Top O' The Hill Farm: Our Monday Water Crossing Ride

Monday morning we had planned a good ride to clear our heads and soul .. We had talked about going over the mountain into Grafton, but Zoe suggested riding back to the dam and doing the water crossing. Sounds good to me ! :)

We had a few miles of road trot to get there.. down the dirt roads into North Springfield -- onto the sidewalks, cross the highway onto the road headed to the Reservoir.

Almost to the trail --

which starts right at that opening in the guardrails across the dam road.

View behind us.

Here's what they called the Old Reservoir Road which was the through road connecting Springfield and Weathersfield, crossing the river on the Butterfield Covered Bridge. There were once 4 covered bridges spanning the river and 40 homes and farms in the now floodplains.. before the construction of the dam in 1957.

Here is the start of the trail portion- which is maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers very well for walking, bicycling, and horseback riding.

trail comes out onto the dam area

We have to trot under the bridge going out to the dam control tower.

We are on the other side- looking back at where we came from.

A view of the reservoir. There's many places to put your canoe in and paddle around the reservoir or into the river, upstream or down.

The trail along the river

I took far too many pictures because it's so beautiful.

Here's a marker to show where the Butterfield Covered Bridge used to be- built back in the 1800's.

Somewhere, way up there, we'll find the crossing spot. It's been 10 years or more since we've traveled this trail - a few times long ago on some competitive rides... Since there has been SO much rain this summer- we're not sure what we'll find for a river water level.

Down into the actual floodplains-- which look.. well, flooded.

We have to watch for the little trail going down the bank into the water on the left.

Right here is the spot we rode so far to find :)

It doesn't look too bad here-

Now we have to walk in the river upstream a bit to get to the actual crossing spot.

Over there is where we need to be now. The horses had a lot of fun splashing in the more shallow spot, but here's where they had to concentrate... the current is stronger in the darker deeper middle.

In a few minutes.. I won't be able to take any more pictures.. my horse is starting to have to swim and I can feel the current catching us. The water is deep - you can see the water line on Teasel's saddle blanket.