St. Marks Headwaters Ride – December 4, 2021

The weather was perfect for a nice ride on a beautiful greenway! Seven riders participated and three of them had never ridden there. I was the first to arrive with Jan and we brought Quia and Sadie. The horses really like this park and were excited to know that’s where we were riding. Linda and Chris were the next to come in and had Blondie and Farley, then we had two members from Cairo come join us, Jessica and Brandi and they brought Tequila and Dollar. The last to arrive was my new neighbor Paulie with Image. Since we had “newbies” to this greenway, I took the time to explain the layout of the park and explained we would be riding all the way up to Buck Lake Road first. We started out of the trailhead and took the half circle cutouts from the main trail until we hit the one to go to Buck Lake Road. The trail was very nice but when we rode along the fence line at Buck Lake, it had not been mowed and it was probably because it had been under water. We made the turn-around ok and I explained we would backtrack to the first trail heading west, This takes you to the location for the trailhead for the general public which will be off Buck Lake Road. (The reason there is no access directly down the fence along the road is because of a wetland and I understand there will be a bridge built in that area which will not accommodate horses.) We then headed south and came to Michael Crowley’s place and saw his cows. The horses always love to encounter them! At this point we headed east along his fence line and when you get to the corner, if you turn south, you will be on a road with LOTS of rocks which is difficult for horses with tender feet, so we continued east and crossed a canal that had a little water in it. We soon ended up in the main area of the greenway and headed down toward the railroad track. We explored another trail that took us west, but it had not been mowed either. It was an “in and out same way trail” so we then came to the railroad trail and took it so everyone would know where you end up if you had taken the “rock road”. We then returned and made our way to the big oak area. This is a special place on this greenway, and I gave everyone the history of the fairy houses that appeared in the area after the COVID lockdown went into effect. They stayed there for quite some time and people would leave “additions” to them which made it very interesting. They have since been removed by the county which has disappointed a lot of people who were interested in seeing what new “gifts” had arrived! All in all, it was a great 2.5 hour ride.

Sue