Horse-Shoe Trail, Part III

Two weeks ago we did a nice 12 mile stretch of the trail, picking up at Brightside Farm and emerging at Welkinweir Nature Preserve. It was a gorgeous day and a really nice stretch. We were on the edge of several horse pastures to start, which was nice--who doesn't enjoy looking at grazing horses? Right at the start, we stumbled upon a scattered skeleton, including the jawbone pictured. I have no idea what kind of animal it was, but it was kind of neat to see the skull, jawbone and all of the bones scattered--they were dry bones that had been there for a while.

We startled (and in turn were startled by) three white-tail deer, and there was no shortage of chatter from birds. Flowers are blooming all over and the trees are getting greener and fuller by the day.

As we're learning is the normal on this trail, there were quite a few miles on roads--and at some points, on windy, narrow roads with car flying past. Yikes. But there were certainly some great woodsy sections, too, and one section even included some nice elevation to get the blood flowing. When we emerged at Welkinweir--tired after walking 12 miles--we were unsure how to find where we'd left the car. We walked around the lake where we emerged (there's definitely an active beaver population there!)  and had to wander around a bit to figure out where we were going, but it's a gorgeous area, so despite achy feet, it was nice to see. Add it to the list of things to explore further in the future!

Distance: 11.7 miles
All-in-all: A few awful section on a road with speeding cars, but plenty of nice walks through woods and around pastures to balance it out.
Links: www.hstrail.org