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.
Stunning is barely accurate to describe those views!
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