Autumn Ride through the Valley and Sods

A week after our Spruce Knob ride, I rendezvoused with Chris and Ivan again to enjoy one of the top three most gorgeous rides I've ever had the pleasure of doing. We headed up the center of Canaan Valley, climbed Cabin Mountain into the Sods, and then did a loop up there before returning the way we came. Q and Ivan were outstanding for the whole ride. The colors were beyond gorgeous. I feel SO lucky to call this place home!

From the very start, the trees were amazing. Chris and I were absolutely beside ourselves with the gift of this day, the colors, and this place we call home.

Just LOOK at all of the color on Cabin Mountain! That slope is northeast facing and so the colors were not quite as far along as the rest of the valley (which was mostly fiery tones by this point) making it damn near PERFECT in my opinion. I like a variety and diversity of autumn tones.

You can see the golds/oranges of the trees on the valley floor more here. 

Looking down into Canaan Valley as we crest above the treeline into Dolly Sods.

Ivan with his happy ears on near the end of our climb.

By this point we'd already crossed paths with 4 hikers and 2 dogs. A lot for a Friday morning. 

We would go on to pass somewhere around 40 hikers. It was nuts. The overuse of the area is becoming a bigger issue by the day. I hope we can come up with some feasible solutions to protect and share this resource in coming years.

Rocks become more prominent as we enter the Sods. Part of this is natural and normal for the change in topography, but a lot of the reason so many rocks are exposed like this in the Sods is due to long-burning fires that smoldered down into the humus until heavy snows snuffed them out. These fires were started from burning cinders from trains that carried the timber out of the area back when the state was heavily timbered in the early 1900s.

And thus the rocky terrain really begins! Worth noting that for this 16.5 ride Q was totally barefoot! Her kickass hooves continue to kick ass!...and rocks.

Looking into Canaan Valley. It was so orange and beautiful! Also, just left of center, dipping just below the horizon line is that wee little flat ridge that I and the horses live on top of! The Sods are ~4200' and my house/farm are ~3700'.

Signage marking the wildlife refuge boundary.

Looking into the Sods where it slopes down into the valley.

Fire tones coating the valley floor.

Absolutely in awe of where we live.

Doodle mostly stayed in second position for this ride, letting Ivan grow and learn in the front position. 

Beaver ponds and the headwaters of Red Creek. 

We would head down into this general area as the next part of our ride. We even stopped and had lunch before continuing back up out of these lower areas.

Climbing out of where the Red Creek headwaters accumulate, we went through an absolute tunnel of gold and orange beech trees.

The flaming red along the ground is all blueberry/huckleberry.

And lots of cottongrass blooms! Cottongrass is a wetland obligate species. When you're foraging for cranberries, looking for cottongrass is a great way to find the low lying water-loving cranberry plants. We have TONS of wild cranberries around here. Every other Christmas, I will pick cranberries and make a savory cranberry chutney for Christmas gifts. (On the years I don't do this, Dave makes Italian meat/cheese pies from scratch to share instead.)

Flagged spruce (due to wind), mountain laurel, blueberries, cottongrass, and (hidden) cranberries!

The only "staged" photos I did the whole ride. It was too damn gorgeous not to. 

Chris and I can both "see" our houses/farms from here!

Ivan was totally over our BS by this point lol. 

Qdle, eyes closed, also completely over my BS by this point.

A very epic Chris and Ivan. 

This horse has such a wonderful brain. I love it.

PINCH ME I CANNOT BELIEVE I GET TO CALL THIS  BEAUTIFUL PLACE HOME.

I hope you've enjoyed your virtual tour of our beautiful ride!

Spruce Knob Ride

I've really been making the most of autumn this year. To kick off October, I joined a local friend heading out for an overnight horse camping trip to Spruce Knob. He's got a new horse and wanted to get a bit of camping in before heading to Fort Valley later in the month. 

We ended up only riding one day because Ivan was a little sore the morning after (due to a bite on his loin from a herdmate prior to the trip). Even with one day of riding, it was still a great trip. I was pleased to learn that Grif has matured to the point where he doesn't insist on screaming incessantly throughout the entire night! The only time he was really vocal was when Ivan would be out of eye sight (getting tacked up) and when trailers of cattle passed by camp (Grif, they're cows, not your friends). 

From camp, we had to trek down the road 1-2 miles to get to trail heads that I preferred. There was a closer one, but that trail is in such a sorry state that I did not want the horses on it. 

It was a nice way to warmup, though slightly frustrating with the amount of traffic due to the foliage. 

This is where we wanted to cross originally, but the boys were not having it. So we went upstream another mile to begin our ride and crossed here at the end of the day. 

Taiga was the happiest little adventure husky on this day and was SO GOOD. I'm so proud of this little dog for being as awesome as she is in the backcountry.

A section of the Allegheny Trail. It didn't used to be as wet as it is now. Chris and I spent a fair bit of our time on this trail postulating as to why it has changed so much. The best hypothesis we could agree on is that the invasion of Microstegium (Japanese stiltgrass) along the trail (old road in this section) has affected the way the sheet flow water is absorbed. Microstegium roots aren't nearly as deep as native vegetation so water pools more.

A dirty Griffleby after slipping unceremoniously sideways into a muddy section of creek where the footing was tricky. He was so hyper focused on his front feet that he forgot his hinds. It didn't hurt him and didn't hurt me, but was a great learning moment for Grif about how to navigate tricky footing! Also, I moved my sheepskin accoutrements from my Abetta to the Ultralight. Super cushy!

Somewhere along Big Run trail, I believe.

The colors were pretty, but not quite peaking yet.

Would have been nice to catch the goldenrod in bloom...

The start of our descent was a bit tricky and quite steep. As Ivan is only 6, Chris opted to lead him down the majority of it to help him out. 

Grif was pretty content to follow.

Once the terrain evened out, Chris found a log to remount and we continued onward.

The foliage above us was poppin'!

We went downhill for a solid mile or more.

Skeptical ears as we paused to wait for Chris and Ivan.

And back on the road to camp! We ended up tackling 14.25 miles over 5 hours climbing ~7500 feet.

My tent and camp the next morning. The boys were hi-tied to the left of this image. And yeah, that's frost on the vegetation. My tent was absolutely shellacked in ice. 

I loved the orange foliage that lit up behind these conifers.

The Rest of September

It's been a busy few weeks. Autumn always seems to be that way when you're a photographer though! In an effort to continue documenting this ridiculous year, I'm going to work to bring the blog up to date over the next week or so. Buckle up for a lot of photo-heavy posts!

Smoke from the western fires made its way east and gave us Apocalyptic Lite skies (in comparison to our western friends). Peep the sun on the left...

I painted a random chevron design on the back of my trailer to help attempt to draw attention so people maybe (probably not) won't tailgate as badly. 

I took Q (and Kenai) and headed a little west to Salt Fork Lake in Ohio for a solo weekend adventure. It was perfect. The haul was the most relaxing I've ever done, Kenai was psyched to be out, and I didn't have to stop outside of my home except one time to get gas. Very COVID-friendly venture!

I also bought a new saddle - a Specialized Ultralight. I've been coveting a Specialized saddle for nearly 7 years. I got a stupid good deal on this one and am so very pleased!

The single track trails at Salt Fork were pretty sweet! 

Smiles for the first of three rides over my two day visit.

Ample time spent along lake shores...

This was our second ride, the first on Saturday. Q was not having it at this point.

Forward, but skeptical.

Happy little girl as the day trended onward. We rode two 11 mile loops on Saturday and a 7 mile loop on Friday eve after arriving.

Gotta include a rider selfie.

Their goldenrod was just getting started.

Random pine forest at the start/end of our final 11-mile loop.

My cushy car camping setup. Complete with a queen sized air mattress and down comforter inside. Kenai LOVED it.

The cutest old man.

Doodle with her buffet at the end of all our riding. She's still the quietest, easiest horse to camp with.

Staring at Taiga in the yard.

It made for nice photos even in the low light. She rarely poses for photos so I have to take what I can get.

A year after moving in, Grif was the first horse to have shoes put on in the new barn!

Dave even made a rare visit to say hey to Dan. Arya "rode" Griffin for the first time. One day, if I can get media, I'll need to share a post about Griffin and "his" cats. Arya especially. She'll weave and rub on all of his legs, sometimes getting excited and grabbing his leg with her front paws like she's going to climb. For a horse with a history of trying to stomp small animals, it's amazing how gentle he is with them. He is definitely a cat guy....which explains so much about his personality lol

We went with the EasyShoe Versa - my an Dan's first experience with a composite shoe. So far, I'm LOVING them. I'll definitely be putting Q and Grif in these in the future for the times of year we're riding heavily. Stan...maybe. He doesn't hold shoes as well as the other two and these little moonboots are a bit expensive to put on a horse who's notorious for casually losing shoes on the reg.

A crooked but relaxed Griffleby while Dan finishes.

Miss Austen stopped through for a brief visit. We made a point of heading in to Dolly Sods for her first horseback venture.

Doodle pausing to sniff some cotton grass blooms.

Grif was a pretty good guy! He's getting a lot better at navigating rough trails.

The color was starting to peak in the Sods at this time.

Can you spy the three huskies?

Two huskies hidden in this shot...

Rocky Ridge - see the tiny flat knob rising from the center of the valley right of center? Starlight Lane Farm resides on the top of that landform!

Riddle Diddle being a little creeper in the bottom of the photo.

Where Canaan Valley and Dolly Sods meet.

Of course I had to take what has quickly become a "classic Sods/Canaan" photo of Austen cantering Q along the edge of the valley.

Get after it, Qdle!

Simply the best.

Q wasn't sure about playing this "game" again, but she acquiesced for Austen.

Gotta get the arms out photo!

Shot of the Versas.

Taiga made another friend from the Itty Bitty Pittie Committee. Maisey isn't quite as small as Alli's Della, but she's pretty damn close!

And then I ended the month spraining the ever-loving hell out of my ankle. I'm seriously surprised (and beyond grateful) that I didn't break it! This was about 36 hours after I tried to murder it.

The swelling remained for about 3 weeks and the colors were impressive.

There is usually a lot more definition where my leg meets my foot. In general, I've got pretty dainty little ankles. Not so much while this injury healed.

Not a fantastic way to end my month. But a month after it occurred, I'm happy to say that the bruising and swelling are now gone. My physical therapist has given me a range of exercises to help get me back to 100%.