The first weekend of June, 2007 I went to a place called Fire's Creek in the very western corner of NC near Murphy. It took me 7 1/2 hours to drive home! I stayed at a friend’s place (THANKS Dr. Jim!) the night I left and finished the drive the next morning.
The directions were ok but the road signs were really bad! I turned on to the wrong Forest Road, which ended a mile down a one-lane gravel road. There was no place to even think about turning my 24 foot trailer around!
First I wanted to cry, then I was wondering if I could get a Ranger to help, then I thought about setting up camp and riding my mule to find help! But decided I wanted out now so, I had to start backing! I backed a long way and the road started going back down a little hill. The trailer would slide about 2-3 feet down the gravel hill each time I hit the breaks! That was scary because at the bottom of the hill and around a corner was a little bridge that I had just barely driven over going forward! Somehow I made it across the bridge and also made another sharp turn to the right!
Once I got most of the way backed out of the road I found place to pull in and try to turn around. I backed on to the second bridge and took a hard turn to the left. Put the trailer in a ditch but I made the turn. The truck could not get the trailer out of the ditch. I had to take poor Seven out of the trailer and walk him down the road and tie him to a tree.
(I wonder what he was thinking about all this!)
I was able to pull back and forward about twenty times to get the trailer moved over onto the road. Then I walked down to rescue Seven, who jumped right back on the trailer for me. I was then able to make it back the road I incorrectly turned off. Unfortunately, that turn could not be made either so I had to go several miles back down the one-lane Forest Road to a place where I could turn around! The whole thing added two hours to my trip! Boy was I glad to find the horse camp! Needless to say, my trailer and I are fully bonded and I feel as if I can take it anywhere now!I had a wonderful ride and met a lot of great (horse) people! So it was well worth it! Seven and I went to test for the American Trail Horse Association (www.trailhorse.com) 7 levels of trail training. We passed all 7 of the levels! There is a pretty trail called the Rim Trail that goes all the way around the mountains in that area. We rode about a 1/4 of it. There is a nice primitive campsite and a very nice horse club who would be willing host us! I would love to bring the CMA back and to do some riding or a pack trip around the whole Rim. I promise that I will hang some signs or ribbons if we host a ride here so no one else gets into the kind of trouble I did!
Skid marks from sliding down the hill! Small bridge I had to back over!
Many waterfalls on the trails! Mountain Laurel in full bloom!
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