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CCTR Oct '09

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CCTR Oct '09
  • We left home on Oct 1 and headed to Cross Country Trail Ride in Eminence, MO. This was our 15th year to camp and ride along the Ozark National Scenic Riverways during the first week of Oct.
     
    Our trailer all decked out with fall decor. I love fall!

     
    It rained during our first night, so we had water running in this low area right behind our trailers. We always camp in the same spot, so have this mess to deal with almost every year. We used to camp to the left of this ditch, but decided to move out in front of it a few years ago. Someone has tried to dig it out to help it drain since we were here last year,  but it still had water in it all week.

     
    Getting ready to ride Fri morning. Tammy is ready to take off!

     
    David and Frisco

     
    Myself and Dash

     
    Cowboy Grave. Dash is wondering why in the heck someone left their boots out here.

     
    Sat night we fried catfish. It was windy so we set up a cook shack to keep the wind from blowing the fires under the cookers.

     
    We invited some of our camp neighbors to join us

     
    Part of our group. There were 7 quarter horse riders every day, and 2 foxtrotter riders who rode with us part of the time when they wanted a slower pace.

     
    Myself and David during a lunch break

     
    One of the herds of wild horses who call this area their home. There were two babies in this herd. I think there are 4 or 5 different herds of wild horses who live along the Ozark National Scenic Riverways.

     
    We were starting to see a little bit of fall color along the trails. We always seem to be about a week or two early as far as seeing good fall color.

     
    Rusty and Kim. The little mule had a cooler on each side and a home made boom box on top. They don't ride with us. I think we ride too many miles for them, and are too old to party as much as they do.

     
    We got in 4 days of riding before we had a rain day. By then we were ready for a break anyway. We didn't ride our horses this day, but is did clear off enough in the afternoon for us to take a wagon ride with our camp neighbor, Paul and his mules. We rode uptown to the Dairy Shack for ice cream.

     
    Wednesday was a beautiful fall day and our last day to ride. We rode to Jerktail Landing on the Current River. We rode 16.3 miles on this day. I didn't keep track of our miles every day, but would guess we rode around 60 to 70 miles total in the 5 days that we rode.

     
    We crossed two rivers on this day. This is the Current River at Jerktail Landing.

     
    This the Jack's Fork River

     
    Thursday's forecast was calling for a 100% chance of rain with torrential rain that night, so we headed on home a day earlier than planned. We didn't think camping in a river bottom during heavy rains was a good idea. We live about 180 miles from CCTR and I don't know if it has rained there like it has at home, but we have had almost 7 inches of rain here during the past 24 hours. Besides the fact that CCTR does flood sometimes, it can also be a muddy mess and getting the trailers out can be an ordeal. Anyway, we had a good time and enjoyed camping and spending time on the trails with our good friends.
     
    If you want to see all of my pictures, they are on my Webshots site. I think there are 122 pictures total.
    http://pets.webshots.com/album/575021871LZyWSb
     
  • great pictures!!!  looks like yall had a great time.  thanks for sharing
  • Looks beautiful there!  The picture of the little mule I couldn't help being reminded of the tubing trips I've taken over the years... everyone gets their own big tube and then ties on to a smaller one with the cooler.  That couple has their own equine version which I think is genius (I'd probably leave the boombox at home though). 
  • Thanks so much for letting us see your trip photos.  I enjoyed them lots.  The rain that prompted you to leave a day early had most of the states of MO and IL under a Flash Flood Warning for the entire St. Louis viewing area.  I believe that storm system dumped lots of rain before it got here, too.  I think you made a very good decision to get out of the bottoms.  Glad you had a great time on the rest of your trip!
  • We live about 180 miles from Eminence. We got almost 7 inches of rain at our house after we got home. I never did hear how much they ended up with in Eminence, but I did hear that they told people who were camped close to the river to move to higher ground and a lot of people went ahead and left like we did. We really hated to leave early, but would have hated to have flood water in our trailer, and/or get stuck in the mud, even more.
  • St. Louis area had 4 or more inches depending on location from NW to SE.  It was quite the rain, but it was needed at my place.  Very large cracks in the ground that have closed a little.  I'd take some more rain if it wouldn't be in such a hurry to get to the ground.
  • Great pictures !!  I love the way your trailer is decorated for fall also.
     
    We spent a week starting Oct 10th- at Shawnee National Forest in Southern IL-- it was cold and muddy!