Posted By Bonnie on August 17, 2010
Bill and I had heard rumors of a trail that had been dedicated to
use by walkers, bicyclists, Amish Buggies and Horse Back Riding
somewhere in Knox County Ohio and in Holmes County Ohio. Finally
after some internet searching we found where the trail was, but
there was differing information about trail and if it was open.
After some searching, we finally found one of the trail heads in
Danville, Oh. By the way, we are in and very close to the heart of
Amish Country in Ohio. It is not unusual to see Amish Buggies tied
to a light pole in the Walmart Parking lot or even parked in the
Aldi’s. We have Amish living on our road and there are Amish
buggies parked at the Martinsburg gas station selling baked goods
and sweet corn. Danville is about 18 miles from us if you back road
short cut.
We were both excited about trying the trail. The trail is running
over old rail road bed. So the footing runs from old rail road bed
gravel to cinders with a few places that aren’t actually maintained
yet just dirt.
We drove up to Danville and got the horses unloaded, tacked up and
booted. We had a buggy come by while we were putting the boots on
the horses(barefoot and booted) and it headed on down the trail. During the day in
Danville, traffic is very slow because it is nearly bumper to bumper
Amish buggies. On Auction day, you see Amish buggies hauling calves,
pigs, goats and poultry to auction.
As you can imagine the trail is fairly straight. But as soon as you
got on trail, you had a bridge to cross. I couldn’t believe they
had actually put rubber stall matts on the bridge. We never caught
up to that buggy, they were hauling ass. More on that later.
The trail was very nice, and it wasn’t long until we got to the
longest covered bridge in Ohio. And yep, it was pretty darn long
for a covered bridge. We have two covered bridges that we ride
across near our home during conditioning rides, but this one is over
double their length. You can see pics of it here
http://knoxcountyparks.org/mohican%20valley.htm
And yep, they have rubber matting on the covered bridge. Red and
Rather both were a little disturbed by the metal joints even though
they were mostly covered by the rubber matting.
It wasn’t long after the Covered Bridge that we ran out of
maintained trail. If the trail isn’t maintained it seems to be fair
game for four wheelers which are prohibited on maintained trail.
But the pack of four wheelers we ran into was fairly nice and they
got better as the day went on as they passed us several times. Red
likes four wheelers and likes to chase them, they don’t bother
Rather at all either. Then we had to cross the main highway (State
Route 62) without knowing where the trail was except for some old markings from a bike
race. We didn’t see any bicyclists while riding by the way.
There were some neat views along the trail, going into the old cut
through the hills was kind of cool and I wish I had brought a
camera, maybe next time. The cut is right through the rocks and
there has been water erosion on it over the years.
Did I mention it was hot? Yeah, about 90 degrees and really really
humid. But there was shade in most areas. Red didn’t want to eat,
but Rather said he was more than willing to eat anything Red
didn’t want and more when we stopped for
a short break. We then ran into another 4 wheeler who passed us
twice. The second time he asked for directions but it turned out we
were both on the trail for the first time.
We were getting worried about water for the horses when we started
to hear some noises that sounded like a loud speaker. Bill and I had
all kinds of guesses as to what we were hearing and were amused to
get to the town of Glenmont ( which we had never heard of before)
and they were having a car show and a softball game. We crossed
another road and then came upon a lovely creek that went under the
old railroad trestle. Red and Rather were both hot and both were
drinking and pawing at the water, threatening to lay down. We spent
some time there in the water and letting the horses graze on the
grass on the banks. Then we climbed up the hill back to the trail
that went around the railroad trestle and went on. We had done about
12 miles at that point and were hoping to at least get in a 25 mile
ride, but it was not to be. The trail ended at a very small railroad
bridge that the 4 wheelers could get across but the horses couldn’t.
The wood was missing in a couple places and looked very rotted so we
didn’t want to risk it. There was no trail around it and hard to
make trail because of all the weeds and bushes along the trail, so
we turned back at about 12.25 miles.
Going back went well until we noticed the sky getting very dark.
Apparently the thunderstorms promised on the weather channel and on
weather underground were coming in a little bit early. As we got to
the main highway crossing at State Route 62, the wind really kicked
up. Rather didn’t like it but at least he wasn’t spooking. The
clouds were swirling around and looking very nasty. Then the rain
really started. We were pretty much soaked by the time we got back
to the covered bridge, and I was not feeling too chipper to say the
least. Seeing the bridge filled with pedestrians didn’t help. There
weren’t getting out of the way either and some moron had laid a
garbage bag on the horse part and small kids were twirling
handkerchiefs and jumping about. Red and Rather did very well
though. At least one person made an intelligent comment asking if
those were rubber shoes on the horses hooves.
We had about 5 miles to go after the covered bridge and up ahead as
the rain let up we saw a buggy. This was an open top Amish Buggy
with a family in it holding a huge umbrella. Bill asked if we should
pass them, but I said why? They took off and we never did catch up
to them although we did pace them for quite a while. Then we had
another buggy come up on the trail behind us. We were hauling as
we wanted to get back to the trailer and get out of the rain.
Red and Rather we feeling better because they were getting cooled
off. The umbrella buggy turned on a side road crossing about a mile
from the trailer and then we were back. Soaked and my plan for
checking heart rates and recoveries went out the window as I could
barely see through my glasses and I was tired of rain already.
But Red and Rather seemed fine and were eating and drinking. Thank
goodness I had brought 5 gallons of water for the horses to drink.
It was kind of a pain to pull the boots and tack in the rain, but we did.
Never had a boot even think about coming off.
You can check out the ride at
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/44539308?sms_ss=email
and there is more information on the trails at
http://www.holmestrail.com/
Well, if anyone wanted to come check out the Amish Country, we are
close and we have a place to plug in a trailer.
bonnie
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