Horton Trail

Making a routine of blogging again is challenging! I've several draft posts just sitting. Writing has been further complicated by the fact that for whatever reason, the blogger post composition page kills my browser frequently. And most recently, it ate this entire blog post after I had written it. All I needed to do was add the photos. So I'm going to make one attempt to write it again and get it uploaded. I really want to be back in this habit, but technology is fighting me.

 

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Last month, I made good on my goal to explore the Seneca-Spruce Knob backcountry more on horseback this year. While not as dramatic of a landscape as the Dolly Sods wilderness area, this backcountry is only 25 minutes from my house to the closest trailhead, is less busy, and has much less technical terrain. In Dolly Sods, there are only a handful of trails/trail segments that are safe for horses. The Seneca-Spruce Knob backcountry area, conversely, only has two trail segments that aren’t safe for horses - one had a fatality as recent as last summer!

   

Horton trail is the first trailhead I reach on my way into this area. I had heard from local equestrians that this section was passable for horses, but wanted to check it out myself. The verdict? It’s narrow single track cut into the hillside that follows the stream (crossing it 8 times) as it climbs up to the ridgeline over 2.4 miles. Not bad at all! 

At the ridgeline, Horton crosses Allegheny Mtn trail before descending another mile down to Seneca Creek. This mile-long section of Horton between Allegheny Mtn and Seneca Creek is Not Horse Friendly. However, the remaining 4+ miles of Horton on the other side of Seneca Creek are just fine; I rode them last year with my local BCHA chapter.

   

My goal on this day was to head up Horton and ride along Allegheny Mtn trail until I reached the junction with Swallow Rock trail, as Swallow Rock is the next-closest trailhead I will frequently use. 

Q, Taiga, Gidget, and I traveled up Horton without any fanfare. Q was relaxed and forward. Intermittently, she’d ask to trot. However, because there are random flat dinner-plate rocks embedded in the trail and it was a damp day following a lot of rainfall that week, I kept her to a walk to reduce the likelihood of slipping on a random rock. 

Once we reached the ridge, we turned right onto Allegheny Mtn trail. It’s a gorgeous, grassy trail that extends for a total of 13 miles. I haven’t ridden all of it, but every section I have ridden looks the same.

 

Allegheny Mtn trail was blissful, and once again without any fanfare. Q thought she might like to ask to turn around and head home a few times, but she didn’t try very hard. All in all, we traveled approximately 3 miles on this trail before we reached the Swallow Rock junction and turned for home, retracing our steps all the way back to the trailer. When it was all said and done, we traveled 11.5 miles over 3+ hours. It was peaceful and uneventful and the dogs were happily tuckered afterward.

   

Things I’d change if I did this ride again: 

1. 1. Go on a drier day: while the rocks weren’t huge and the consequence of falling wasn’t anything extra (no drops, cliffs, etc.), it’d give me more ease of mind to travel on a day when there was more friction and less chance of gravity having its way with me. 
2. 2.  Choose a time when the nettles aren’t up or are past stinging or have been cut back: I’ve ridden through patches of nettles many, many times through the years. Never have I noticed my horses have any care about them. Horton has about 1.3 miles of nettles though. When Q asked to trot on the ascent, I thought she was just eager to go down the trail - uncommon, but something she has and will do. However, when she did it on the descent, I realized it was because she was very bothered by the nettles! Ugh! Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to be done about it other than just powering through. I let her pause in each creek crossing for a good scratch (nettles make me itch something fierce) and we marched powerfully toward the trailer. Once we were out of the nettles, she had another long scratch and settled. By the time we reached the trailer (where she was stuffed with treats and grain), she was totally relaxed and fine. Not the best thing to have happened, but certainly not the worst either! Lesson very much learned.