Top O' The Hill Farm: Best ride of the year !?

Monday- yesterday - I woke up to thick ice on the car and the tractor. It was chilly enough for me to return to the house to search for mittens or gloves ! The temperature must have dipped down to freezing for just long enough to make the ice though, because the flowers were not badly affected.

As for the tomato plants.. they were a total bust this year anyway- due to the tomato blight.. which apparently is lethal, incurable and right now- wide spread in the North East. So look for high prices on tomato's this year. My plants pretty much bit the dust - and in addition to the 'blight', I had the most Tomato hornworms on my plants than I have seen in my life time. Usually I will pick off a few here and there--but this summer in late August and September, I was getting over a dozen of these bad boys a day. The tomato hornworm moth is kind of neat.. a hummingbird moth- as it hovers and flies like a hummingbird.. but the caterpillar ? YUCK. I gave the job to my grand-son, Dominic. He decided it was actually quite fun to pick the nasties off the plants and squish them.

Zoe and I had a splendid ride on Monday.. we took Keri and Teasel and headed over Mount Ephraim but took a turn down a trail we have not ridden in a LONG time. This may have been our best ride of the year so far !

Last time I was on that trail on horseback, I was riding Keri's Mom - Tiarra; Zoe was riding her red half draft gelding Ollie and we were riding a 25 (which seemed like 30) mile competitive ride. In a freaky kind of event at the very beginning of the ride- I broke my hand... but wrapped it in vet wrap (which I had in my handy saddle bags) and finished the ride to come in first !

We mainly wanted to see how long it would take us to reach the end of the trail- marked by the 'brick house'.. as we are thinking to cross the highway into the Doran Forest and ride to Grafton one day.. something we have never done so we have no time estimate to plan with. The trail was a lot longer than we remembered.

Here's the road that leads to the Mount Ephraim trail.

As we near the top - there's a field where they are tedding hay. They drive up from the opposite side - the road is better traveling than the trail on my side.

Shortly after the open field, we turn right onto the trail toward Rockingham.. which should come down to the 'brick house' on Brockway Mills Road.

lots of mud puddles

We come to an area that was an old landing. There has been a lot of logging done on Mount Ephraim over the years.

This looks familiar and I think we are very close to the end now. Zoe has to be back to meet the bus for her children so we are on a timetable. However-- we don't want to turn back if we are minutes away from our goal.

We decide to trot over to take a look at the Gorge.. which is beautiful.. and one thought leads to another- we decide we can just as easily trot home down the Williams Road, past the Cranberry Inn, cross the covered bridge at the end- get on the road home. We think we can make good time and be home for the bus, plus- avoid backtracking.

As we trot down Williams Road- we see a small sign announcing - bridge closed for repairs. At this point- we are not wanting to turn back.. so either the bridge will still be crossable by horseback or we will find a way to cross the river. I guess we'll "cross that bridge" when we get to it :)

And there is nothing left of the bridge to cross- they are replacing the girders. I ask the workman if we can walk down the bank to the side and cross the river there- but there is silt fence all along the entire side for quite a distance.

There has to be a way--- we turn into some thick overgrown woods and brush to find a crossing. The bank is steep- and there is some type of tall weed - more like a small trees blocking our view of the river edge. Finally-- we pull a "man from snowy river' and slide on our haunches, down the bank, through the weed/trees and we are in the river. The opposite bank is even steeper still-- so Zoe has the idea to walk up river to the next covered bridge and see if we can get on the road home there. No idea how far this is -- but what an excellent idea !!

The Williams River is beautiful -

I take loads of photo's !~ We wander in and out of deep and shallow spots.

My good friend Susan in Maine just did a beach ride- and I am so jealous and envious.. so here is my little 'beach' ride... but a very stony beach and no waves.