could get in front of him, I'd stop and jump out and hopefully catch him. If that failed, there were plenty of folks out enjoying the day in Glady and someone was bound to catch him for me. 

As we approached the trailer, Grif paused at another trailhead. This trail headed toward home, but would be quite the trek. It would also take him into a wilderness area. 

"Don't you dare you, asshole," I threatened him. 

He turned and continued down the road at a trot. And continued right on past my trailer. 

Motherf---er...

About this moment, a F150 pickup came down the road behind me. They saw this all unfold and came up beside me. It was two older gentlemen who had spent the morning fishing. 

"You wanna hop in the bed and we'll take you to him?" the driver asked me. 

I sighed, smiled, and told him, "That'd be great."

I dropped the tailgate, had Taiga jump up, and grabbed Gidget before plopping on the tailgate and signaling I was ready.

Off we went. As we passed my trailer, the driver sped up to 25-30mph. I couldn't see ahead, but his acceleration told me Griffin must have really boogied down the road! Asshole. 

About a half mile from my trailer, the truck slowed as it came alongside my now walking horse. As the truck came to a stop, I hopped off and grabbed Griffin. He seemed a little disappointed to see me, to be honest. 

I thanked the fishermen and wished them a good day before turning to lead Grif back down the road to the trailer. 

"You thought that'd get you out of work, but guess again, buddy! I've got more reins in the truck. We're still going to do 10 miles today," I told him as we walked. 

And that's exactly what we did. 

With the addition of a riding crop and two smart smacks at the stream crossing on our way to the rail trail, it was a complete nonissue the second time. The rest of our ride on the rail trail was completely (and blessedly) uneventful, and the crossing on the return was a nonissue, as well. 

All in all, we did 10.5 miles - including the miles we were separated. It ended up being a really good day, and I'm really glad I didn't let the beginning of the outing deter me from making the most of another beautiful fall day. 

Griffin Steps Up to the Plate

With Q out of commission for the remainder of the year, I quickly pivoted to getting miles in on the geldings. Thank goodness for three horses!

However, I was swiftly thwarted by Stanley's feet. 

See, I had planned to glue fronts on both boys for the autumn. But Stan has decided he'd rather grow a different hoof now than he had when I measured him earlier in 2025 for shoes. Which, honestly? Fine. Good for you, Stan. It's a better hoof than it was before. I'll take that. Unfortunately, said "better hoof" means he doesn't currently fit in the shoes nor in any of my boots. Womp womp. 

Knowing that I'm only going to bust out miles in the next 3-4 weeks before the days get darkest and the weather [probably] turns wetter and colder, I opted to not buy new boots or shoes for Stan. If his feet are transitioning, we'll just wait for spring to commit dollars to something that will work for him. Spending money on something for only a few weeks just seems silly. 

And thus, Griffin became the first string horse for all my autumn miles!

Who, me?!

I glued fronts on Grif on the 6th and then glued hinds - the shoes that were originally for Stan - on the 11th. A perfect fit. 

The shoeing process went super smoothly each time. I've really got my process down for these  - and that feels so good! The "work" phase of prepping the hoof and getting the shoe prepped, applying glue, and wrapping immediately after glue application takes me about 30 minutes for two shoes. After that, it takes another 30 minutes to "finish", but this period doesn't involve any hard work. I wait 15 minutes or so for the acrylic glue to set, then remove the plastic and seal the acrylic glue areas with super glue and wait another 10 minutes or so for that to dry. 

I've always booted Grif, but it wasn't until my first ride on him with four shoes that I realized how much this horse really prefers to be shod all the way round vs in boots. The shoes give him more protection and comfort than boots can and he is So Much Happier. We were both absolutely giddy with excitement about it our first ride. I will 100% be glueing shoes all the way 'round on him next year. 

Ready to rock and roll

Our first ride out was to the Seneca Creek backcountry with Sonya. I planned a casual 10.8 miles for us, but included trails neither of us had been on much - if ever. 

Per the usual, we parked at Johnny Meadows and took Swallow Rock trail up to Allegheny Mtn trail to access the other trails. On this day, we did a little lollipop loop from Allegheny → Leading Ridge → North Prong → Allegheny and then back down Swallow Rock to our starting point. 

It. Was. LOVELY! After Swallow Rock, everything else was lovely grass/loam footing. Wide trails that you could really move out on. We didn't on this day because Sonya's mare is out of shape, but I will 100% be going back to enjoy some zoomy rides up here. 

Bonus, we didn't see a single human! AND the high mountain meadow openings were absolutely gorgeous. Landscapes like those are some of my absolutely favorite in all of West Virginia.

Questioning life

Up Swallow Rock

Leading Ridge

Leading Ridge

Leading Ridge

North Prong

North Prong - one of many high elevation meadows

Allegheny

A few days after the ride with Sonya, Grif and I headed to a USFS road closer to home for a solo ride. I've ridden this road before, but had turned around before really exploring the closed gate portion of it. On this day, with no time limit and no real expectation beyond enjoying some miles in the beautiful weather, we were able to explore all the way to the end of one of two gated sections of road. It was just a simple out and back, but was enjoyable all the same.

Grif was AWESOME. This was our first bigger ride really moving out in ages. I could tell he was really having fun. He was so eager to move forward down the trail and easily maintained a 6+ mph pace on everything except the steeper climbs (and "steeper climb" is generous because this entire route is really mild and chill). 

I was delighted to discover that the gated section of road was overgrown with grass making for super lovely footing. Griffin was also thrilled based on how much more he moved out for these miles! I found myself cruising along with a smile for most of this section because my horse was just so happy and content. It was also a delightfully pretty section with patches of spruce and hemlock and multiple headwater stream crossings. 

We reached a dead end of the road at exactly the 6 mile mark from the trailer at the 1-hour mark from our start. Because we'd have more climbing heading back, I didn't expect we'd complete the whole ride in 2 hours, but Grif surprised me and really moved out through bits of the return. All in all, we completed 12 miles in 2 hours and 2 minutes! Bravo, Grif!

Road ridin'

The grassy section that was new to us

Such a lovely day

Ample red spruce

I couldn’t be more grateful for Griffin stepping up this fall. While it’s never ideal to have plans derailed (the nature of horses, it seems), it’s been such a joy to have Grif feeling his best and loving the miles as much as I do. His enthusiasm has been infectious and has made these autumn rides extra special. With Q on the mend and Stan growing out his new kicks, I’m soaking up every good-weather mile we can snag before winter settles in. Stay tuned, I've got multiple rides sketched out to take Grif on in the coming week!